Swanson’s Market

Owners are retiring. They had an out of business sale today 60% off and are officially closed as of today. Other stores that have going out of business sales tend to inflate their prices during the sale, so you really don’t save much. Not Swansons! They discounted their low prices even more and then still gave you 60% off
I left the store with overflowing shopping cart including cases of food for $ 9.95. Big packs of rolls that they normally sell for .99 – the reduced to .25 then gave me 60% off the .25.
Jars of Hershey Chocolate Spread 13oz they normally sell for 1.49 they reduced to .25 then I still got 60% off the .25!
case of 12 – 27 oz spinach cans. $ 3.00 for the whole case than 60% off.
Cases of Campbels Chicken & quinona soup. 8 packages in a case at 14oz. They were selling the cases by one get one for $ 3 and then they still gave 60% discount. I think I paid like a $ 1.20 a case.
Gallon jars of sweet peppers. Usually 1.99 buy one get one free. The reduced the price to .99 then gave me 60% cent off.
When I got there the store was nearly empty but there were still deals to be had. Wish I would have gotten there earlier to see what other deals I missed out on.

75% of the store was expired goods. But once you found current stuff. … It was well worth the search. Awesome prices. Bought makeup, swimming diapers, candy, pediasure, and various food items. Small place but fun to look through.

Swanson’s will sell you anything they can get their hands on, provided it isn’t so good the staff snaps it up first. The staff are helpful, friendly, scary, and sometimes hit on you (provided you look as good as I do).
Here’s the Skinny:
The good:
Great deals to be had. $ 3 dvd’s. $ 5 Blu-Ray’s, $ 6 Physician’s Formula makeup, groceries at half-​off or more, dog treats, toilet paper, and much more.
The bad:
Sometimes stuff is past the expiration date. Note: WAY past the expiration date. I found some stuff that expired in 2009. Avoid that stuff unless you are trying to pull a ‘Shad-​yogurt’ scheme a-​la Striptease.
The skinny:
Fun people, good prices, enough soda to make Mayor Bloomberg have a stroke.

Where Dents makes Cents!, Swanson’s has been around for ages. I remember one being on 9^th Street North in St. Pete years ago. This one is situated in Gulfport, Fl. between a fruit and vegetable stand and a McDonald’s. I know that they have some things that are a little over the expiration date, but that’s what they are there for. The last time I was there, I picked up some dress shirts for cheap and they were still packaged in the original packaging. I picked up a couple of blu-​ray DVDs and standard DVDs for the whopping price of 2 for 5. They have a large selection of Tea, Coffee, and soft drinks. The store has a vast selection of foods, medicines, cleaning supplies, shaving, and other things you would find at a regular convience store for lower than you expect. Worth the visit, even if you just browse.

It’s been proven WITH SCIENCE that people need food in order to live. Yet it’s not as simple as all that – once we establish this basic set of principles, our specific choices about how much we’re willing to shell out to absorb a minimum caloric intake say a lot about us. In fact, it’s almost like a modern caste system:
1. The Priest Caste: you don’t sully your dainty little fingers with such mundane tasks as «shopping» for so-​called «groceries” – you’ve got a well-​trained manservant with an inoffensive accent to acquire stuff for you, and a battalion of chefs to prepare everything for you.
2. The Warrior Caste: you do, in fact, go out shopping yourself (in your gleaming SUV), but you only visit Whole Foods, the Fresh Market, and occasionally Trader Joe’s, though all you buy there are weird little snacks.
3. The Merchant Caste: you shop at the Publix, the Kroger, the Fred Meyer, the Wal-​Mart (what is wrong with you?), the Costco, all of the «branded» neighborhood grocery stores that you find everywhere. You clip coupons and watch for the come-​hither fluorescent orange of the discount tag.
4. The Worker Caste: you shop at the «unbranded» grocery stores, the seedy underbelly of the retail world. Aldi, Save-​A-​Lot, maybe the dollar store on a bad day. You are accustomed to bagging your own groceries and perhaps renting your own shopping carts.
5. The Untouchables: you dumpster-​dive or forage or eat stuff that you find lying around on the street.
The scratch-​and-​dent grocery is an interesting animal because it hovers right on the border of the two lowest castes. There is no cheaper place to shop anywhere. ANYWHERE. But you pay a terrible price for this frugality: you must surrender your shopping list to the god of whimsy and chance (I call him Gamblor).
Swanson’s is a good example of this. Swanson’s doesn’t care if you’re in desperate need of spaghetti sauce or toilet paper or pomegranate duck or whatever it is that you require. Swanson’s is just going to have whatever they please at any given moment. And the smart money is on you not being able to find what you want.
But, if you give up to Gamblor, the world is your oyster, and Swanson’s is your… oyster-​shucking tool? And oh, the wonders you’ll find if you’re willing to be controlled by your grocery store rather than the other way around. I bought a gallon of olives there one time for $ 5. You can bet I didn’t go in there thinking «geez, I *really* need a gallon of olives.» Another time, three pounds of macadamia nuts (in scary anonymous packaging) for $ 2 a pound.
In conclusion, bow to the will of the gods. Shop at Swanson’s. Eat olive salad for a month straight. You know you want to.

This place is a really small scratch n’ dent store, but has KILLER deals. I go for the bagged coffee (they often have Caribou — my favorite roaster).
I also like to stop by before I do my main shopping at Publix, and will sometimes cross many items off my list at ¹⁄₃ the price. They have a large selection of canned goods obviously.
The staff is always super friendly, and you never know what odds & ends they will have on sale. Yesterday I bought a Chicago Bears t-​shirt for 1 dollar.
Nice little Gulfport nook!