The discount grocery store Winco is well known for selling food for low prices. It’s also known for a few other things such as being a worker-owned store and selling food in bulk, but in general shoppers who visit this store are looking for places where they can shop for groceries with limited budgets. So if you’re looking for alternatives to Winco, here are a few more warehouse-style discount supermarkets.
Smart & Final
You can also buy bulk groceries for low prices at Smart & Final Extra! Stores. While Smart & Final has lots of institutional customers and it supplies food and supplies to small businesses, it is open to the public unlike Costco and Sams Club. You don’t need a membership to shop there. Smart & Final has been gaining popularity in Southern California and now has multiple stores in my area.
If you want to save lots of money there, Smart & Final sells many bulk products under its First Street private-label brand. The trade-off is that you will need a place to store your bulk groceries from this store and that might be hard to do if you are sharing a small apartment or renting a room. Smart & Final does sell brand-name groceries in smaller quantities as well.
Aldi
The German supermarket Aldi is known for its low prices as well. It might even have lower prices than any other supermarket, including Winco. Aldi is also known for selling lots of private-label products and unlike most grocery stores its selection of brand-name groceries is limited. This supermarket also has several locations in my area, although it might not have a presence in smaller markets.
If you have a larger budget, Trader Joe’s has a very similar business model but isn’t a deep discounter like Aldi. Like other European grocery stores, Aldi also makes its customers pay a deposit to use its shopping carts although this practice isn’t common in the US.
Grocery Outlet
If getting a deal on groceries is more important to you than finding specific brand-name products, Grocery Outlet is another option. This grocery store uses an outlet store business model that’s similar to the way off-price department stores work. While its stores have standard departments like frozen food, produce, alcoholic beverages, and packaged food, the merchandise in these departments depends on what the store’s buyers found recently. Unlike other grocery stores, Grocery Outlet will expand into food deserts and rural towns where the main alternatives are dollar stores and convenience stores.
Sometimes Grocery Outlet will have premium health food available for much lower prices than stores like Sprouts and Whole Foods. These products include packaged and frozen vegetarian and vegan food such as plant-based meat and dairy alternatives. Because of the way its business model works, this also means that it will sell health food in neighborhoods that wouldn’t otherwise have access to it.
Walmart
The big-box store Walmart is also known for selling groceries for low prices. It sells produce such as bananas as well as packaged food and frozen food. You can even buy edible plants there. Walmart also has a private-label grocery brand called Great Value. While it sells many brand-name products, the Great Value products typically have lower prices. In 2024, Walmart has announced plans to roll out additional private-label health-food products with visually compelling package designs as well.
Unlike Winco and other grocery stores, Walmart also sells many other products such as clothing, tools, and laptop computers. You can go there to shop for groceries but you can also go there to get deals on electronics, appliances, and many other things. If you go to Walmart, you won’t have to visit multiple stores to buy everything you need.
Food 4 Less
You can also shop for groceries at the warehouse-style supermarket Food 4 Less. This store also sells produce, frozen food, packaged food, and many other products. The thing that makes it unique is that if you shop at Food 4 Less stores in Southern California you can buy Kroger’s high-quality private-label groceries there. In other parts of the state, this store is called Foods Co instead.
In my opinion the private-label groceries provide Food 4 Less’ main advantage over other discount supermarket chains. While Food 4 Less has low prices, so do several other grocery stores including Winco. But Kroger’s private-label groceries are better than the ones at other supermarkets. Its private-label groceries even include products that are similar to ones from expensive health-food brands.
Target
Another store where you can buy groceries as well as appliances, clothing, TV sets, and over-the-counter medicine, Target is another well-known discount retailer. It has several grocery aisles in its stores and sells lots of popular brand-name groceries for low prices. Target also has a large selection of frozen food as well.
The main benefit of shopping for groceries at Target is that you can also buy clothing, toys, and other merchandise during the same trip. Winco is primarily a grocery store and like other grocery stores it doesn’t sell some of the other merchandise that Target sells. Target is also positioned as more upscale than other discount grocery stores so other stores may sell food for lower prices.