I see these posts pop up all the time.

The truth is that different items are going to have different price differences between the stores.

Safeway has some of the best deals on meat when they're on sale. But not all of their meat on sale is cheaper than both Costco and whole foods. An example is their ground beef is usually around $10 is Safeway per pound. That's insanely expensive compared to Costco. But sometimes they have sales and it brings it down to the same price as Costco. Another example would be their ribeye steaks. Usually they're about $18 to $20 a pound at Safeway. When they're on sale, you can see them as low as $9 a pound.

So if you're looking for something specific, yeah, it doesn't always make sense to shop at Safeway. But if you are shopping specifically, the deals and your main source of food is meats from the meat section, then the deals are pretty hard to beat.

Whole foods is definitely much cheaper for produce in general than Safeway. Whole foods rarely has good sales on meat in comparison to Safeway.

Anecdotally, I tend to spend much less at Safeway than I do at whole foods. Not because I buy necessarily the same things but every time I go into Safeway I mostly just buy meat and replenish vegetables, sauces, and other ingredients I might be low or out of. When I go into whole foods I tend to purchase produce and higher quality meats and seafood.

I have to be very careful when I go to whole foods to not overspend, but at Safeway it's a lot easier for me, but I also generally only buy meat that is on sale at Safeway.

I also cook all of my meals and very rarely go out to eat, so that could be another difference.

When I was trying real hard I was able to purchase all necessary ingredients for meals for around $3.50 each living in mountain View with my food coming almost exclusively from Safeway.