re: TulaneLSU's guide to purchasing at Sam's Club versus Walmart

SALSA







76 oz Pace chunky salsa for $7.32, or 9.63 cents per ounce
24 oz of Pace salsa for $3.48, or 14.5 cents per ounce
70 oz of Great Value picante salsa for $5.98, or 8.54 cents per ounce

Verdict: Walmart
I was happy to see that Woman, Infants, and Children are able to use WIC vouchers to get salsa. Mother always told me that salsa is healthy. While we were driving to Sam’s, NPR broadcast a story about the connection between dollar stores and food deserts. The rationale for limiting dollar stores in certain neighborhoods, at least one proponent argued, was that dollar stores kill local groceries and lead to bad health. Thus, it is government’s duty to step in and stop the dollar stores, as a matter of public health. If that is the role of government, to step in for public health, why do we not require food stamps to be used only for healthy foods, as we do WIC? Regardless of your beliefs about food stamps and WIC, I think we can all agree it is way past time to ban the sale of alcohol in America. It is the most destructive of all drugs. And Big Alcohol keeps forcing it down the public’s throat.

I prefer Walmart’s salsa because it is better than Pace and Walmart has a much greater selection of salsas. I counted 32 salsa choices, whereas Sam’s had two.

BREAST OF CHICKEN







Sam’s: One pound of Members Mark chicken breast for $2.68, or 16.75 cents per ounce
Walmart: One pound of nameless chicken breast for $2.97, or 18.56 cents per ounce
Walmart: One pound of Sanderson Farms chicken breast for $3.97, or 24.81 cents per ounce

Verdict: Neither
The chicken at Sam’s and Walmart is terrible. While you pay a low price, you will find the precooked weight is greatly inflated, as the chicken sold are pumped with fluids. I challenge anyone here to do a precook and postcook weight. Free range chicken is the way to go. It tastes better, it is not injected with fluid filler, and the chickens have at least a somewhat humane existence.

93/7 HAMBURGER MEAT





Sam’s: $4.78 per pound
Walmart: $6.64 per pound

Verdict: Sam’s
Sam’s beef is usually much better quality than Walmart. I think the hamburger meats are on par with each other, but Sam’s has both a better price per pound and better packaging, with convenient one to 1.25 pound packages. These come in quite handy. Just yesterday I found a package of Sam’s 93/7 meat from 2020 that was frozen solid in the back of the freezer. The vacuum seal protected it well from freezer burn, which I am not convinced the bigger, more thinly covered Walmart package would have.

Some people love fatty burgers, even as fatty as 80/20. As for me and my house, we only eat lean. Why pay for fat that is going to clog your arteries and does not taste as good as the powerful muscle?

GINGER ALE





Sam’s: 24 twelve oz cans for $12.62, or 52.58 cents per can
Walmart: 24 twelve oz cans for $12.38, or 51.58 cents per can

Verdict: Walmart
Walmart walks away with drinks, and it is not just Canada Dry. It is Coke Zero, Mountain Dew, all of them. Sam’s is one of the most expensive places to buy drinks other than Great Value bottled water. Moreover, Walmart has a greater variety of drinks, including its Great Value line of carbonated beverages.

Most of you know I do not often drink carbonated beverages, eschewing those sugar and chemical enriched drinks for the fine purity of a glass of New Orleans Sewage and Water Board tap water. But from time to time, I have been known to have a two liter or two of DDT, or as most call it, Diet Dr. Thunder, the finest carbonated drink on Earth. It really is a road trip special of mine, so if you ever see someone on the road chugging a two liter of DDT while driving, do flag me and hopefully we can arrange to meet each other at the next gas station exit, so long as it is not a Buc-ee’s. I was disappointed to see that the DDT price has increased from 72 cents two years ago to $1.42.




Good friends, thank you for joining me in another journey. May you shop wisely and thriftly, and use that extra money to help those in need, perhaps those who have recently been released from prison, as our society often rejects them. Perhaps you know a widow or an orphan who could use financial assistance. We save money not so that we can hoard it where the moth destroys. No! We save so that we can be generous to those who need it.

And now, I will enjoy a fresh bottle of DDT with some smoked GV oysters on GV Cantina tortilla chips. May all of your days be filled with the joy and love of our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus!



Faith, Hope, and Love,
TulaneLSU

P.S. I will try this new ICEE cereal for my dessert.




If you kept score, Sam's Club won this battle, going 10-6-3 against Walmart.