Shopping the Sales & Coupons at Whole Foods Market

TFF Takes a Value Tour at Whole Foods Market in Fairfield, CT. Surprise! If you have the right strategy, you can shop frugal here.

We’ve heard it thousands of times: Whole Paycheck. But Whole Foods Market also has good sales and good coupons. Who knew!! I sure didn’t until my TFF partner told me. If you are at least semi-concerned about where you buy your meat, fruit, and veggies, listen up!

Directly from the mouth of one of the down-to-earth check-out associates: “If you shop the sales, you can clean up this place.” She is right. (And by the way, the Fairfield store’s check-out associates are extremely nice, approachable, and they totally understand the frugal mindset.)

For example, the Fairfield store has chicken drumsticks on sale for .99 cents a pound. Okay–you can get the same deal at the other grocery stores, but well, you know the yuck factor when it comes to buying mainstream chicken that may have wallowed in waste and been fed a diet of unhealthy feed and antibiotics. Whole Foods’ drumsticks on sale are what the store calls a “level 2” product and these chickens are supposed to have been raised in an “enriched environment” on a 100 percent vegetarian diet without antibiotics. (I sure hope so!) Usually, these particular drumsticks go for $3.39 a pound – so I bought them for 70 percent off the original cost.

I also bought Stoneyfield organic strawberry yogurt cups that were on sale: 3 packages (4 cups per pack–small cups, though) for $5. Not great until you add in the coupon of $1.00 off each pack! So, for .66 cents each pack, I had good organic strawberry yogurt for the kids–.17 cents a cup.

And, since my purchase was just a bit over $25, I was able to take advantage of the freebie package of organic baby carrots that would have cost $2.99.

If you’re interested in learning more, take a Value Tour at any Whole Foods in the country. The tours are meant to show customers that the store has healthy brands, meats, etc. that fit every budget. Even if the product isn’t necessarily organic, it is still supposed to be held to extremely high quality standards, said my tour guide and Fairfield store manager, Troy, so we shouldn’t have to worry about buying tainted or unhealthy food.

Troy said that generally ever week, there is a great sale on meat, fish, fruits, and vegetables. The bottom line is this: It can be expensive to do a lot of shopping there, but Whole Foods has pretty good sales, and if you can match the sale with one of their own coupons, or a manufacturer’s coupon, you can get some notable deals.

I plan to go back next week to see what meat is on sale…

~Marilyn, TFF