Your Guide to Cheap Groceries in the Slope

The Slope is blessed with a plethora of grocery stores, but with choice comes confusion. Are the Food Coop's prices worth the hassle? Is Union Market really that expensive, comparatively speaking? What's the deal with that weird Met Foods on Seventh? With such questions in mind, we set out to compare prices at five of the Slope's most popular shops: , Key Food (the one on Fifth), , the Park Slope Food Coop, and Union Market.

At each shop, we recorded the price of twenty staples: yogurt (Fage 0%, 17.6 oz.), milk (Organic Valley 2%, 1/2 gallon), eggs (Country Hen, 1/2 dozen), olive oil (Filippo Berio, 16.9 oz.), salad mix (Earthbound Farms Mixed Baby Greens), cereal (Raisin Bran, 20 oz.), bananas (1 lb.), eggplant (1 lb.), prosciutto (domestic, 1 lb.), chicken breasts (1 lb.), oil-cured black olives (1 lb.), grated Pecorino Romano (1 lb.), peanut butter (Skippy Creamy, 16.3 oz.), rosemary, canned tomatoes (Muir Glen crushed with basil, 28 oz.), spaghetti (De Cecco, 1 lb.), ice cream (Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey, pint), beer (Sam Adams Boston Lager six pack), hummus (Sabra original, 10 oz.) and sugar (Domino, 2 lb.). When the standard brand was unavailable, we used one of equal (or close to it) quality in the same size.

So whose groceries are cheapest? The results may surprise you.

Met Food
Total Cost: $112.33
Total Goods “Purchased”: 17
Average Cost Per Item: $6.61
Most Egregiously Overpriced Item: If you’d like a pound of prosciutto, that will run you an astonishing $37.28.
Best Bargain: We’ve seen fresher-looking salad mix, but we must admit that $2.49 is a solid price.
Notes: Hey! Do you like shopping at Met Foods but wish it was like an especially grody bodega? Then do we have the store for you! Dust-covered food, obscenely narrow aisles, and the prevalent smell of cat pee all contribute to an unpleasant (and expensive) shopping experience.

Union Market
Total Cost: $118.78
Total Goods “Purchased”: 20
Average Cost Per Item: $5.94
Most Egregiously Overpriced Item: The worst offender has got to be the Pecorino Romano at a whopping $12.76 a pound.
Best Bargain: At just $5.99 a pound, the massive olive bar is a pretty good deal.
Notes: Union Market sure is pretty! The produce looks like a work of installation art and there’s little more inviting than the cheese section. That being said, you’ll pay for the pulchritude. Union Market had the highest item price in eleven out of twenty categories. The good news: samples are plentiful and the staff doesn’t seem to mind if, ravenous on your way home from the gym, you just park yourself in front of the guacamole sample and eat upwards of a dozen chips. Um. Not that we've ever done that.

Key Food
Total Cost: $100.28
Total Goods “Purchased”: 20
Average Cost Per Item: $5.01
Most Egregiously Overpriced Item: $7.99 a pound is kind of a lot for an olive bar.
Best Bargain: Grated Pecorino Romano is a steal at just $7 a pound.
Notes: Key Foods is like a suburban supermarket, and we mean that in the very best way possible. The aisles are wide and the shelves are fully stocked with almost anything you could ever need. Sure, organics are few and far between, but if you don’t care that much (or you want some food the Coop is too fancy to carry), it’s a great bet.

Back to the Land
Total Cost: $69.73
Total Goods “Purchased”:  15
Average Cost Per Item: $4.64
Most Egregiously Overpriced Item: $15.49 is simply too much to pay for 16.9 ounces of olive oil, organic or not.
Best Bargain: At $3.99, Flax Plus Raisin Bran is rather reasonable.
Notes: Back to the Land came out much more cheaply than we predicted, perhaps because it’s the Coop’s most direct competitor. The shop is cozy (even if the many slightly elevated areas make it a nightmare for carts or the disabled) and the staff is friendly, but the selection is middling.

Park Slope Food Coop
Total Cost: $59.76
Total Goods “Purchased”: 18
Average Cost Per Item: $3.32
Most Egregiously Overpriced Item: Why is a box of Raisin Bran $4.38? That seems pricey.
Best Bargain: A bottle of nice-quality Bel Aria olive oil is shockingly cheap: $3.73!
Notes: We all know the issues with the Coop: long lines, draconian rules, literally nonstop amateur hour. Really, though, none of that matters with these prices. The Coop had the lowest prices in fourteen out of twenty categories and that’s worth a lot of inconvenience.