Jan Norris
Joel EngelhardtDiscounted turkey price can’t offset higher costs for potatoes, milk, eggs, butter or even a can of soup.
Despite deep discounts on turkeys, a basket of 12 Thanksgiving foods costs more at Publix and Winn-Dixie than at Walmart and Aldi, a Stet News survey of grocery prices at local food stores revealed.
While shoppers can buy a 12-pound turkey for $8 less at the area’s two traditional grocery stores, the average prices for a basket of 12 holiday foods would cost more than $47 at Publix and more than $48 at Winn-Dixie.
The same foods, including a more robustly priced turkey, would cost nearly $39 at Aldi and slightly more than $39 at Walmart, the Stet food shoppers found.
Publix and Winn-Dixie charge $5.88 for a 12-pound whole frozen turkey, with Winn-Dixie requiring shoppers to spend $20 at the store. The price at Aldi for the same bird came to $14.76, with Walmart at $14.10.
Specialty stores Fresh Market, Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s charge much more for fresh and often organic turkeys, with the price reaching as high as $35.88 for a 12-pounder at The Fresh Market.
That drove the price of the 12-food basket at those stores to substantially higher levels, with Whole Foods at $68 with corn on the cob unavailable and Fresh Market at $97 without green beans. A comparable price for the basket at the sole Trader Joe’s Stet visited, on PGA Boulevard in Palm Beach Gardens, could not be determined because too many of the 12 foods were not available.
Stet sent 10 reporters into 19 area grocery stores on Oct. 28 to price more than 40 food items. Since many stores had few turkeys and the Thanksgiving push had not yet begun, the reporters updated the price of turkey at a sampling of stores on Nov. 19.
In all, the reporters gathered prices at Publix, Winn-Dixie, Walmart, Aldi, Whole Foods, Fresh Market and Trader Joe’s. While this story focuses on Thanksgiving foods, the findings concerning all food groups are still to come.
The 12 holiday food items included in this analysis are 3 pounds of yellow onions, 5 pounds of russet potatoes, 1 pound of sweet potatoes, eight ears of corn, one can of green beans, one can of pumpkin puree, one can of cream of mushroom soup, a gallon of whole milk, a dozen large eggs, a pound of butter, a box of two ready-to-roll pie crusts and a 12-pound turkey.
Wide variety of stores
The gap between Aldi’s basket, at nearly $39, and Fresh Market at $97 represents price differences at two stores that are worlds apart, both service and productwise.
Aldi’s stores are bare-bones. Shopping carts are rented for a refundable 25 cents. Food is displayed in shipping boxes. Customers must pack their own groceries with store boxes or bags they’ve brought in. There’s no customer service at Aldi, and the cashiers are focused on speed — not chitchat.
No one helps you to your car.
The Fresh Market, in contrast, is a larger, full-service grocery with multiple departments, gourmet and artisan specialty foods, prepared foods, and knowledgeable customer service.
Prices at Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are the result of their store brands focused on domestic and imported foods you can’t find elsewhere, with an emphasis on organics, fair-trade and “clean” foods. They provide helpful customer service.
Lakeland-based Publix is best known for convenience, customer service and variety of both national and store brands. Its motto is “Where shopping is a pleasure.” Store workers will stop what they’re doing and walk shoppers to the item they are seeking. The manager on duty listens, and takes customer complaints or requests in person. There’s a no-tipping policy for help with loading your car.
Stores are bright and clean, with wide aisles. Foods are arranged logically. And the stores are everywhere. There are 65 in Palm Beach County — more than four times the next two big grocers: Walmart and Aldi with 14 each.
Some shoppers complain that the quality of food at Publix is slipping, and bundled with higher prices, and a new open-carry firearms policy, some shoppers are turning away. Many customers say they come just for the BOGO deals — buy one, get one free.
Shoppers said produce, once a point of pride, is expensive and not what it used to be. Bins once piled high with loose fruits and vegetables are more sparse or bundled in packages. Some shoppers have moved to Whole Foods, which offers sales on produce.
Publix representatives did not return requests for comment from Stet News.
Winn-Dixie, which has undergone bankruptcies and ownership changes, is a similar traditional supermarket. It offers customer service, though workers are sometimes hard to track down and not always as knowledgeable as at Publix. Help to the car is inconsistent.
At Walmart, the nation’s No. 1 grocer, and at Aldi, customers are on their own for help to their cars.
Pleasant Walmart cashiers bag your groceries in its massive stores. Aisles are stacked high with products, typically displayed in shipping boxes. Things can get messy with deep, high shelves.
Walmart’s produce, however, is low-cost, plentiful and fresh, due to buying power and turnover.
Thanksgiving holiday basket
Among items driving the higher cost at Publix are sweet potatoes. At $1.51 per pound on Oct. 28, Publix topped all the other stores, including Whole Foods and Fresh Market, both at about $1.40 per pound.
The lowest cost for a pound of sweet potatoes: 65 cents at Aldi.
