Lowes Foods will drop Greenpoints

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Grocers add fuel to compete

For Triangle shoppers, shopping at Costco, Sam's and BJ's is a convenient way to get mega-sized bottles of laundry detergent and a full tank of gas in one stop.

But the area's traditional grocers are pumping up for the competition themselves, adding their own pumps and offering their own gas discounts.

Kroger, for instance, is adding pumps to its store at Creedmoor and Lynn roads in Raleigh. When it opens on April 19, it will be the fourth Kroger in the area to provide the service..

Grocers push value

Walk the aisles of any major grocery store, and the message is clear: Shopping here will save you money.

Shelf tags on sale items are bigger and brighter. Bins of discounted soup greet you at the door. Big signs point to "un-real deals" and "bargain meals."

Gone are the marketing campaigns about organic produce, fresh-baked breads and in-store sushi. Instead, grocers are doing all they can to push value as their biggest selling point. And for shoppers such as Regina Kennedy, it's all about price.

Save at ethnic stores

Chef Michael Opdyke shared this tip on saving money on groceries: Ethnic grocery stores are often cheaper.

Opdyke, who until last year was the chef at The Franklin Hotel in Chapel Hill, offered a tour of two of Wake County's larger ethnic groceries. Those were El Mandado, a Latin store on Capital Boulevard in Raleigh, and Grand Asia Market off Buck Jones Road in Cary.

His excitement inside Grand Asia was palpable. "$1.59 for asparagus -- it's always $1.99 at the other stores," Opdyke exclaimed. "King oyster mushrooms for $3.31. That's a really good deal. Beautiful watercress. Pumpkin by the slice. ... This is one of the only places in the city where you can get baby bok choy. ... This is one of the best fish departments in the city and the state."

The I's have it: Avoid the EE's

Q: My husband and I have accumulated an emergency fund that will cover about 12months of expenses, but with the economy the way it is we would like to put more money aside in something safe and secure.

He is in the mortgage industry and so far has survived several rounds of downsizing at his company, but we never know if he may be next. Our emergency fund is in a no-penalty CD with an online bank earning almost 2 percent, and we have about $15,000 in a money market earning less than 1percent.

My mom says we should buy EE savings bonds, but I looked these up, and they are paying only 1.20 percent. She says they are tax-free so it's still a better return than the CD. When I looked up EE bonds, I also read about I bonds. Mom has never heard of these, but a friend said they owned some but sold them last year because they weren't paying any interest.

Warehouse club vs. grocery store

I wanted to see whether I would save more money at my local grocery store, which happened to be having a sale on baking ingredients, or at my local warehouse club. This was the verdict: Except for sugar, the warehouse store won the price war.

At BJ's Wholesale Club in Cary, sugar, brown sugar, flour, butter, vanilla, eggs, chocolate chips, walnuts and pecan halves would cost me $63.41. For the same quantities, I would spend almost twice as much at Lowes Foods: $124.94.

One clear winner: Pure vanilla extract at BJ's cost 43 cents an ounce as opposed to $2.66 an ounce on sale at Lowes Foods.