A few months ago, I rediscovered what a great store Winco is! In addition to offering low prices on food staples, they have these great bulk bins where you can buy dried fruit, spices, pasta, rice, and baking supplies for a pittance. Plus, I recently noticed that if you shop in the mornings, my Winco has a little coffee stand near the cheese section. (They only have small cups though…think I could show up with my coffee thermos?)
However, the frustrating part about shopping at Winco is the lack of a weekly ad. So tonight, thanks to BeCentsAble’s Grocery Gathering, I was able to locate a blogger that covers Winco: Northwest Coupon Lady!
Not only does she feature weekly prices and coupon matchups, she has a breakout of prices and items in their famous bulk bin section. I hope you will check out what’s she’s got going.
Today I’ll be hitting up Winco to do a rather large shop. A few days ago I explained how there are two types of shopping: stockpiling and needs-based. Well, it’s time for a good “needs-based” trip, so I’m hitting up Winco, baby! This Friday I’m also participating in a freezer meal swap (more on this later), and so I’ll be needing some basic ingredients for my meal.
I’ll be sure to let you know what I find later – but in the meantime, check out what Northwest Coupon Lady‘s got going on!
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
The Winco coverage will be great. I love Winco in Kent but I live in Burien so I only get out there about once a month or so. I LOVE the bulk-food bins and their great deals on cheese!
I thought you already knew about this. I found it recently and now use that list to compare the other chains. I live right down the street so it’s a blog I was stoked about.
Their prices are really good on most things but we have found that their meat seems to go bad fast and the produce section (at least on South Hill Puyallup store) really is terrible and doesn’t seem as fresh as other local stores…can’t wait to read about your shop!! Thanks for a great blog
Susan, ITA on the meat. I like Winco for basic food staples. In general I stay away from buying meat there (I had a bad experience I won’t soon forget). I also do not recommend buying non-food items such as paper products, baby diapers, and personal care items at Winco. Their prices on these items are not competitive with drugstores.
Crystal, believe it or not, I’m still discovering new resources all the time.
No Winco by me, but does anyone know someone who covers the Haggen store?
Does WINCO accept computer generated coupons. We are getting different responses at different stores in Southern California.
Jim, it appears that Winco should accept them, no matter which store you frequent: http://athriftymom.com/2009/03/winco-now-taking-internet-printable-coupons/
However, if I were in your shoes, I’d make sure to speak to a manager before checkout. I’d place a call to the store and tell them I read about the change, but have heard conflicting information. See if you can get a definitive answer. My guess is that if the manager has to call corporate to get the story, they’ll get the green light.
I can tell you personally I’ve had no problems redeeming them at my local Washington store. The caveat is that they must not “beep;” if they do, the cashier will NOT push them through. I also recently learned that if your coupons save you $12 or more, manager approval is needed to complete the transaction. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing at all, it just recently happened to me and took me off guard.