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Grocery Outlet: Aisles of surprise, sauce and sweet deals

Published 8:00 am Tuesday, February 24, 2026

The Sundem family outside of their Grocery Outlet Bargain Market store on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
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The Sundem family outside of their Grocery Outlet Bargain Market store on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
The Sundem family outside of their Grocery Outlet Claremont store on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Jerusha Sundem holds her son Micaiah, 1, while her son Elias, 3, talks about his favorite store aisle inside the family’s Grocery Outlet store on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Two price signs show the Grocery Outlet price for the item and the price for the same item “Elsewhere” on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Art Chavez of Everett picks out a selection of pasta from an aisle inside the Grocery Outlet on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Customers browse the produce section inside the Grocery Outlet on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Elias Sundem, 3, organizes a shelf inside the Grocery Outlet on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
A selection of wine and chocolate inside the Grocery Outlet on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
Spencer Sundem organizes a shelf with the help of his son Elias, 3, inside the Grocery Outlet on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)
A sign and photo of the Sundems hangs above the main door inside the Grocery Outlet on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026 in Everett, Washington. (Olivia Vanni / The Herald)

EVERETT — I went in for milk.

I walked out with vegan cheese, Oreo cake mix, sauerkraut, six pounds of Ore-Ida crinkle fries, dill pickle corn puffs and three mysterious sauces.

All for less than $20, including the milk.

What’s up with that?

Grocery Outlet is a treasure hunt with a cart. It’s cult shopping — friendly, sacred and devoted to the deal.

Forget a grocery list. Shop with an open mind. Let your palate wander into an alternate universe. A bag of banana bread shaped like bananas. Bacon made from carrots. A frozen Dolly Parton Decadent Chocolate Pie for $3.99.

If you don’t buy it, you’ll regret it.

The rule is simple: If you like it, buy two. Or 20, like my friend Janice, who hoards crunchy Japanese peanut snacks at 33 cents a pack.

Name-brand finds come from closeouts and overstocks. Then comes the price twist: the shelf tag with two numbers.

Kellogg’s chocolate donut hole cereal, 99 cents. Elsewhere: $6.99. A 12-pack of A&W ice cream sundae soda, $2.99. Elsewhere: $11.99.

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Just where is this Elsewhere?

The corporate office of Grocery Outlet makes opportunistic buys from suppliers and sets the “Elsewhere” number, said Spencer Sundem, who owns the Claremont Grocery Outlet, 5209 Evergreen Way, with his wife, Jerusha. They are friends with the owners of the other Everett store, about two miles away at 10115 Evergreen Way.

Franchise owners choose what to order, which is why every store feels a little different.

“We look for those golden nuggets that our customers come and find,” Spencer Sundem said. “The stuff cycles through. You might never see it again.”

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That’s the thrill. And also the heartbreak.

The chain started in California after World War II to unload surplus goods.

“It started as a dented-can store,” Jerusha Sundem said.

Today, more than 540 stores in 16 states carry private-label and healthy products alongside aisles of general merchandise — socks, toys, dishes, pills, plants … and whatever else you didn’t know you needed.

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Stores also support food banks and school-led drives. The Claremont location earned a spot in the 2025 Herald Best of Snohomish County reader poll.

Milk, bread, meat and produce are the mainstays from mainstream sources.

“We get the same deliveries that stock big-box stores,” Jerusha Sundem said.

Eggs were recently 99 cents a dozen in one of those weekly deals that make you love the store even more.

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Art Chavez shops there three times a week at the Sundems’ Everett store. He swears by the store-brand Italian pasta shells, $1.79, in a gourmet package.

“They have rounded corners that hold the sauce and are tasty,” he said.

Chavez never knows what else he will buy.

“They always have something new and different. That’s what’s cool,” he said.

Impulse buying is baked in. Prices are low enough to trigger the thought: Well … might as well. Even if some items are teetering on their expiration dates.

The aisles feel like a swap meet for deal seekers. People eye your finds. “Is that good?” “How much?”

At G.O., as regulars call it, you will meet a chatty stranger. Catch me in the dipping sauce aisle and I’m that chatty stranger.

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Last week, I hovered at an endcap of Tyson frozen breaded chicken breasts stuffed with scallop and lobster, $2.99 for two.

Beside me, a rugged, blue-eyed man in a suede bush hat studied the bounty.

“What do you think?” I asked, skeptically.

He shot back: “Chicken, scallops and lobster. I like all three. How could these not be good?” He tossed a box in his cart. So did I.

Another time, I was at the checkout with a haul that included a two-pack of 2.5 pound bags of Tillamook shredded cheddar for $11.99. I had second thoughts about five pounds of cheese and told the cashier I’d changed my mind.

“I’ll take one!” a guy behind me yelled. He tore off a bag and shoved $6 into my hand.

“I’ve always wanted to do that,” he said.

On the way out, he tried to sell me a hot tub.

While at the Claremont store for this story, a middle-aged man stood in line with a box of ice cream sandwiches balanced on his head. No one blinked.

“I was bored,” he told me.

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Every Grocery Outlet shopper has an origin story. Mine involves marinara. A few years ago, my Whidbey friend Maureen drove me 36 miles from Langley to Oak Harbor on a mystery mission to an “amazing cheap grocery store” where she stockpiles Amy’s Organic Soups.

We pulled up to the red-and-white Grocery Outlet sign with the orange Bargain Market logo.

“Oh,” I said, disappointed. “That place.”

I’d passed the Evergreen Way store many times and heard the singsongy jingle “Gro-cer-y Out-let … Bar-gain Mar-ket!” one too many times.

Inside, I found bargain nirvana: Tempura shrimp, cheaper than Costco. Fifty-cent energy drinks. A truffle marinara, $3.99. Elsewhere: $11.99.

Best. Marinara. Ever.

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Back on the mainland, I hit the Everett store during a 20%-off wine sale. I bought 12 random bottles, Melinda’s Spicy Polynesian sauce and two more jars of the truffle marinara.

I was a G.O. convert.

On my next visit, my beloved marinara was gone.

I learned the rule too late: If you really love it, you’ll never see it again. That marinara was my gateway to G.O. dipping sauce paradise. My son recently counted 14 bottles in our refrigerator. Eleven were expired.

That’s fine. Grocery Outlet trained me for this.

There’s always another trip. Another deal. Another sauce.

Got a story for “What’s Up With That?” Hit me up at reporterbrown@gmail.com or 425-422-7598.