Thrifty Foods

[debragirl31]

Hi

My daughter is moving to Victoria to be an assistant for a not-for-profit organization in order to assist her with getting more experience for her marine biology degree. She'll be there for 5 months and won't be earning any money. So she's paying her rent and her food on her own.

I was wondering if anyone could give me some tips for stores that are good for couponers to go to there.

I know about London Drugs and how that works, so I can put together stacks for her for that store, but I am not sure if the Save on Foods do stacking in Victoria as well?

My daughter is going to be living near a Thrifty Foods and a Walmart but will have to travel to a Save on Foods.

Can anyone tell me if Thrifty Foods is expensive? And do the Walmart's participate in stacking?

Please any help you can pass on would be most appreciated.

Thanks
D.

[RSAS]

Fairways markets are by far the cheapest grocery stores in Victoria. Thrifty Foods, the most expensive. But worth watching the flyers because sometimes they have some good sales.

[debragirl31]

Thanks.

[couponer2]

In Victoria there is only one Walmart in what they now call the Uptown mall and Save on Foods is right behind it, just across the street.The other Walmart is in Langford(Westshore) which is about a 15-20+ min drive away.

In Uptown mall there is also a Shoppers Drugmart which is open 24 hours and has a food section ,if she collects optimum points she already probably follows the thread in this sub-forum ,Shoppers Drug Mart
and knows that if she buys an shoppers gift card first to pay for her purchases she gets points for the buying the gift card and then points for her purchases. Once an a while they have bonus days when optimum points are worth more,+ you can transfer your points to her as well.

There are a few London drugs in Victoria , The one in Tillicum mall is my personal favorite and the staff at the service desk are very helpful.In Tillicum mall there is also a Safeway and a Zellers (Which is being turned into a Target)Safeway is sometimes a good source for coupons, hit or miss and if she collects airmiles she may want to follow Operabobs thread
Safeway's Sweet AirMiles Deals Sometimes with the combo of coupons and airmiles you get paid to shop.
In Zellers their store wide clearance starts May 21st in prep for Target taking over.

As RSAS says I also find Thrifys very pricey as a general rule, but keep an eye on their flyer.

If she makes it out to Langford(Westshore) Superstore has some great deals,they have a coupon board as you walk in with both Instore coupons and the occasional manufacturer coupon.Superstore uses pink stickers when they discount their products, look for them in the deli,bakery,dairy,meat departments , also can be found on shelves and in bins throughout the store.Their cash registers will only let you use up to $10 in manufacturer's coupons in one transaction if you have more than that the cashier has to call for an override, no biggy just letting you know.Oh and lately I have found that they have been enforcing the one in-store coupon per item per person policy( unless the back of coupon says other wise.)
The Shoppers just down the street from Superstore is open till midnight.Fairway market is right beside Shoppers and has great specials on meat and veggies , they also discount their meat and bakery with cash off stickers.

If she is going to have access to a deep freezer McGavins bakery outlet (Bay and Blanshard) is a good place to stock up on discounted bakery goods and they take coupons (except for the section where the baked goods are mark with an X and are 1.19 each wub 10 or more)They also have a punch card but that might be more bread than she goes though.

[Midnightly]

thrifty goods tends to be on the higher priced side BUT they do offer decent sales, LD does stack but they are starting to crack down significantly on the stacking they are very picky on the wording as sad as it is i think it's on the way out (harder and harder), save on foods stacks but only the blanchard (behind walmart uptown location) stacks, it seems to be ok at the moment but.. i'll admit things seem to be changing (i hate being all doom and gloom.. but i think they have faced alot of bad couponers and extreme couponers that wording is changing, the stores are cracking down...) the best way to look at it is don't depend on stacking call it a bonus..

walmart seems to be decent for sales good prices in general (but that's walmart for you!)

[debragirl31]

Wow, I'm so impressed with the advice. I passed it on to my DD and she arrived Wednesday, she used your advice and she did her very FIRST stacking and saved a ton on groceries. She sent it went very smoothly and she is shocked at what she got for what she paid. She is now looking forward to the M&M coupons I'm going to get from CT this weekend .

Thank you everyone again for your help. Most appreciated.

[roxdoglet]

Some people seem to not know much about Victoria. Thrifty's can actually be very ecomonical if you follow the flier which comes in the local free paper every weds. There are 2 walmarts, one on the westshore. Also, Superstore on the westshore has great meat and cheese prices if you go in the am and get the marked down stuff. They do it 2 days before the expiry date every morning. That little tidbit was passed on to me by an employee and she was right! One other thing about Thriftys if you have a sobeys card you can earn points for your dd to get free groceries. The points add up fast. Ok that's it for now I think. Good luck and I"m sure once your DD finds her groove she'll do awesome, this is a great place to live!

[dahliagrower]

I didn't respond before because I was confused as to which area your daughter could be living in if she was close to a Walmart and Thrifty - but not Save on Foods..... I'm still confused.... Lol

Before I started couponing I was spending about $600 /mo on groceries - almost exclusively at Thrifty's .... now a year later - I shop at Thrifty's for specific things on sale (from their weekly flyer) and that's about it (less than $100 /mo) ..... I find my best values are from the places like Red Barn or Big Barn or Fairways ( for produce and deli ) ..... at SOF for any type of stacking opportunity (canned goods) and their meats are usually very good, at Country Grocer (local independent) for their flyer items (but they are usually awesome with dairy - yogurts esp. and their meats that are on sale are fabulous); Safeway is another - totally expensive in most areas - unless there are airmiles (no idea if your DD would care about these anyways) but often their e-coupons are great ..... and London Drugs for all sorts of personal care items (shampoo, soaps etc) as you already know - they can be almost free ....

I don't live in the "western communities" so don't usually shop at RCSS and know nothing about it..... but love the Red Barn and Country Grocer..... CG is great for coupons - Red Barn - not so much!

[debragirl31]

Thanks again, wow you all just prove how great Canadians are! Love it.

[amused]

It's not close to the area where your daughter settled, but Oxford Foods in Cook Street Village is worth checking out. It's been a while since i've been there but remember some good deals.

[lizardlipz]

true! I got a loaf of bread for 98 cents last week