With just over 500 locations throughout the state, Kwik Trip is quickly securing its place as a neighborhood grocery and convenience store.
Beyond its usual gas station fare, the chain is known for its fresh fruit and other staple grocery items. But how do the prices compare to those of a typical grocery store?
Using a list of grocery items we have used in previous grocery price comparison stories, we compared what items we could find at Kwik Trip to those at Walmart and Pick 'n Save, prioritizing store brand prices where possible.
Our full grocery list includes: half a gallon of almond milk, a loaf of whole wheat bread, one pound of bacon, one pound of bananas, one pound of 80/20 ground beef, a four-pack of butter, standard box of Cheerios, standard box of Cheez-Its, a dozen eggs, a five pound bag of flour, canned green beans, 18 ounces of strawberry jam, 18 ounces of peanut butter, a head of iceberg lettuce, a gallon of milk, individual naval oranges, a two-pack of paper towels and a six-pack of toilet paper.
In the past, Triscuits were included in the list, but were not for this story because of a lack of store brand alternatives.
How much have grocery prices increased this year?
Although we are only two months into the new year, talk about grocery prices, more specifically eggs, has been a popular discussion among Wisconsinites.
In a November grocery price comparison story, we looked at the total cost of our shopping basket at Walmart, prioritizing Walmart's store brand, Great Value.
The sum of the list, which included items like whole milk, eggs, bread, bacon, toilet paper and more, totaled $46.05, after removing the cost of Triscuits from the list. This month, that same list totaled $48.48.
While the price of eggs has been a popular topic recently, the cost of a dozen Great Value eggs actually dropped from $3.26 in November to $2.87.
Great Value butter and store brand ground beef were the highest-cost food items on the list, at $4.48 for butter and $4.36 for 80/20 ground beef. The highest priced item on the list overall was the six-pack of toilet paper at $7.92.
In July 2022, we visited Pick 'n Save with the same grocery list to compare the cost of groceries from name brand to their store brands.
The total cost of the store brand items on the list in July 2022 equaled $53.42, minus the price of Triscuits. Visiting the store this year, the total cost of store brand items came to $56.60.
A dozen store brand eggs at Pick 'n Save cost $4.69 and the most expensive item on the list was also a six-pack of toilet paper at $7.49.
For both Walmart and Pick 'n Save, the total cost of the grocery list increased slightly from the previous year by only $2 to $3.
Is Kwik Trip better for convenience or price?
With Kwik Trip's decently sized grocery options, including produce and hot and cold take-home meals, many visit the gas station/convenience store for items they might not want to travel to a full grocery store to get.
The chain carried most of the items on our grocery list, with the exception of oranges, canned green beans, full-sized Cheerios and Cheez-Its. It also offers its own store brand alternatives for majority of the items, besides almond milk, flour, peanut butter and jelly.
With the missing items and name brand alternatives taken into consideration, the cost of our shopping list totaled $50.56.
If you were to visit Walmart for the items that Kwik Trip did not carry, the total would be $55.98.
While this price was less than Pick 'n Save's total, Walmart still holds the cheapest total.
Kwik Trip's eggs were $3.99, and the most expensive item on our list was their store brand bacon at $4.99. While it doesn't offer a six-pack of toilet paper, it does have a four-pack alternative for $3.69. This means you're paying about $0.92 per roll, compared to $1.24 per roll at Pick n' Save and $1.32 per roll at Walmart.
While some of the items were cheaper at Kwik Trip than at the other stores, like butter, ground beef and eggs, other items seemed to be double the price than at a grocery store, like peanut butter, jelly, and almond milk.
Kwik Trip customers might sacrifice the cost of some of these items for the convenience of being nearby one of the many locations. There are exactly 501 Kwik Trip locations throughout the state, meaning many don't have to travel far before they find a store, and many cities have more than one.
When asked about its pricing strategies, Kwik Trip declined to comment.
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Reach Jelissa Burns at 920-226-4241 orjburns1@gannett.com. Follow her on Twitter at@burns_jelissaor on Instagram atburns_jelissa.
