I’ve used the GasBuddy URL for years and have no desire to download their app.
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Where I live, Hampton Roads, Virginia, I have found that the cheapest gas is at either Costco or Kroger’s supermarket (with loyalty points, 10 cents off with each $100 of groceries bought, max discount is $1.00, and you do not need to buy all the groceries at one time…). BJ’s and Sam’s Club seem to follow Costco. Yeah, I know, you have to buy groceries at Kroger’s or be a member of Costco, but I like the convenience of buying mayonnaise by the gallon and the toilet paper by the pallet load…
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Meh, I drive by Sam’s on my way home, cars lined up to the parking lot. Went ot my usual TopTier station, pulled up to a vacant pump, spent $0.09/gal more vs waiting in line for 45 minutes.
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Since my restaurant days, I’ve never favored mayonnaise and don’t let it sit around too long-it’s the eggs. I have found that my TP and paper towels supply is about 3 times what it normally would be though. You know, fool me once and all that. Then there is coffee, oil, filters, printer ink, etc. Just can’t depend anymore it will be on the shelves when you want it.
Costco and their “ilk” (Sam’s, BJ’s, etc…) call it “Treasure Hunting”, where they move the items around frequently, so you have to look for an item you saw on your last visit. Like putting their #1 seller, the “$4.95 Chicken” in the back of the store so you have to pass down all the aisles hoping you’ll find something “you cannot live without…” Actually, I’m joking about the mayonnaise, but I will never joke about the “footlong with a soda…” It’s not so much that we buy so much from Costco, it’s the entertainment value of shopping, never knowing what is being offered as a “free sample” (I am a grazer), I will never just stand in front of the display and gobble up every item the associate is preparing, but I will circle the various offerings to ensure “quality control” sample “integrity”… I call it my duty as a “customer Quality Control volunteer”…
That’s the meaning of Piggly Wiggly. It was a pioneering self-serve grocery store. The aisles were open only at one end, alternating, so you had to walk all the way through.
I hadn’t been in one of those since I was probably 10, but I don’t remember that’s the way the layout was. Maybe under new management. You can check in but you can’t check out. If I run across one sometime I’ll have to have a look.
So just as a start, yesterday 1:00 went to costco, first time ever drove up to an open spot on the correct side of the car instead of taking a shorter line and stretching out the hose. Wife wanted 3 things, I am sure I spent 30 minutes looking for them, and still could not find the shredded kale salad. Gas was a dime a gallon cheaper and if the lines are so long, I am like it is worth a buck, as 10 gallons is usual not to wait in line. Had looked previously for this lentil dish in a bag, on an endcap and $4 off YAHOO!
Usually I’m in and out in about 15 minutes. Especially if I use the self checkout. Everyone else loaded with mass quantities of stuff-reminds me of the coneheads on the old once funny SNL. Last trip, one woman actually had two shopping carts filled. Either got a big family a prepper, or knows something about the future I don’t.
That must have changed. I shopped in Cocoa Beach, FL at a Piggly Wiggly about 20 years ago and it had normal aisles. Poor selection though. Publix is much better IMO.
Piggly Wiggly in Cocoa Beach? Where was that? The only other grocery store I know of, other than Publix and Winn Dixie, was Pantry Pride. For a while there was an Albertsons on Merritt Island.
To the comments about local gas stations “price fixing” or comparison pricing…
The gas station/convienience store has a higher profit margin on stuff sold IN the store than gasoline they sell. Milk, beer, snacks and such. The gas is there to get you inside.
Both the state you live in and the feds collect more money on a gallon of gas than the oil company and the gas station combined.
The last time I was in there was in the late 1990s and I didn’t pay attention to it after the one visit. It was in a shopping center, maybe where the Winn-Dixie is now. I thought it was a Piggly Wiggly. Maybe it was the Winn-Dixie. I didn’t care for it anyway. There’s also a Publix north of the Winn-Dixie that I saw a month ago. I don’t recall that Publix, although I do remember one south of the Wakulla. Maybe that’s where it was.
They changed. The layout I describe was the original and they took their name from it. They probably figured out that it didn’t work, stayed in business anyway.
I just don’t remember much about it.