Mid-Michigan Dining

• 3222 S. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
• Lansing, MI 48910
• (517) 394-0396
• Website

The Save-A-Lot store on Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. in Lansing.

We moved to Lansing about five months ago and in that time, I’ve never really gone down Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.  Today, I needed to run to the Walgreens out that way, so I decided to drive around a little and check it out.  Usually, I go to the Walgreens on the corner of Jolly and Cedar, but they were having problems with their photo equipment.  I also needed to make a quick grocery store run to get a few things for dinner.  As I was leaving the parking lot of the Walgreens on MLK, I noticed the Save-A-Lot across the street.

I’ve never really been in a Save-A-Lot, so I didn’t know what to expect.  The only store in my old town was near a college, so I avoided it.  Today’s adventure is the first time I went in to shop.  The store is set up a lot like Aldi’s.  All the products are shipped in custom cartons that allow them to be product displays.  There’s not a whole lot of people stocking shelves.  They stores are also much smaller than most grocery stores.  The selection isn’t quite as big either.  There’s pretty much only one option for each product and there’s not a whole lot of sizes.  This is how they claim they can save you up to 40% on your grocery bill.

My trip was really quick. I just needed some fresh spinach and some pasta sauce.  I found the fresh spinach in the small produce section.  It was a name brand bag that I’ve bought at Kroger before.  I then went looking for the pasta sauce.  It took me a few minutes to find it at the end of an aisle in a box that wasn’t labled all that well.  In this instance, the only choice was a store brand, but I put enough extra stuff in it, it shouldn’t matter.  I just need a base sauce because I’m lazy and don’t really like making my own.  I have and do, just not everytime I make pasta.

Check out is also pretty similar to Aldi’s.  They don’t bag your items, they put them back in the cart and you bag your own.  If you forget bags, there are boxes in the bagging area or you can buy plastic bags from them.  I just had three things, so I didn’t find it necessary to deal with bagging.  I just grabbed my three items (I also got a Pepsi) out of the cart and left.  Unlike Aldi’s, Save-A-Lot does take credit cards which helps.

I was a little unimpressed with my first visit to Save-A-Lot.  It was fine, but not something I’d do all the time.  It’s a little better than Aldi’s in that they offer name brand products, but it’s basically the same thing.  I got what I needed and only paid $3.50 for all of it which is a good thing, but the shopping experience wasn’t something I’m going to crave in the future.