Switching Stores Near Boston Could Change a Bay Stater’s Grocery Bill by Thousands a Year, a Checkbook Survey Suggests

Two carts with the same groceries can ring up very differently depending on the store.

A Consumers’ Checkbook price survey of supermarkets around Greater Boston found big gaps from one chain to the next.

Here’s how the stores compare for Bay Staters who shop near the city.

How Checkbook Ran the Survey

The most important point first: Consumers’ Checkbook says it’s a nonprofit that accepts no advertising.

Its researchers priced a 150-item list at the stores it surveyed, apart from ALDI and Trader Joe’s. Then they compared what each store charged.

It also surveyed customers about each store’s quality. The page on the results was last updated in November 2025.

ALDI and Trader Joe’s carry mostly store brands.

So Checkbook used a modified market basket, which is a different shopping list, to compare them with other supermarkets.

If you read ALDI’s 28% next to Roche Bros.’ 18%, remember that the two come from different shopping lists.

Many of the percentages compare a store with the average at all the stores it surveyed.

A few compare two stores directly.

The survey covers Greater Boston.

So don’t read its numbers as prices for every town in Massachusetts.

ALDI’s 28% Discount

ALDI’s prices were 28% below the all-store average on Checkbook’s shopping list for the store.

That’s the steepest discount among the percentages it lists.

Say your cart costs $100 at the average store.

By those numbers, you’d pay about $72 for a cart priced on its ALDI list.

The catch is the brands.

ALDI sells mostly store brands rather than national brands. That’s why the list was adjusted for the comparison.

So when you switch to ALDI, you’re swapping many of your national brands for store brands.

Price Rite, Market Basket and Walmart

After ALDI, Price Rite is the next-cheapest chain on Checkbook’s list.

Its prices are about 17% lower than the average at all other stores it surveyed.

Market Basket came in 15% below the average, and Walmart came in 10% below.

Say you spend $300 a week on groceries. A store 10% below the average saves you $30 of it.

That’s $1,560 a year.

Market Basket wasn’t one of the area’s top-scoring chains for the quality of its produce or meat.

But it got higher marks for overall quality.

Hannaford and Target

Checkbook listed Hannaford and Target at 8% below the all-store average.

That’s the next step up in price, so you’d save less there than at Price Rite, Market Basket or Walmart.

Target scored lowest on quality. Only 12% of its surveyed customers rated it “superior” overall.

Whether you shop Hannaford, Shaw’s, Star Market, Stop & Shop or Walmart, each was rated “superior” overall by 40% or fewer.

Wegmans, Shaw's and Trader Joe's

Wegmans' prices were about the same as Shaw's and 3% lower than Stop & Shop's.

Trader Joe's prices were about the same as Wegmans and Shaw's, and about 4% lower than Stop & Shop's.

Checkbook puts Wegmans 10% above Walmart, 15% above Market Basket and 17% above Price Rite.

So if you shop Wegmans or Trader Joe's, you're paying about what you'd pay at Shaw's.

Among the overall ratings listed, only Roche Bros. scored higher than Wegmans.

84% of its surveyed customers called Roche Bros. “superior,” against 81% for Wegmans and 79% for Trader Joe's.

Roche Bros. and Whole Foods

Roche Bros. sat at 18% above the all-store average on Checkbook's list. That's the highest percentage it lists.

If you shop Whole Foods instead, you're about 17% above the average and about 38% above Market Basket.

Roche Bros. has both the highest “superior” rating and the highest price percentage.

On that scale, Roche Bros.'

18% and ALDI's 28% add up to a 46-point spread. But ALDI was priced on a different list.

The Gap in Dollars

Checkbook turns its percentages into dollars with a family that spends $300 a week at the supermarket.

CBS News Boston, which covered the report, said the average shopper would save $4,368 a year by switching to ALDI.

The next example is ours, not a Checkbook price. It mixes the two shopping lists.

A $300 week at average-priced stores would run about $354 at a store 18% above the average.

It would run about $216 at a store 28% below it.

That's $138 a week, or $7,176 over 52 weeks.

Store-to-Store Swings

Checkbook shopped two Stop & Shop stores and found the cheaper store about 5% below the other.

Not every chain varies.

Shaw's prices were consistent among the locations it shopped.