REVIEW – Madera’s Grocery Outlet on Cleveland Avenue has been open for the last four years but it is not the first time the discount chain has had a store in Madera. In the 90’s they were located in the space that today is home to the Planet Fitness Gym. These two stores couldn’t be further apart in comparisons. Grocery Outlet, which first opened in 1947 in the Bay area as “Cannery Sales”, used to be a place to buy government surplus, out of date food products, dented can or damaged box products, or just products that could no longer be sold in a traditional grocery store.
Today there is less out of date and damaged food and more discount, overstocked and closeout products from name brand and private label suppliers with brands that you may have never heard of before. The current Grocery Outlet has probably Madera’s largest selection of wine at a major discount over retail prices. The same large selection can be found in the deli area with a vast selection of cheeses and lunch meats. You won’t find a better price on milk, pasta, beans, rice or bread in town.
That is what Grocery Outlet gets right on every visit. For the rest of your shopping, it may be a hit or a miss. Some days will be better than others and sometimes there will be products that are priced the same or even higher than at traditional stores. Some days you will find a bottle of brand-name mustard for 99 cents, others you won’t find a single bottle of mustard in the store.
Grocery Outlet does a good job of being the half-way point between traditional supermarkets on the higher end and the “Dollar Tree” or “99¢ Only” stores on the lower end. For example, Grocery Outlet will sometimes have the exact same brand names as the dollar stores, but priced a little higher. Grocery Outlet has a better selection of produce than the “99¢ Only” stores, which no longer limits their pricing to 99¢, but you might find a higher quality items at a more traditional grocery store for nearly the same price. The same goes for their meat selections.
Most of Grocery Outlet’s meats are vacuum-packed cuts packaged in water. They claim to have fresh meats but really don’t. Their ground beef comes in 2, 3 and 5 pound tubes. The five pound tube normally sells for $9.99 which is about $2 a pound which is the sale price at Save Mart for locally packaged ground beef. When and where were the tubes produced?
When the Madera Grocery Outlet first opened I bought what I thought was a rib-eye roast. When I got it home and pulled it out of its watery shrink wrapped package it turned out to be a very thinly sliced rib-eye that was rolled into what looked like a roast, tied together with string that was not visible through the plastic.
Now I am not say there is anything wrong with the meats at Grocery Outlet, I am just saying that there really is not much of a price savings over the meats you could buy locally at Save Mart, Pak n Sav or Food 4 Less. There are a few convenient meat products at Grocery Outlet I regularly buy. They offer a two pack of 6 ounce New York steaks for $5.99 which comes out to $7.99 a pound or my favorites, bacon-wrapped beef medallions which sell for $4.99 which comes out to $6.99 a pound.
On other items such as canned or frozen food, cereals and breakfast foods, or sodas, you need to do your homework. For the most part you’ll find big savings on theses selections at Grocery Outlet, but I have seen a couple items that made me scratch my head. Earlier in the year they had a family size box of Captain Crunch for $3.99 and said the price elsewhere was $6.99. I am sorry I have never seen a box of Captain Crunch anywhere for $6.99. About two weeks later that same box was marked down to $1.99.
They do have a large selection of frozen pizzas .They have several name brands that you might find in any other store for one or two dollars less, but they also have many more comparable out-of-the-area brands that you might want to try, and if you like them, stock your freezer up considering how inexpensive they are. That is probably the best thing to do when shopping at Grocery Outlet, if you find great deals on canned or frozen foods, stock up on them because the chances are that item will not be there the next time you are shopping. There was one point last year that over half of my freezer was filled with Grocery Outlet items. You know cheeses and lunch meats can freeze too. So if you find a pound of sliced deli turkey for $2.99, fill your freezer.
Grocery Outlet always has a decent selection of non-food items. They have everything from bathroom and kitchen items to blankets and tents. This year many of the items in my kids Christmas stockings came from Grocery Outlet. My oldest daughter can’t get enough journals for her writings and of course Grocery Outlet has the best prices. My youngest daughter found a pair of Christmas pajamas she had to have for Christmas Eve. They were about four dollars cheaper than the same style at Walmart.
This Grocery Outlet in Madera is a lot smaller than many of the stores I’ve shopped at in the past. Most Grocery Outlets take over larger closed grocery stores, this one in Madera opened in a brand new location that was abandoned by a failed grocery store chain based out of England, Fresh & Easy. The rent at this location is probably much higher than what many other locations pay which might explain why this store is also on its second set of owners in four years.
If you use Grocery Outlet to supplement your monthly shopping needs, you will save money. A gallon of milk is $1.50 to $2.00 cheaper than anywhere else in town. Buying most of your other staples at the Grocery Outlet will also save you a significant amount of money. But for other items do your research, you can’t always trust the ‘comparable’ price banners displayed.
When you check out, the cashier will always cheerfully tell you how much you saved on your visit (using those ‘comparable’ prices of course). If you sign your receipt with your phone number, then deposit it in the box near the entrance, the store owners have a weekly drawing and if your receipt is selected, you could win a gift card for the amount your saved. In my opinion, this is a nice touch to top off a fairly positive and usually ‘sticker-shock-free’ shopping experience. If you have not shopped at Grocery Outlet before, give it a try and let BVN know your impression. If you’re already a Grocery Outlet fan, please share your specific tips with our readers in the community message board. 
On a side note: If you’re interested in even more savings there is a store in Fresno behind the Fresno District Fairground on Maple and Butler Avenues called Chili’s Canned Food Warehouse. This is a store that is a lot like the original Grocery Outlets of the 1970’s. Boxes of Rice-A-Roni & Pasta Roni for 25¢, Stovetop Stuffing for 49¢. We shop there about every two months and leave with a trunk load of food for less than $50. They aren’t open on Sunday’s and close early on Saturdays. Not a lot of people seem to know about this place. It’s something of a west-side Fresno secret that might be worthwhile to check out if you’re’ interested.
