Stop Overpaying For This Wegmans Bakery Item: It's Cheaper In The Back Of The Store

It's not for nothing that the in-house chocolate chip cookies at Wegmans rank among its best bakery items, hands down. A pillowy, gooey, indulgent chocolate chip cookie is a nearly universal pleasure that grocery shoppers of all ages tend to love. Sure, you could whip up your own at home, but there are a ton of potential mistakes that could stand between you and the chocolate chip cookies of your dreams. But does a passion for excellent cookies justify dropping 15 bucks for a bucket of goodies, however? In our book, no — because there's a better option: Wegmans mini chocolate chippers for nearly a third of the price. All you have to do is walk to the back of the store.

Wegmans tends to position its spendy Ultimate Chocolate Chip cookie bucket display near the front of the store. This isn't an accident, as one self-professed Wegmans employee pointed out on Reddit a few years back: "We stage them in the front because there's enough customers in the clientele that can afford it with ease. Head to the back and you'll find a Family Pack of soft baked mini chocolate chip cookies. There's like 60 little cookies for $5.50."

Even today, you are definitely getting hosed buying Wegmans' premium packs of cookies. Its $15 chocolate chip cookie bucket comes out to 88 cents per ounce, which is only slightly better than the 93 cents per ounce for its cookies by the pound. The mini chocolate chip cookies, however, clock in at just 36 cents per ounce for a $5 box (as of this writing). For money-saving on delicious treats at this chain, there's no competition.

Comparing the Ultimate Chocolate Chip cookies in the bucket to the mini chocolate chip cookies, one sees mostly the same ingredients, but in a different order — which indicates different ratios. Chocolate is the primary ingredient in the big cookies, while it ranks second on the smaller ones. Vegetable shortening ranks high on the minis, while natural ingredients like butter, sugar, and eggs have a place of precedence in the bucket cookies. This suggests the bucket of cookies is a more premium product, but we find it hard to justify a price that nearly trebles the cost of the minis. A good cookie is a good cookie, and Wegmans generally turns out great bakery items (with the exception of a bakery bagel that shoppers have largely given up on).

Unless cost is literally no issue, we can't justify paying $15 for 15 cookies. At a buck apiece, there's almost never an excuse not to bake cookies yourself. For a tempting treat after a grocery run, the mini cookies for $5 are a great substitute that will hit the spot with your cup of coffee or your kids' chocolate milk. If the Redditor account is true, Wegmans is counting on monied impulse buyers to pick up the overpriced cookie bucket rather than venturing further into the store for a better deal. Now that you know the lowdown on the cookies, you can save yourself from a bad bargain, even if the cookies are delish.