Cub's sale insert in Sunday's paper has Cheerios (and other General Mills cereals) for $1.75 each on sale with a coupon. Customers must purchase four boxes. Rainbow also has Cheerios on sale--Buy six boxes of any General Mills cereal at regular price at get $10 off instantly at the checkout.
Which is the better deal? You can't tell from the ads because Rainbow doesn't tell you the price of its varieties from 8.7 ounces to 25.5 ounces. So I went to Rainbow for prices. I compared prices on a 14 ounce box of Cheerios ($3.59).
The results: If I buy 6 boxes at $3.59 each at Rainbow, I'll pay $21.54 for 84 ounces or .256 per ounce. But after the $10 savings, the price per ounce is .137 cents.
At Cub, I buy four 8.9 oz. boxes at $1.75 each. I'll pay $7 for 35.6 ounces or .196 cents per ounce.
Rainbow wins this one by a hefty margin.
Of course, the Rainbow deal is even better if you've got two of those coupons for $1 off three boxes. If I really wanted to split hairs, I'd choose the size of Cheerios at Rainbow with the lowest price per ounce--probably the largest box but not always.
I'd love to say that the everyday price of one large box of Cheerios at Costco is cheaper without all the hassle of clipping coupons and comparing price per ounce, but I didn't check prices there. If they give me a price over the phone when they open later this morning, I'll update this, but last I checked they usually won't quote prices over the phone. Update: I was wrong. Costco gave me the price. It's $5.53 for 37 ounces or .149 cents per ounce. Obviously, anyone using a coupon can get the lowest price at Rainbow through Saturday.
I write this because I'm a Cheerios fanatic. I used to buy the Cheerios store brand (Toasty Os, for example) to save $$, but no one's store brand is as good as the real thing, in my opinion. And I rarely say that about store brands.
