Save-A-Lot History

Save-A-Lot is a discount grocery store aimed to maintain quality food at low prices, beginning with one store founded by Bill Moran in 1977, and now with over 1.300 stores country-wide. With the closing of other local discount grocery stores like Bottom Dollar and Good Cents, Save-A-Lot’s main competitor is ALDI’s. Since I am a frequent shopper of ALDI’s for discounts, I decided that I wanted to see what the local Save-A-Lot had to offer to the public. Upon first examination, Save-A-Lot opens up like any other standard grocery store, with the produce selection first and bright colors popping. The stores proceeds to showcase their “Special Buys,” which was a continuous selection of overstocked goods of various types opposite of the produce. The aisles proceeds to go into breakfast items, with a wide variety of cereals and hot meals, and more “Special Buys” along this aisle and in large cardboard boxes periodically in the center of the walkway. The next aisle focuses on dry goods (pastas, ramen, rice, etc.) with a bit of a mixed-up organization. Canned goods and condiments continue into the third aisle,

Since this is a discount grocery store, the idea of buying a gallon’s worth of hot sauce for the family would save you money in the long run, rather than buying a small bottle at a time; Bates (2010) makes a point in stating that “people are trying to solve problems in their lives, not "seek information."” (p.12). However, despite the options of hot sauce types and brands they offered, there was no cohesive shelving sense to their disseminated spots and it would be difficult for a shopper to constantly rethink if the hot sauce is a better deal than the next one they pass by. While it is nice to see some salad dressing displayed with green lettuce in produce section, it can potentially ruin the “realm of freshness and crispness, of color and beauty (Hitt, 1996,