Living on a Budget: Sav-Mor Sidewalk Box Sale

Sav Mor has been doing their Box Sale for several years now.  They will occasionally offer additional discounts as well.   For example, at the last sale you could get a case of Tortilla Chips for $2.00 which meant you were getting the chips for 25 cents per bag.  The above picture is from one our are recent trips to their sale (further description of what all is in the picture is given at the end of the post after the information section).

More information about the Box Sale for those in the Greenville / Upstate Area:

• What is it? Sav Mor does a Sidewalk Box Sale every couple of weeks where you can purchase a box full of food, health, household, baby items for a set price.  The parking lot beside Sav Mor has rows of banana boxes filled with overstock, dented, expired, or unwanted items from local grocery stores (Ingles, Whole Foods, Bi-Lo, and more) in the Greenville area.
• Where is it located / Contact Information? The parking lot at Sav-Mor, 2117 Wade Hampton Blvd, Greenville, SC 29615.  Phone:  864-244-6128
• How Does It Work?

1. The day of the sale customers pick which aisle they want to go down (based on what you need, for example, if you need cereal you choose an aisle that has a lot of cereal boxes in it) and everyone lines up around the perimeter of the banana boxes.  It is good to ask the person (or people) in front of you which box they are going for prior to starting to avoid going after the exact same box.  A lot of the boxes within that aisle will contain similar items.
2. Approximately 5 to 10 minutes before the sale “starts” a Sav-Mor representative will Welcome everyone, explain the rules, tell about any extra deals (for example, the case of chips for $2.00) followed by the store manager announcing a few of the current deals they offer at their store.
3. Right at 9:00 AM they will blow the horn and / or say “GO” and you go as quickly as you can and fill up your banana box with as much food, health, household, and baby items that you can find.  You can fill as many boxes as you want (we typically consolidate down to 2 boxes at $7 each).  Your boxes must be level prior to paying, I have heard that they will stop you if it is too full although we have never had them stop us so I guess we are what they consider to be level (a potato chip bag may be sticking up a little bit, you should be able to get plenty in the box)
4. They will have a different variety of groceries and other items each time.  It is common to see Cereals, Crackers, Pasta, Can Goods, Baby Items, Salad Dressing, Sauces, Gravies, etc… every time.
5. You can fill your banana box a couple different ways.  Some people take an empty banana box and fill it with the items they want.  What has worked for us in the past is to grab an already packed banana box, pull it to the side and once we have found 3 or 4 boxes that have items that we want in them we’ll go through the boxes and consolidate the 3 to 4 boxes down to 1 or 2.  The items that you don’t want you put back into the middle and someone else can come take them for their box.  (For example, we had visitors coming and we wanted to get some snacks and juice boxes, Jake grabbed a box that looked like it was full of juice boxes, however, underneath the top layer of juice boxes was kitty litter which wasn’t something we need.)
6. Once you have sorted, consolidated, and packed your box you can check out.  They will have shopping carts for you to use or you can carry the boxes (we just carry them).  You pay the store representative cash as you walk out of the area and to your car.

• When Is It? The Box Sale is typically every other Saturday morning at 9:00 AM.  Call to confirm the week of to make sure they are doing it that week, they will know by Wednesday and can confirm.  Although, it starts at 9:00 AM you will want to arrive early because you will have the opportunity to pick which aisle you want to go down.  If you arrive late and the horn has already blown it will be a lot harder to get a great deal or there may not be much left.  The entire sale is over in less then 30 minutes.
• How Much Does It Cost? The banana boxes are provided and each full box is $7.00.  Note – they take cash or check only!
• Useful Information! You have to watch some of the items as they may be expired or close to expiring.  The items come from local stores who have overstock or for whatever reason no longer want the items.  Although a couple items we picked up this week were already expire, a few were expiring later in 2011 but the majority of the items were not expiring until 2012 to 2013 or later.  A few items every time in the rush get opened or broken so make sure to check the items before packing them into your box.
• Tip On Packing Your Box: We typically get the items we are looking for then check for smaller items to squeeze in between the cracks.  For example, one time we got can goods, pasta, cereal, and snacks in a box.  Once we filled it with the regular stuff we stuck packs of gum, gravy / sauce packs around the edges and in the small spaces (I think we ended up with about 100 packs of gum which we distributed among our family and friends).
• Team Work: We often go as a family because it helps to have someone watching the boxes while you are gathering the items.  Thankfully we have never (or at least not to my knowledge) had someone take items from our boxes but an honest mistake can happen with that many people trying to get their items at the same time.
• Additional Information: It is outside so dress appropriately for the weather.  If it looks like rain they may cancel or start the event early, if you are driving a distance make sure to call the store to confirm.  Be polite, it is only food and not worth fighting over.  We have always had a pleasant experience but I know some people can get a little “pushy” so be respectful.
• Is It Worth It?  How Much Do I Save? We typically get between $100 to $300 worth of items into each box, some days you get more others you get less.  For example, one time we got a half a box full of vitamins (ranging from $5 to $20 a piece).   Bigger items will take up more space, but if it is something you will use it may be worth it for your family.

