@Cripplecreek Good thread!
You're right about cheap dish soap. It isn't worth buying. Dawn and Palmolive are good, and the Palmolive Oxy is about the best, imo.
Grocery stores are regional, and mine are Kroger, Food Lion, and Walmart.
Kroger has good sales; you check their Wednesday ads, right? Their digital coupons are great. Also, if you do the surveys using the website listed on your receipt, you can get an extra 50 fuel points.
I get paper goods, toiletries, cleaners, etc. at Walmart or Target because they're cheaper there.
I buy meat and fish at Kroger or Sam's Club. SC has very good chicken breasts and thick pork chops. I trim, portion out, and freeze. Kroger's produce is excellent. I tried buying both meat and produce at Walmart, and had to return too many spoiled/rotten items.
I rarely go to Food Lion because they tend to be expensive and out of my way.
If you want to save time in the store and avoid backtracking to pick up stuff, write your list according to the store's layout. For instance, when you enter the Kroger I go to most often, first up is bread and natural foods, then produce,
so first on my list is bread, Kashi bars, cukes, broccoli, etc. You can breeze right through.