Is Trader Joe’S Or Whole Foods More Expensive?

By design, Trader Joe’s carries very little mainstream brand items. On the other hand, Whole Foods carries only some house brands. That meant comparing “apples to apples” difficult. My work around was to choose the cheapest brand for each store respectively, whether that meant a national brand or the store brand. 6.

Use the cheapest brand whenever possible. By design, Trader Joe’s carries very little mainstream brand items. On the other hand, Whole Foods carries only some house brands. That meant comparing “apples to apples” difficult.

Yes, some things aren’t quite that much more (like Almond Milk is only 30¢ more at Whole Foods) and the difference in price is higher for some things (like wild-caught salmon costs $2.51/lb more at Whole Foods).

The large majority of items at Trader Joe’s are house brand, which means you can save a lot of money over buying name brand products. You have a limited selection. This is a good thing, because you’re not going to spend hours upon hours choosing between 15 different types of salsas.

How much does it cost to round up 30 items?

A trip to the store rounding up 30 standard supermarket items will cost you about 20% more—$133.18 as opposed to $109.27—at Whole Foods than it will at Trader Joe’s. This isn’t an exact apples-to-apples comparison because each store has its own brands, but you get the idea.

In the past year Whole Foods strategically cut prices on some items, and launched a new “values matter” slogan to appeal to consumers who have grown weary of its high prices. Whole Foods is also launching a new low-price supermarket model called 365. So one can be hopeful that the list of more affordable items at Whole Foods-owned stores may grow.

Previous shopping experiments have yielded similar results. A price comparison of 20 items conducted by Cheapism found that 14 of the 20 items were cheaper at Trader Joe’s than Whole Foods; a DCist comparison shopping excursion found that a bag of quinoa was half the price at Trader Joe’s, and a gluten-free cheese pizza was only two-thirds of the price.

Whole Foods is also launching a new low-price supermarket model called 365. So one can be hopeful that the list of more affordable items at Whole Foods-owned stores may grow. For the time being, shop where you will—but we’d recommend against splurges of the asparagus water variety.

As Business Insider explains it, Trader Joe’s is able to undercut Whole Foods (and other supermarkets) by selling in-house products rather than brands, and by sticking to an efficient “no frills” interior in small stores.

Is almond milk more expensive than whole food?

Yes, some things aren’t quite that much more (like Almond Milk is only 30¢ more at Whole Foods) and the difference in price is higher for some things (like wild-caught salmon costs $2.51/lb more at Whole Foods).

They don’t carry everything. As I mentioned in this article, Trader Joe’s carries a lot of uniquely flavored items. That’s fun and all, but if you’re looking for “regular” foods, you might have to make a second stop somewhere else to pick them up.

By design, Trader Joe’s carries very little mainstream brand items. On the other hand, Whole Foods carries only some house brands. That meant comparing “apples to apples” difficult. My work around was to choose the cheapest brand for each store respectively, whether that meant a national brand or the store brand.

Cooking from scratch makes it easier of course, but it was really nice to be able to walk into Whole Foods and find convenience foods that were allergy friendly as well. Psst! If you’re going to Whole Foods, here are the top 11 things you should buy from there.

If your mind is still made up, Whole Foods has a great selection of organic foods. In fact, many of the foods on their shelves are offered only as organic. There are a lot of allergy-friendly options. The fact that there were allergy-friendly options all over the store is what impressed me the most.

You save on the house brand. The large majority of items at Trader Joe’s are house brand, which means you can save a lot of money over buying name brand products.

Which is more expensive, Whole Foods or Whole Foods?

Whole Foods was, by far, the most expensive. Eight of the items were more expensive at Whole Foods, usually by a wide margin: For six of those items, the Whole Foods price was more than 40% higher than the cheapest option elsewhere. There were only two items that were cheapest at Whole Foods.

It’s true that Whole Foods prides itself on offering only the highest quality, sustainable products, and comparisons between products at different stores may not always be exactly “apples-to-apples.”. Advertisement.

Yes, it is, and here’s how much … MarketWatch compared prices of 14 grocery items (mostly staples with a few less common items thrown into the mix) at Whole Foods US:WFM with comparable items at rivals Trader Joe’s, Safeway and Target US:TGT all at Bay Area locations. Whole Foods was, by far, the most expensive.

Trader Joe’s comes out 32% cheaper when purchasing these 14 items there vs. at Whole Foods. If it wasn’t already clear: Just as Whole Foods was by far the most expensive store, Trader Joe’s was by far the cheapest. Eight items were most expensive at Whole Foods — and eight were cheapest at Trader Joe’s.