That sounds like how Star Market does things: everything is overpriced by a dollar compared to normal grocery stores (which unfortunately are a thirty minute drive from me), but they have rotating “sales” that are $1.00 off. I absolutely hate the store, because they aren’t fooling me, just overcharging me and then claiming I “saved” money.

I think this is how all Alberstons-owned stores work, because I’ve seen it an Randall’s and other places, but until now could avoid shopping there. I always wondered why Walmart said “everyday low prices”, because isn’t that normal? Well, apparently not.

The worst example of that I know of is Kohl's - everything there is insanely overpriced, but there is almost always a combination of sales, coupons, and sacrificial goats that gets you to normal or below normal pricing.

JC Penny famously tried to get out of that and it almost killed them: https://www.forbes.com/sites/panosmourdoukoutas/2017/02/24/a...

Walmart (and Costco, and Trader Joe's, and a few others) are so large that instead of making you dance around with coupons and such, they just tell the company to give them a discount and pass it on to the customer. An item at another store that needs a store app, coupon, etc, will just be dropped the same price at Walmart I've noticed.

(I hate the Kohl's style, as even when I stack coupons and get to 75% off on clearance, I still feel I missed something and got cheated. But apparently lots of shoppers really love that kind of "bargain hunt".)