Price comparison: holiday ham
Thanks to SCRS for this quick rundown of ham prices.
Wal-Mart (Supercenters only)--Sam's Choice brand--$1.98 per pound.
Sam's Club--Ridge Creek brand--$1.88 per pound.
Stater Bros.--Sugartree, Ohse or Jamestown brands--$1.17 per pound with $15.00 minimum purchase, $1.69 per pound without minimum purchase, limit 1 per family, no card required.
Costco--Kirkland brand--$2.29 per pound.
Vons/Pavilions--Butcher's Cut brand--$1.27 per pound with club card and $25.00 minimum purchase, limit 1. Safeway Select brand--$1.99 per pound with club card, no minimum purchase.
Albertsons--Village Market, Farmer John or...
...Hormel brands--$1.39 per pound with club card, limit 2, no minimum purchase.
Ralphs--Farmer John brand--$1.47 per pound with club card, no minimum purchase. Private Selection or Hilshire Farm brands--$2.99 per pound with club card, no minimum purchase.
Smart & Final--Farmer John brand--$1.29 per pound with club card and $25.00 minimum purchase.
Head to Vons, Smart & Final or Stater Bros for the best prices. Look for prices about $1.27/lb if you shop elsewhere.
Caveats: prices may vary by neighborhood.
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About The Bargain Hunter
Daily News staff writer Julia Scott loves to find bargains on everything from groceries to Gucci. Her tips will help keep your hard earned cash where it belongs - in your pocket.
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For those who have a Wal-Mart Supercenter nearby (store that has a full grocery store), Wal-Mart will match the price of competitors in the local area as long as they carry the same brand/item.
Wal-Mart will also match a retailers private label brand for their comparable private label brand (Sam's Choice, Great Value, etc.).
Just bring the current ad(s) with you (cannot be expired). Price match does not apply to bogo's (buy one, get one free) or percentage off prices (ex: 20% off all frozen food, 50% off on salad dressings, etc.).
All Wal-Mart Supercenters and traditional Wal-Mart stores will match prices against any local competitor, not just grocery stores, including Best Buy, Kohl's Circuit City, Fry's, CVS, Walgreens, Rite-Aid, Target and K Mart, etc.
SO_CAL_RETAIL_SLUT
food for less also has them on sale with 20 dollar purchase you can get a full for 75 cents a pound or a half spirel for 1.50 a pound so you might look there
I always buy my Ham at Costco are the others as good?
It's been my experience over many years that there's no to little difference among the various brands. My only regret this season is that I didn't buy a ham at Ralphs last weekend when it was 79 cents a pound! Phooey on me!
BTW ~ SCRS is really on the job! She seems to be one step ahead of the ads in the papers. Nice.
I don't eat ham. From what friends have told me through the years that Costco's Kirkland ham tastes very good when compared to a ham on the higher end of the scale such as Honeybaked, but at a price well below Honeybaked's. Of course, Costco backs-up evryhting they seel, so if you're not satisified, you can return it for a complete refund. So, Costco is higher than the chain stores and Sam's Club this week, but you shouldn't go wrong with their quality.
My family was in the meat packing business, and something I remember from when I was younger, that many of the grocery chains (including Costco and Sam's Club) will have the meat packing company pack and place the same exact product under the stores private label that's sold under the brand name.
Case in point. At Albertsons, their house brand for the spiral ham is Village Market. If you look carefully at the establishment number on either the bottom or side of the package, you'll see it's the same one as used by Hormel and Farmer John for their spiral hams which are also on sale this week.
In other words, Hormel packs the ham for Albertsons under the Village Market label and their should be no difference between the two, or in this case three because of Farmer John.
Did you know that Farmer John is no longer "family owned" and hasn't been for some years? It's a wholly-owned subsidiary of Hormel. Smart move on Hormel's part, keep the Farmer John brand name alive especially because of it's strong brand name recognition in the southland.
I get a kick out of Melinda Lee's cooking show at KNX on the weekends where she catches herself in pimping the Farmer John brand. She'll have to backtrack and say "family tradition", instead of "family owned" when buttering up Hormel products.
To Tracy, we no longer receive the Food 4 Less ads anymore, which I assume because we are too far from their nearest store which to us is in Canyon Country. Kroger can probably tell from the debit and credit card data where their customers are coming from, and my hunch is that not many are coming from the Valencia and Stevenson Ranch areas of Santa Clarita.
SO_CAL_RETAIL_SLUT
Fresh & Easy is selling Smithfield Hardwood Smoked Ham Portions for .99 cents a pound.
I see that Honeybaked has lowered their pricing on hams eight pounds or larger to 2001 prices. It's a savings of .70c per pound over their 2001 prices.
Anyway, you have to ask for the "2001 price", as store personnel supposedly will not automatically give the discount unless requested.
To me, that's nonsense. If you're going to offer the discount, just do it and stop the silly game of making your customer "asking" for the discount. Retailers are having enough trouble as it is just getting people in the door, let alone purchasing.
I know I would be very unhappy if I purchased a qualifying product and come to find out after the fact that I could have received a discount just by asking.
Do you get a better discount if you blow your nose?
Give me a break!
Good thing I don't eat ham...LOL
SO_CAL_RETAIL_SLUT
Wow.. I just called the Valencia Honey Baked Ham store and asked about their 2001 prices. Their ham would be $5.79 lb, then .70 less (per lb) for the 2001 price, so $5.09 per lb. Is this a good price for a ham?
Are you saying it is $5.09 per pound??? That is a ridiculous price. On the other hand, if it is a flat fee for hams of varying sizes, perhaps you can choose a big one and get a reasonable per pound price. ~Julia
I think this is the lowest price so far! Thanks for pointing it out, Brian. ~Julia
Hi Julia: Not a flat fee,it is a per pound price! I'm shocked.
Their hams must be something else! Or you are paying a premium for the brand. I have not had this brand, but I think store bought-ham is quite tasty. ~Julia
I am one happy shopper. Imagine my delight when I looked at the Ralphs ad in the Sunday papers, and it featured ham for 77 cents a pound!!! Yippee!!! They also have salmon fillet for $4.99 a pound, and asparagus at less than $2 a pound. My Christmas dinner is coming together.
As a follow-up to Brian's post, I don't think the .99c per pound ham at Fresh & Easy is actually "spiral". When I was reading the ad last week, it indicated it was a half-ham, bone-in.
I did see Smithfield spiral hams at F&E for $19.99 each, with a weight range of seven to nine pounds, which averages $2.22 to $2.85 per pound, based on weight. For whatever reason, F&E does not sell these by the pound, just a flat price. Similar to the Butterball turkeys last month.
As for the Honeybaked store here in Valencia...WOW!! $5.79 per pound for HAM? I'm glad we eat chicken, turkey and beef. Now I don't feel so bad paying $4.99 per pound for ribeye when it's on sale...lol
I just spoke with my friend and she says the Costco ham is just as good as the Honeybaked. She also said the Safeway Select brand (not Butcher's Cut) at Vons/Pavilions for $1.99 per pound is just as good.
Really...$5.79 a pound BEFORE the discount? If I did that, Santa would put coal..uhh I mean take away my checkbook...Talk about guilt...LOL
SO_CAL_RETAIL_SLUT