Pricing a basket of groceries from one store to the next is a long-established method of testing value. Determining how much farther your dollar will go at Store X compared with Store Y is a popular result.
The Denver Post wanted to answer a simple question: Do stores increase or lower prices based on the time food-stamp benefits are distributed?
To obtain the answer, The Post devised a methodology that priced a standardized list of grocery items during four shopping trips to each of two stores within a grocery chain. One store in a chain was chosen based on a high rate of food-stamp redemption and the second on an upper-income neighborhood demographic.
Of the four shopping trips, two coincided with the days food-stamp redemption was historically highest and two when redemption rates were lowest, based on data obtained from the Colorado Department of Human Services.
The four shopping trips always occurred on a Friday and were divided over several months: Sept. 19, Oct. 5, Jan. 11 and Jan. 25. The holidays were omitted to avoid any skewing of prices.
Albertson’s stores were not included in the final results as one of the stores in the survey closed midway through the sampling.
The grocery list was selected based on the staple nature of the items and likelihood of purchase regardless of income level. The list was compiled through interviews with food pantries, social service organizations and food-stamp recipients.
The list included brand-name items as well as the store-brand equivalent.
The final basket price of each trip was calculated using the lowest available price for any item, name brand or generic, on sale or not.
While the survey disputed any price variations based on when food stamps are distributed, the results did point to interesting differences in low-income versus affluent neighborhoods.
Our results were shared with each chain — Safeway, King Soopers, Wal-Mart and Kmart — for their analysis and comment.
We also shared it with Donnie Lichenstein, a marketing professor at the University of Colorado Leeds School of Business, to validate the methodology and approach.
Lichenstein described The Post’s work as “sound.”
