Administrative & Professional
Jorgensen Brooks Group
Counselor Sales and Marketing
Everready Glass
Sales Reps Health Care
Dependable Health Services
Physical Therapists Health Care
CENTRAL ARIZONA COLLEGE
DIRECTOR OF HEALTH INFORMATION MANAGEMENT Mechanical
Komatsu Equipment Co
Resident Field Mechanic Finance and Accounting
Charles E. Gillman Company
Accounting Specialist Health Care
Sierra Tucson
Eating Disorders Program Coordinator

When the Star ran its annual grocery survey two weeks ago, some complained that our rankings were unfair because four items were not available in the same size at all the stores surveyed.

For another grocery-basket item, we substituted boneless, skinless chicken thighs at Food City for boneless, skinless chicken breasts.

We did not adjust the prices on a per-unit or per-weight basis for two reasons:

● When you go into a store looking for a certain size item, if that size is not available, you generally buy the nearest-available size.

● Packages of differing sizes have different per-unit prices. But we understood the criticism. So we went back and re-ranked the supermarkets by pricing those four items — dog food, diapers, cereal and coffee — on a per-weight or per-unit basis. The rankings of the seven supermarkets did not change when considering regular prices.

However, they did change when including sale prices, such as those available to holders of store-loyalty cards. Safeway, which ranked last under the initial method, moves up two ranks to fifth place under the new method of ranking. That's because two of the items on our shopping list — dog food and diapers — came in larger sizes at Safeway, and because we made an error in our sale-price calculations that inflated Safeway's total by $9.70.

Safeway's move up pushed Food City and Bashas' down one place each on that list, to sixth and seventh.

1. Wal-Mart Supercenter $111.96

2. Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market $112.62

3. Albertsons $122.50

4. Fry's $127.98

5. Safeway $130.11

6. Food City $135.43

7. Bashas' $138.76

And here are the rankings with only regular prices:

1. Wal-Mart Supercenter $111.96

2. Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market $112.62

3. Food City $140.23

4. Albertsons $148.08

5. Fry's $151.39

6. Bashas' $152.75

7. Safeway $154.92