As we head into the November holiday shopping season, many of us are looking for the lowest prices on gifts, decorations, and holiday accessories.
So you may want to know the results of a brand new comparison of hundreds of items, to find out which store had the lowest prices.
Popular stores price checked
Walmart, Target, supermarkets, or dollar stores: which chain really has the cheapest goods?
Kanter Retail, a company that analyzes shopping trends and pricing, compared a shopping basket of food and other items at a half dozen popular shopping destinations.
The 2014 winner:
- Dollar General, which had the lowest priced shopping basket.
It was followed by ....
- Walmart
- Family Dollar
- Regional supermarkets
- Aldi, the discount grocery chain
- Target
Target, which had been battling Walmart on the price front in recent years, appears to have given up trying to match every price at Walmart, as it now refocuses on being a trendy retailer, rather than a low price leader.
Popular drug stores missing
And from the doesn't that stink file, some stores missing from the survey.
Kanter Retail said it deliberately left out Walgreens and other drug chains this year, because their prices were "not competitive" in its most recent surveys.
If you are a fan of the corner drug store, you might say "doesn't that stink."
Drug stores do have great weekly sales, but the survey says overall their prices are higher.
So what is the take-away from this survey?
No one is suggesting you do all your holiday shopping at a dollar store. But for decorations, wrapping paper, and accessories it could save you a fortune, and that way you don't waste your money.
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