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Holidays hit supermarket shelves with eggnog, turkeys, cocoa

Staff graphic by BRIAN MCGILL

Three stores dropped prices and two raised them, according to the weekly Market Basket survey.

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By DENNIS JOYCE

The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 6, 2009

TAMPA - Holiday selections spread across local supermarkets like frost on a pumpkin this week.

Maybe it's the cooler weather, but you could cook up your entire Thanksgiving dinner – Christmas, too – with the inventory on shelves Nov. 7.

Overall, prices went down a lot at Walmart, Publix and Target, up slightly at Sweetbay and up more at Winn-Dixie.

Walmart recorded the lowest price of any store in the nine weeks we've been doing the survey, more than $10 cheaper than any of the others.

The low-cost leaders this week, in order: Walmart $59.29, Target $71.08, Sweetbay $72.47, Public $74.60 and Winn-Dixie $80.02.

Here are highlights from our shopping trips.

Winn-Dixie

Winn-Dixie had the most expensive market basket among our local grocers, breaking the $80 price point again. That's $20.70 more than Walmart this week.

But there were deals to be found. At the deli counter, Winn-Dixie brand ham was $2.99 a pound, a dollar more than the store brand bologna. If you don't mind stocking up, a buy-one-get-one deal on Plumrose bacon for $4.99 would value each package at $2.50, the same price as Walmart. But, of course, you have to purchase two packages.

If you're looking to stretch that ground beef, Winn-Dixie's price on Hamburger Helper was $1, beating all other supermarkets this week. Lean ground beef, at $3.49, was at the midpoint on the spectrum of prices across the five supermarkets we track.

Winn-Dixie has a strange habit of pricing some of its store brand products at par with name brands. Store brands have historically been cheaper in the industry, but this week Winn-Dixie's brand of orange juice was 50 cents more expensive than Minute Maid's. Its house spaghetti, however, was about 30 cents cheaper than name brand boxes.

- Dale Hokrein

Walmart

Walmart's prices dropped even lower this week on some holiday-themed items. Shoppers who want to stock up early on Thanksgiving essentials will be rewarded.

Riverside brand frozen turkeys are 40 cents a pound and Campbell's cream of mushroom soup is only 58 cents a can, down from $1.14.

Carnation evaporated milk was about half price at 78 cents. A 5 pound bag of granulated sugar dropped 50 cents to $2.24 and a pound of butter quarters dropped 43 cents to $1.50.

And if you want to act on this respite from the heat, you can warm up with a box of Swiss Miss hot cocoa (10 packets) for $1.

- Janine Dorsey

Target

Comfort food ruled at Target this week. Items weren't necessarily on sale, but they were on display. Both sides of the isles at the store were lined with goodies of the season – items many us love to indulge in this time of year.

That includes eggnog, chocolate sauce, sugary cereal, cornbread stuffing, macaroni-and-cheese dinners, brownie mix and party trays.

- Shannon Behnken

Sweetbay

Sweetbay rolled out "Taste of the Holidays" food-sample tables this week, but the holiday appears to be Christmas. At least that's what's playing on the sound system.

There was salsa at one table, beef tips at another, and for a while Thursday afternoon, one store resembled a Costco on Saturday morning with all the little cups of food.

The eggnog is fully stocked, too, with Sweetbay brand for $2.99 a quart and TG Lee at $4.99 a quart. Some other highlights: Bologna, crackers, and tuna are down, and big cheese costs more than little cheese for some reason.

- Dennis Joyce

Publix

A cereal war broke out at Publix this week. There are BOGO deals for arch rivals Kellogg's and General Mills, meaning there's a throwdown of Special K vs. Cheerios, Fruit Loops vs. Lucky Charms and Mini Wheats vs. Golden Grahams.

Also, with Thanksgiving on the way, and deep frying turkey all the rage, Publix put 3-gallon boxes of Lou Ana peanut oil on sale for $29.99.

Fresh, young gobblers cost $2.99 a pound for Publix brand.

Other notable deals: BOGO Peter Pan peanut butter, with savings of $4.49 on a monster 40 oz. size. And Yoplait yogurt is 20 for $10, or 50 cents apiece.

There are also BOGO deals on Betty Crocker brownie mix, Johnsonville brats, Ragu pasta sauce, select Tostitos Tortilla chips (sadly, not "Hint of Lime" flavor) and Entenmann's "Pop'ems" glazed donuts.

- Rich Mullins

Editor Dennis Joyce can be reached at (813) 259-7604

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