BY: NATHAN DONNELLY, FEATURES WRITER
A college student in Olean has six stores within a 20-minute drive. Where does this money go furthest?
This reporter visited every option. Tops Markets, Olean Food Barn, ALDI, Walmart, BJ’s Wholesale and Giant Food Mart in Cuba, N.Y., nineteen minutes northeast. The same 14 items were cross checked with their prices at each location. Items included chicken breasts, 90/10 beef, eggs, fat free milk gallon, bread, penne pasta, white rice, mild cheddar cheese, case of water, laundry detergent, dish soap, all-purpose cleaner, paper towels and toilet paper.
No single store wins everything, but some lose badly enough to matter. Most students never think about it.
James Derrick, 22, shops at Walmart by default. “I know a lot of students shop at Walmart, and many others shop at ALDI, too,” he said. “I really just followed suit.”
Gavin Watson, 21, took a different path. Living off campus without a meal plan, he landed at ALDI after actually doing the math. “I thought I’ve done a rather good job of finding the best prices for what I’m looking for,” he said.
Both students landed in the right places, just for different reasons.
ALDI wins on staples. Bread costs $1.45. Pasta runs $0.98 a box. Laundry detergent covers 64 loads for $5.19. The catch? Nearly everything carries an ALDI store brand and selection stays limited. For a student who shops with a list and skips the brand loyalty, ALDI wins most weeks. Free curbside pickup makes it even easier for students with a car.
Walmart sits just behind. Mild shredded cheddar cheese costs $1.97 for eight ounces, cheapest anywhere. Rice runs $1.77 for two pounds. Penne matches ALDI at $0.98.
Sean Stephenson, 37, a Walmart regular, put it plainly: “I shop here mostly because I know where everything is,” he said. “Convienence factor, I can get almost anything here, and for a decent enough price.”
No membership, no card, open late, curbside pickup available. A walking path connects the plaza directly to campus, making Walmart the most accessible store on this list for students without a car.
Tops Markets carries the most familiar name in Olean. It also charges the highest prices on the items that matter most. Ground beef runs $8.99 a pound, the most expensive of any store. Eggs cost $2.09 a dozen, more than double what ALDI and Giant Food Mart charge. The free Tops card unlocks buy-one-get-one deals on produce and baked goods, which can shift the math for a student buying weekly. Without it, Tops will put students in the red.
Olean Food Barn deserves more credit than it gets. Chicken breast runs $2.29 a pound, matching ALDI for cheapest anywhere. Its Best Yet store brand keeps prices competitive across most categories. Robert Kapanowicz, 68 has shopped there for years. “Theyre so nice,” he said. “The bakery specifically has a great selection.” Food Barn lacks the scale of Walmart and the rock-bottom prices of ALDI, but it earns its keep.
BJ’s Wholesale requires a membership, but at $20 a year, less than $2 a month, the barrier nearly disappears. Those who commit find real value. Laundry detergent runs $0.12 per load, cheapest anywhere by a wide margin. Water costs $0.10 a bottle. Milk goes for $2.87 a gallon, the lowest price found at any store. BJ’s sits in the same plaza as Walmart, accessible by the same walking path from campus. Students splitting a membership with roommates will recover the cost from a single trip.
Then there is Giant Food Mart in Cuba, nineteen minutes northeast. About $3.30 in gas round trip for an average sedan. That drive costs almost nothing compared to what Giant offers: premium meat packages that reshape the entire budget conversation. The Butcher’s Bundle starts at $129 and includes six cuts of the customer’s choice, plus a free $10 gift card. Orders require pickup in store, so plan the trip accordingly.
At Tops, eight pounds of chicken breast alone costs nearly $32. One trip to Giant, a chest freezer, and a meal plan built around bulk protein, saves a student $30 to $50 compared to buying meat locally every week.
Lydia Lyles, 54, a Cuba resident and Giant regular, said she is not sure why more students don’t make the drive. “I believe they have good deals that students could really take advantage of,” she said.
No store wins alone. The students who spend the least combine them. ALDI or Walmart for weekly staples, both a walk from campus. Giant in Cuba once a month for the meat haul. A Tops card ready for the weeks the deals line up. Food Barn when the price of chicken is right.
The area surrounding school gives students options. Most just never look.
