Spotlight on Savings: Bargain Food Store
Several weeks ago, I visited the Bargain Food Store in Pelzer, SC.
The Bargain Food Store was a lot larger than I was expecting. Going inside was slightly reminiscent of a trip to Sams Club or another large warehouse. (However, I also felt like I’d stepped into a different culture (though our living in our neighborhood is similar).) It was relatively crowded for a weekday morning and noisy, and there was a lot of store to navigate. (I waited a while for everyone to get out of this picture!)
If you’re familiar with the Sav-Mor sidewalk sale, you will probably recognize a few of the items as things you’ve seen there. I’m guessing that the Bargain Food Store gets a lot of their stock from dated items and items that don’t fare so well in normal grocery stores.
Best deals I got:
- Cheese: $4.99 for a 5lb. bag–that’s $1/lb!
- Yogurt: $3.00 for a case of 12 6oz. Yoplait cups ($.25 cents each)
- Of course, it was probably so low because the flavors were guava or pineapple, but I absolutely loved the guava!
- TrueLime bottle for $.50 (I LOVE this stuff, and wish I’d gotten more)
- Bananas: over 3 lb. for 99 cents
Other deals I saw:
- Milk was $2.99/gallon
- lots of large bags of cake mixes for under $3.00
- meat in large bulk
I also noted:
- Produce did not seem to be an exceptional deal, except for bananas.
It is a good 30 minutes from downtown Greenville, but if you have a freezer and storage space it may be worth the drive. You can get directions here. If you’re in the main Greenville city area, I recommend going when there’s a sale on at Food Lion so you can combine trips. I’m curious as to whether or not anyone else has been here?
Spotlight on Savings is a feature I hope to do that highlights potential savings at lesser known stores in the area. Stay tuned for more!
October 7th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
I used to go to Bargains a lot more but the drive time for me is not worth the savings (as I can get most of the deals at regular grocery stores with coupons and sales. But one thing you need to be careful of is expired foods. I would not buy anything expired because it is usually really expired. Also some of the cake mixes and pastas and things like that sometimes have bugs. Just be careful what you buy if you go there. I usually stick with canned goods, produce (sometimes they have very good deals), and frozen items. The milk is good too. And especially cheap. But with gas prices the way they are, I have found I save more money by staying close to home. Good luck in your Bargains shopping. Love the new site.
October 8th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
I’ve been, too. Our ice company is located about 8 miles from Bargains. My MIL used to go there to get “deals” to sell when we had our store open. I persoanlly didn’t find a surplus of great deals but did buy some toilet paper. It was 48 rolls for $12.00 ($0.25 per roll). It wasn’t first quality paper…it was the mis-cuts…but works just as well
I prefer to buy toilet paper when I can combine a sale and a coupon, but we needed it and we’re STILL using it LOL!
October 9th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
That’s a really good deal on orange juice!
December 13th, 2008 at 9:12 pm
I used to live near here and shopped there a lot. I’m now in Spartanburg so don’t go quite so often. I also really watch the expired dates here! I have never purchased flour, cake mix, etc because the possibility of bugs. It just isn’t worth it to bring them into my entire pantry. I usually get deals on the meat/dairy cases and cereal. Please note that the food variety changes. Also, the best time to go is Thursday mornings.
July 8th, 2011 at 8:20 pm
I have been going to the Bargain Food Store for many years about ones a month on average and In that time.I have found more bad meat and other bad grocery at regular chain grocery stores than I ever have at the Bargain store. I do check my Dates though on any discount grocery that I buy at any discount store.