Shopping Gluten Free at Winco Foods (Utah)

The boy and I grew up in Boise. There's a fantastic regional grocery chain there called Winco Foods. It's employee-owned. We shopped there when I was young.

Two new locations of Winco here in Utah opened in the last month or so. I thought I would head over to one of the locations and explore gluten free shopping there. I was not disappointed.

I know that I live in probably the most expensive grocery area in the Salt Lake Valley - Sugarhouse. It may be a toss-up between here and the Avenues. And at the local Smiths, because they track purchases, certain foods never go on sale, even if there is a sale shown in the store circular. For instance, Chex cereal. Often, the circular will show it for about $2.49. When you get to the store, it's still $3.20, except they've put a yellow tag on it so that it looks like a great price! Nope. Same price. And they know that hunger youngish people in my neighborhood will buy cereal, no matter the price.

Well, Winco was worth the drive for me. I headed over to the store at 5600 West and 2600 South.

Here's a few price comparisons:

Lundberg Risotto
Smiths $2.99 on sale, usually $3.49
Winco $2.22

Stagg Chili
Smiths $2.39
Winco $1.38

Pacific Natural Foods Tomato Soup
Harmons $3.49
Winco $2.59

Chex Cereal
Harmons $3.49
Smiths $3.20
Winco $2.00!! (This was a sale, but I can guarantee that the regular price is lower than Smiths)

Cool Ranch Doritos
Harmons $2.99
Winco $1.99

Yoplait Yogurt
Smiths $0.60 on sale
Winco $0.48

Before it looks like I'm turning into one of those blogs that tells you about the coupons you should use that week, I'll give you the run-down of what you can buy there that's gluten free.

• foods from Blue Chip Group
• a small selection of Bob's Red Mill flours (only about 3 varieties)
• Gorilla Munch/Envirokids cereals
• a large variety of Asian (including your favorite pad thai, curry mixes, and pad thai) and Mexican ethnic foods (taco shells, corn tortillas, salsas)
• a selection of protein/health bars, many of which were gluten free
  

Things I could not find that I looked for:

• any type of gluten free cracker
• a specific section set aside for gluten free foods
• a freezer section for gluten free foods
• Betty Crocker gluten free baking mixes
• other baking mixes (for breads, cookies, cakes)
• packaged cookies
  

WinCo Foods # 73
7020 S. 700 W.
Midvale, UT 84047

WinCo Foods #75
2572 S. 5600 W.
West Valley, UT 84120