Need some snacks to fuel your late-night study sessions? We’ll tell you where to get the best prices in the neighborhood.

Wandering around Morningside Heights, trying to find the best deal for your pint of Mint Chip Haagen Dazs is practically a Columbia rite of passage. As college students on tight budgets, no one wants to spend more on their snack foods than is necessary. That’s why today, I’m testing five Morningside Heights grocery stores and drugstores to find the best prices for five college student snack essentials.

I traveled to Morton Williams, Duane Reade, Westside, H-Mart, and CVS to compare the prices for Cool Ranch Doritos, Skinny Pop, Oreos, Honey Nut Cheerios, and Haagen Dazs. Below, I’ve listed my findings and come to some conclusions about each of these stores. Let’s start!

Doritos

Morton Williams: $3.99 (on sale)

Duane Reade: $4.79

Westside: $4.79

H-Mart: Did not have

CVS: $4.79

Best price: Morton Williams

The prices for Doritos were surprisingly uniform across the board. The only store with any deviation was Morton Williams, which had an 80-cent markdown, bringing down the price slightly. I don’t know if Frito-Lay has some kind of deal with these stores to keep it at a standard $4.79, but I found this consistency very interesting.

Skinny Pop

Morton Williams: Missing price sticker

Duane Reade: $4.99

Westside: $3.99

H-Mart: $5.49

CVS: Did not have

Best price: Westside

A bit more range in cost here, but more notably, this is the only instance that Westside won in this price check. In every other item, Westside had among the highest prices of any Morningside Heights store.

Honey Nut Cheerios

Morton Williams: $6.99

Duane Reade: did not have

Westside: $6.99

H-Mart: did not have

CVS: $2.99 (sale)

Best price: CVS

Ok, CVS! I should note that this $2.99 price is a sale that lasts until April 16. However, its regular price is also a winner at $6.29. 

Oreos

Morton Williams: Missing price sticker

Duane Reade: $5.69 (for Double Stuf)

Westside: $7.49

H-Mart: $7.49 

CVS: $6.49 (for Double Stuf)

Best price: Duane Reade

Almost $8 for normal Oreos… we are living in a dystopia. You’re best off getting Double Stuf at Duane Reade. ($5.79 is still unforgivable though.)

Haagen Dazs

Morton Williams: $6.49

Duane Reade: Did not have

Westside: Missing price sticker

H-Mart: Did not have

CVS: $6.59 – $7.59

Best price: Morton Williams

I guess I will begrudgingly award this one to Morton Williams… one of the only two stores at which I was able to price check the ice cream. However, I don’t feel that bad because Morton Williams typically leads the neighborhood on ice cream prices, with its occasional BOGO Haagen Dazs sales.

Miscellaneous observations

Before we wrap up, I still have a few parting thoughts on these neighborhood grocery stores.

Morton Williams: The main inconvenience of shopping at Morton Williams (other than being crammed in the tiny aisles with 20 other drunk college kids) is that so many of the items are missing any kind of price sticker, adding a lot of risk to the shopping trip. However, Morton Williams surprisingly seemed to have the best snack prices in the neighborhood, which contradicted my expectations. It actually led in “Best price,” claiming 2/5 categories.

Duane Reade: This is a hot take, but I actually most enjoy doing snack shopping at Duane Reade. The generic “Nice!” brand here is pretty good, so when I’m here, I stock up on their dark chocolate-covered pretzels. As for the brand-name snacks I checked, their prices were better than average. I also like that the snack aisles typically aren’t too busy here, allowing for optimal browsing. This is my personal favorite, although the snack selection isn’t as good as other stores.

Westside: I couldn’t believe how atrocious the prices were here. I don’t know why I thought Westside had better prices than they did—they were tied for last place in almost every food item I tested. Also, they have a similar problem to Morton Williams in terms of missing price stickers, though not as severe.

H-Mart: I probably could have left H-Mart off of this whole price check, but I’m keeping it just to remind you not to waste your money buying American brand snack foods at H-Mart when you can get them cheaper across the street at CVS. 

CVS: I had never been in this CVS, and I was kind of obsessed with its “cursed suburban drugstore” vibe. Additionally, the snack section was an *experience*. They have half of an entire aisle devoted to just… nuts? They had a lot of random sales going on too, such as the insanely cheap Honey Nut Cheerios. I’ll definitely be coming back here.

Based on my classic American snack food price check experience, I would rank the Morningside Heights grocery stores/drugstores as follows:

Best Priced Snacks In Morningside Heights

1. Morton Williams (if you can overlook the whole missing price sticker issue)
2. Duane Reade
3. CVS
4. Westside
5. H-Mart

Feel free to tell me I’m wrong in the comments, or if you find this series helpful, suggest future topics so I can price check other college student essentials in our neighborhood!

Overpriced Grocery Store via Bwarchives