AND THE WINNER IS....

In the last few months, I've been doing more of my weekly shopping at a nearby Walmart Neighborhood Market. I've always been a coupon clipper, and having double coupons at the local Harris Teeter, along with a lot of their discounts and BOGOs, I thought I was doing fairly well there. Dream on.
In these last months, I've not had the impressive coupon and discount totals I usually did, saving up to 35% a year on my groceries, but my overall spending is down. Nevermind the savings, what am I spending? What's the bottom line? There are one or two rare items that I can't find at my Walmart - those great Wickels and Red Oval Crackers to name the ones I'll get at Teeter, or at Publix when I want to spend $50 to use their $10 coupon off a gas card.

So - I've been trying the Walmart Great Value versions of name brand or Teeter store brand foods. I've yet to find any of the WM store brand items that I'd never buy again. Most are very good - after all, unlike the A&P that did make many of their own Ann Page foods, Walmart contracts with big producers to make their Great Vale items. One item I'd yet to try was their tuna. We like solid albacore in water. Some of the brand name tuna I'd opened lately was disappointing, to say the least. This morning I had an eye-opener.
I needed to prepare tuna salad for more than two servings, so I opened a can of Chicken of the Sea "Solid White Albacore Tuna in Water." Then I opened the next can below, a can of Great Value "Solid White Albacore Tuna in Water." The difference was so startling, I had to take pictures. Do you believe this?

And here they are dumped out of the cans. (I didn't dare dump the loose stuff on the cutting board.)

The Chicken of the Sea smelled a wee bit fishy, the Great Value tuna smelled like the sea. When mixed with mayonnaise, salt and pepper, and some dried onion flakes, they made a nice salad, but ...

Which tuna would you rather have? I do some dinners with tuna. My New Age Tuna Noodle Casserole For Two and my Papas Aliñas will be the better for this really solid tuna.

So  the winner is Walmart, and my budget is grateful.