Publix topped the average price at three area Walmarts by nearly $4 on its price for a 5-pound bag of russet potatoes across six Publix stores at $6.07. Walmart averaged $1.97.
At Fresh Market stores on Indiantown Road in Jupiter and PGA Boulevard in Palm Beach Gardens, a 5-pound bag sold for $7.45.
Walmart also featured bulk bags of potatoes, with 25- and 50-pound bags available.
Publix’s Libby’s canned pumpkin puree also rang up at the top, at $2.87 a can — $1.78 more than Aldi’s low price of $1.09 for their store brand — and there weren’t many cans on the Publix shelves in October.
Eight ears of corn cost the most on Oct. 28 at Winn-Dixie at $12, followed by Publix at $6.40. Walmart offered the lowest price at $5.36.
Quality differed as well. At two north county Publix stores the corn on the cob had unsightly black marks and discolored tassels.
At Walmart, the bright-green ears were piled high in a large bin. The store placed a trash bin next to the display, where customers could discard the husks as they shucked their corn. Shoppers were crowded around it, shucking as if at a party, and filling their bags.
Milk prices ran in a $3 range for a gallon at Aldi and Walmart, $4 at Publix and Winn-Dixie, $5 at Whole Foods and $10 at The Fresh Market.
Egg prices have finally come down, averaging $3.40 across the six stores, with Publix at $3.11 coming in higher than Aldi, Walmart and Winn-Dixie. The Fresh Market charged the most at $5.79.
One of the largest differentials in prices was for refrigerated, ready-made pie crusts. They averaged $2.71 at Walmart, $3.50 at Winn Dixie and $4.48 at Publix. Aldi offered the item for the least, $1.95, while Whole Foods topped $6.
In an example of shoppers paying more for artisan products, The Fresh Market charged the eye-popping price of $11.49 for two DuFour brand crusts. At Publix, a shopper can buy two whole bakery-made pumpkin pies for just a few pennies more.
Not long ago, butter was almost a luxury item. While prices have dropped from their peak, it still contributed to the higher basket cost at Publix. A pound of butter of any brand cost an average of $3.49 at Aldi, $3.67 at Walmart, $4.49 at Winn-Dixie and Whole Foods and $4.79 at Publix. Only Fresh Market’s $7.99 topped it.
Planning your grocery shopping
It’s no surprise to regular grocery store shoppers that food prices are up nationally, rising 3% since September 2024 in the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index.
In South Florida, the statistics show the tri-county region from Miami to West Palm Beach saw food prices increase by 4.7% since August 2024.
Tariffs, reductions in the agricultural labor force, transportation and inflation have all contributed to the rise.
Shoppers are feeling the pinch.
“I shop at Publix,” said West Palm Beach resident Tina Maura. “I have mixed feelings about (open carry), but it’s closest and usually has everything I need.”
Still, she said, higher prices are giving her pause. “Publix’s prices are starting to make Whole Foods look affordable,” she said.
Others already have shifted.
“I get groceries mostly at Aldi, but some at Publix, too, depending on BOGOs,” said Jim Copeland of North Palm Beach.
The buy-one-get-one-free deals Publix offers are a big draw for bargain hunters.
Michele Smith of West Palm Beach shops several stores and strategizes using advance ordering for pickup.
“I do Walmart pickup, mostly for frozen or breakfast stuff. Pickup keeps me on budget. After that, Aldi. On rare occasions, Publix for a good BOGO deal. They’re just way too expensive.”
Contributing to this story were Stet shoppers Janis Fontaine, Lou Ann Frala, Holly Baltz, Jane Musgrave, Liz Capozzi, Carolyn and Bill DiPaolo, Joel and Donna Engelhardt and Jan Norris.
Where Stet shopped
- Publix, 135 Bradley Place, Palm Beach; 228 Blue Heron Blvd., Riviera Beach; 828 Southern Blvd., West Palm Beach; 6330 W. Indiantown Road, Jupiter; 11566 US 1, Palm Beach Gardens; 9900 Alternate A1A, Palm Beach Gardens.
- Winn-Dixie, 8924 N. Military Trail, Palm Beach Gardens; 7915 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach.
- Aldi, 6707 W. Indiantown Road, Jupiter; 220 N. Congress, Lake Park; 2481 Okeechobee Blvd., West Palm Beach.
- Walmart, 2144 W. Indiantown Road, Jupiter; 101 N. Congress Ave., Lake Park; 6901 Okeechobee Road, West Palm Beach.
- Whole Foods, Downtown Palm Beach Gardens, Palm Beach Gardens; 1845 Palm Beach Lakes Blvd., West Palm Beach.
- The Fresh Market, 311 E. Indiantown Road, Jupiter; 4925 PGA Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens.
- Trader Joe’s, 2560 PGA Blvd., Palm Beach Gardens.
Jan’s a journalist covering the South Florida dining scene for 30-plus years. (She knows where the bones and onion peels are buried.) She’s a Florida native, remembers the state pre-Disney, and travels frequently to visit family and friends from the Keys to the Panhandle.