Below is more details about the recent Box Sale.  You can see the specific items from the picture at the beginning of the post:

We bought 107 items and paid $16.00 total which means we spent less than $0.15 per item (see the picture at the beginning of the article)!!!  You can often get some excellent deals at Sav Mor’s Box Sale.  I was hoping to stock up on snack items for our family since I will be traveling a little I wanted to make sure there were plenty of easy snacks to take as well as  meals that could be made quickly for our family.  Our dining table was full once we unpacked the boxes!  We even got some Organic / Whole Wheat food items for the family.  We purchased two boxes at $7.00 each and the case of chips was $2.00 giving us our total of $16.00.  Here is what we got on Saturday:

• 8 Bags – 18 oz Laura Lynn Restaurant Style Tortilla Chips (they sold these for $2.00 per case, we got 1 case)
• 4 – 4 packs Vermont Organic Strawberry Banana Applesauce
• 1 – 25 count Milkshake Straws
• 1 – 4 oz Kettle Baked Potato Chips – BBQ Flavor
• 2 – 26.5 oz Hunts Pasta Sauce
• 1 – 14.5 oz Sliced Potatoes
• 1 – 64 oz Laura Lynn Fruit Punch Juice
• 1 – 3.5 oz Quaker Vanilla Creme Brulee Rice Snacks (Whole Wheat)
• 2 – Annies Organic Alfredo Shells & Cheddar
• 1 – 4 pack Gerber Yogurt Blends
• 2 – Roasted Chicken Gravy Packs
• 1 – Roasted Turkey Gravy Pack
• 6 – Simply Organic Alfredo Packs
• 2 – Molly McButter Fat Free Natural Sprinkles
• 2 – Laura Lynn Woven Wheats
• 6 – Hamburger Helper Lasagna
• 6 – Brach’s Candy Hearts
• 1 – Pasta Roni Chicken
• 2 – Mrs. Fields Rainbow Chocolate Chip Packages
• 2 – Mrs. Fields Snickerdoodle Packages
• 1 – 15.4 oz General Mills Total Cinnamon Crunch
• 3 – 15.25 oz General Mills Total Blueberry Pomegranate
• 1 – 16 pack Betty Crocker Fruit Shapes, Gushers, Rollups, By the Foot, Fruit Stickerz
• 3 – Betty Crocker Fruit Rollups
• 4 – Betty Crocker Fruit Stackerz
• 1 – 10.5 oz Kraft Marshmallows (4 flavors)
• 1 – 8 pack Chi-Chi’s Flour Tortilla’s
• 8 – Land O’ Lakes Caramel Hot Chocolate Packs
• 1 – 9 oz Annie’s Natural Organic Dijon Mustard
• 2 – 10 packs Propel Raspberry Lemonade
• 13 – 4 packs Starkist Chunk Light Tuna (the sticker on the packages read $4.98 each and they didn’t expire until 2012, so that is a huge savings – it would normally cost us $64.74 to buy them)
• 4 – 6 packs Quakers Simple Harvest Dark Chocolate Chunk (the sticker on the packages read $3.28 each – it would normally cost us $13.12 to buy them)
• 5 – 6 packs Quakers Simple Harvest Trail Mix (the sticker on the packages read $3.28 each – it would normally cost us $16.40 to buy them)
• 1 – Carr’s Whole Wheat Crackers
• 1 – 8 pack Ocean Spray Oatmeal with Cranberries
• 2 – Nutritious Living Hi-Lo with Strawberries
• 3 – 14 oz Captain Crunch Peanut Butter Crunch
• 1 – 16 oz Captain Crunch

Here are some additional pictures from our last stock up day!

 

 

 

We are excited to have our pantry restocked.  Thankfully, we will be able to utilize these items for quite some time plus share a little with family and friends.  Our family typically goes to the Sidewalk Box Sales about once a quarter.  Although I do know some families that go more regularly.  Happy Bargain Hunting and Saving!