Bread, peanut butter, Ramen Noodles and chips, classic dorm room staples for any college student. But when it comes to purchasing these form items and others, there is always more than one option.
Wal-Mart tends to be the student shopping center of choice due to its variety. However, with other stores in town like Kroger, Cash Saver, Mayflower Foods and Harp’s, there is no reason to complain about Wal-Mart always being busy.
It has been engrained in American culture to shop at super-center stores, where anything we want is at our disposal. However, it is common sense to me to go to the smaller stores.
My personal choice is Kroger, due largely in part to the prices. Great deals can be found at Kroger just by having their club card, and since it is free to obtain, why not go for it? There are never any food items that I absolutely have to have in my room, so shopping at a smaller store always helps me not to buy so much. While I try to avoid the “junior” 15, anything I can do to keep weight off always helps.
Although Wal-Mart has a diverse variety with brand names and off-brand products, having only one option at a low price is something that appeals to me strongly. Kroger has just as many products as Wal-Mart, just with only one kind of each product.
Just because Wal-Mart advertises “Always Low Prices” does not mean that an extra two cents for a product is bad. When I shop at Kroger I always end up buying less because there isn’t as much to choose from. So in the long run, I end up spending less per shopping trip than I would at a super-center
I will admit Wal-Mart may be the only option in town for certain items and is great for one-stop shopping, but is all the Saturday traffic worth the comfort? Just recently I did a test and on two separate Saturdays at the same times, I bought the same items. Pens, milk and soup were on my list. While the Wal-Mart trip took me 25 minutes from campus and back, going to Kroger and Walgreens took me just 15 minutes.
Overall, Wal-Mart can be great for one stop shopping needs, and it is obviously highly successful, with more 8,500 stores in 15 countries. Smaller stores have been part of the nations backbone all through history, and as I see it, there is no reason to stop that now.
