3 Bashas’ Deals Arizonans Miss by Shopping the Wrong Day
Some days at Bashas’ pay off more than others, and knowing them can save you cash.
These are the Bashas’ deals Arizonans miss by shopping the wrong day.
1. Senior Discount Day
Bashas’ hands savings back to its oldest shoppers, but the offer only opens one day a month.
Anyone 55 or older gets an automatic 10% off a single transaction, but only on the first Wednesday of each month.
Every other Wednesday, the discount disappears.
Bashas’ launched the program back in 2009 with a $15 minimum purchase attached, and that minimum is gone from the terms posted today.
Show a Thank You card or the barcode inside the Bashas’ app at checkout, and the register applies the discount automatically.
Staff may still ask for ID to confirm the age, so a driver’s license belongs in the same pocket as the shopping list.
No ID, no discount.
2. Military and First Responder Day
Bashas’ sets aside the first Tuesday of every month, plus Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Veterans Day, for its military and first responder discount.
Service members, veterans and first responders get that same 10% off on those dates instead of the first Wednesday the senior discount uses.
One day earlier changes everything.
Memorial Day, the Fourth of July and Veterans Day each add another discount day to the calendar beyond the monthly Tuesday.
A veteran who shows up on the wrong Tuesday, or confuses it with the senior discount down the aisle, pays full price for no reason at all.
What Bashas’ Discounts Skip
Bashas’ senior and military discounts don’t skip identical departments.
Alcohol, tobacco, pharmacy purchases, gift cards and postage stamps fall outside either discount.
The senior discount goes further, also cutting out lottery tickets, Western Union transfers, fuel and taxes.
The military and first responder discount excludes member services instead, with no mention of lottery tickets or money transfers.
The 10% only lands on the rest of the cart either way.
A trip built mostly around a prescription refill or a bottle of wine won’t see much of a discount at all.
3. Wednesday Ad Flip
Bashas’ resets its entire weekly ad on Wednesdays, and the specials from the outgoing week vanish the moment the new ad loads.
Independent flyer trackers that follow Arizona grocery ads consistently show the same pattern: A new set of prices lands every Wednesday and holds through the following Tuesday.
Seven days, then it’s gone.
One recent week’s ad priced boneless, skinless chicken breast at $1.97 a pound, good only inside that single seven-day window.
Wait until the Wednesday after next to grab the chicken at that price, and it’s already changed to whatever that new ad decided.
Bashas’ doesn’t carry an old price over as a courtesy, so a shopper working off a screenshot from two weeks ago is shopping blind.
The same ad loads inside the Bashas’ app that same Wednesday morning.
A phone in the checkout line works just as well as the paper flyer stapled to the door.
Where Bashas’ Got Its Start
Bashas’ isn’t a national chain that arrived in Arizona from somewhere else.
The Basha family had already run a Chandler mercantile since 1920.
Brothers Ike and Eddie opened the first store to carry the Bashas’ name in 1932, in a farming community then called Goodyear, five miles south of Chandler.
That community was later renamed Ocotillo and isn’t the present-day city of the same name, according to Bashas’ history.
Chandler stayed home base anyway.
Bashas’ merged with the California-based Raley’s Companies in December 2021, but the Chandler corporate office and the Basha family’s leadership both stayed in place, according to Grocery Dive.
The Grocer Who Nearly Became Governor
Bashas’ longtime chairman, Eddie Basha Jr., became a household name years before many residents ever heard his name in a political ad.
He appeared in his stores’ commercials for years, and that recognition helped carry him to the 1994 Democratic nomination for governor, according to the East Valley Tribune.
He lost that November to incumbent Republican Fife Symington, 52.54% to 44.33%, a margin of about eight points, according to Leip’s Atlas.
He came close.
Basha went back to running the stores full time, and Bashas’ stayed a private, family-connected company for another 27 years before the Raley’s merger.
Psst! How many Bashas’ shopping-day mistakes are you making? Check off what applies and see where you land.
The Diné Market on Navajo Nation
Bashas’ runs a separate banner built for the Navajo Nation, called Bashas’ Diné Market.
The shelves look different.
These stores stock Blue Bird flour for fry bread, cuts of mutton and wool, stocked to serve Navajo, Apache and Tohono O’odham customers.
Bashas’ has kept adding Diné Market locations as part of a longer push to grow its footprint on the Navajo Nation, according to Supermarket News.
A shopper used to a standard Bashas’ aisle layout won’t find the same shelf plan at a Diné Market location.
The Chinle store goes back to 1982, the first Bashas’ location built on the Navajo Nation, per the Navajo-Hopi Observer.
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