Michael Berberick and Montelle
LeVering, paid $16.08 for the groceries in front of them. That's
more than $89 worth at retail prices. Their company, The Grocery
Advantage, provides subscribers information to cut grocery costs.
Think the best grocery deals are at Wal-Mart?
Michael Berberick and Montelle LeVering have news for you. The
Dublin couple have developed a system that they say saves people
between 40 percent and 50 percent off Wal-Mart prices, and 75
percent to 85 percent off regular prices at traditional grocery
stores such as Giant Eagle and Kroger.
For $15 a month, The Grocery Advantage provides members, via
the Internet, a weekly list of 50 grocery items that are the
biggest bargains in central Ohio, once sale prices and coupons are
taken into account.
The Web site -- www.thegroceryadvantage.com -- also provides
separate lists for Giant Eagle, Kroger and Meijer that include
more than 50 discounted items. The lists include only name-brand
items.
Wal-Mart isn't included, Berberick says, because it doesn't
double coupons, has few sales and can't beat the prices.
"We've actually created a way for the other stores to compete
with Wal-Mart,'' he said. "The prices that we buy things for every
week, you couldn't touch at Wal-Mart.''
To help members save time, the store-specific lists provide the
date and page number of the advertising insert where the coupon
can be found.
Holli Castilla of Dublin is a believer. She used to spend $250
a week on groceries for her family of seven but now never more
than $100.
"I really couldn't live without this system,'' she said. "I
don't know how to pay full price anymore.''
Castilla is one of 1,500 members of The Grocery Advantage,
which started about a year ago as an effort by Berberick and his
wife to cut their grocery bills. They have seven children and were
spending $1,000 a month on food.
"We had no concept of turning this into a business,'' said
Berberick, who worked as a business consultant for 15 years.
By combining sale prices with coupons, the couple cut their
grocery bills by more than $400 a month.
Berberick and LeVering saw potential in building a business
around the concept. The company took on its first customers in
July.
Each week, The Grocery Advantage reviews more than 600 sale
items and more than 1,000 unexpired coupons to identify the 50
biggest bargains in central Ohio. The reports are posted on the
Web site each Tuesday for members to access.
This week's report includes 14 items that will be free after
using coupons and other items are at least 70 percent off the
regular price. The Top 50 items would cost $19.02 using The
Grocery Advantage system compared with $122.81 if purchased at
full price.
Berberick and LeVering checked Wal-Mart and found 43 of the 50
items. Using coupons and Wal-Mart's policy of matching
competitors' advertised prices, the cost of the same items came to
$53.66. Wal-Mart doesn't double coupons or match competitors'
buy-one-get-one-free deals.
Wal-Mart didn't dispute Berberick's findings, but defended its
pricing strategy.
"We focus on providing every day low prices every day of the
year with no gimmicks,'' Wal-Mart spokeswoman Sharon Weber said.
Kroger was more enthusiastic.
"We certainly appreciate and applaud The Grocery Advantage for
putting out that information,'' Kroger spokesman Gary Huddleston
said. "We believe that Kroger does provide the best value in this
market, with the Kroger Plus Card, double coupons and weekly
specials.''
Jon Hauptman, an analyst at Willard Bishop Consulting, a
Barrington, Ill.-based firm that follows the retail food industry,
said The Grocery Advantage has a chance to succeed.
"It takes advantage of deals that are already out there, deals
that a very small subset of very-intense bargain shoppers are
already finding, and they are opening up these extreme values to a
much wider group of people who don't have the time to look for
them,'' he said.
Members say it takes time to learn the system. Because the Top
50 list changes every week, members have to discipline themselves
to stock up on items while they're bargains so they last until the
next time there's a great deal. And if people stick strictly to
the Top 50 list each week, they'd have to shop at more than one
store.
But members say the discounts are so great on most items that
they can visit one store, stray from the Top 50 list and still
save a bundle.
Chris Bowling of Reynoldsburg said sometimes he needs items
that aren't on the Top 50 list, but said the program still pays
off, even with the 9-mile drive he now makes to a Giant Eagle in
Gahanna.
"If I need a product, I will buy it, and the savings I enjoy on
the other products are enough to offset that,'' Bowling said. "If
I'm getting $150 worth of groceries for $20, so what if I paid
retail for a can of coffee?''
