For most students, moving off-campus means ending a two-year dependency on Bon Appétit, and this can be a difficult process. Whether you’re still on a meal plan or you’re fending for yourself, it’s a good idea to know the best and worst of the grocery stores in Walla Walla. To make shopping a little easier, we’ve reviewed three of Walla Walla’s best groceries, including Super 1, Grocery Outlet and Safeway, and included tips on what to look for at each store.

Super 1 Foods
710 S. 9th  Ave.
Open 24 hours daily

Although you need transportation to reach Super 1, the selection and prices are worth the drive away from campus. When you walk in the door, Super 1 greets you with cheap, day-old baked goods near the door, a wall of holiday items on one side and special sale items on the other. Once you move past these temptations, the store offers a consistently low-priced selection of produce and meat, and the bakery section has almost everything you could want. Super 1 has an extensive wine selection and great specialty foods, including vegan, vegetarian, organic and gluten-free foods. Keep your ears open for one-day “blowout” sales that focus on a theme, from wine and cheese to breakfast items. These sales usually fall on a Thursday, and are worth the trip if you can brave the crowds. Super 1 is also one of the few groceries in Walla Walla open 24 hours a day.

What to buy: Produce, blowout sale items, regular sale food like Yogi tea and addictive La Calandria corn chips, made in Milton Freewater, Ore.: sometimes they’re still warm when they get to Super 1.

Grocery Outlet
910 S. 9th  Ave.
Open 8 a.m.- 9 p.m. M-F; 8 a.m.- 8 p.m. Sat.; 9 a.m.- 7 p.m. Sun.

Just down the street from Super 1, the Grocery Outlet can be a frustrating, yet ultimately addicting place to shop. The store is relatively small, with produce, dairy and wine crammed next to each other, giving it the atmosphere of the grocery equivalent of a yard sale. However, these layout issues are all forgiven when you see the prices: the Grocery Outlet buys surplus products from manufactures, and the result is a selection that is always cheap and always changing. The store’s Web site claims that, since its arrival in Walla Walla, it has saved customers almost $30,000: and it’s not hard to believe. When you check out at the Grocery Outlet, your receipt includes the amount of money you’ve saved, so you leave feeling victorious. Because they mainly stock surplus items, shop at the Grocery Outlet first, before moving on to another store to find products unavailable at the Outlet.

What to buy: Whatever you can find! Deals are particularly good in wine, frozen foods and even some organics.

Safeway
215 E. Rose St.
Open 5 a.m.- 1 a.m. daily

As the closest grocery store to campus and the most common chain in the Pacific Northwest, Safeway is likely a familiar place for Whitman students, especially those without transportation. Because of its proximity to campus, Safeway is supreme for late-night sugar cravings or last-minute dinner fixes. The Safeway close to Whitman is on the small side, however, and it lacks a bakery and an organic section, so the overall variety of food is much lower than other markets. When not on sale, items at Safeway are generally more expensive than at larger stores, especially produce. Safeway does, however, offer some great “buy 10 for $10” deals if you have a Safeway card. Just remember that you don’t always have to buy the number on the label to get the sale price: check carefully before buying twenty candy bars or ten tubs of ice cream.

What to buy: Whatever’s on sale, especially items that aren’t often discounted at other stores, like brand-name cereal and Ben and Jerry’s ice cream.