Many grocery stores have a salad bar where you'll find lettuce, chopped fresh fruits and veggies, sunflower seeds and lots of non-vegan stuff such as cheese, chopped boiled eggs, and bacon bits. Most of these salad bars charge by the pound for your salad.
I've noticed at the (already overpriced) grocery store I work at, some of the veggies in the produce department are more expensive per pound than their salad bar counterparts. For example, bulk baby spinach in the produce department is $6.99 per pound. The salad bar is $4.99 per pound and has plenty of baby spinach. I also noticed that fruit salad in the chef's case is $6.99 per pound, while the $4.99 salad bar has the EXACT SAME fruit salad you could get for $2 less per pound.
More average grocery stores probably charge less than $4.99 per pound at their salad bar. It's definitely worth investigating, especially if you can find already chopped veggies for less than or the same price as unchopped veggies from the produce aisle, because then you same time as well as money. But like everything, don't automatically assume that the salad bar is instantly cheaper than the produce aisle. Bring your calculator or write prices down and compare, then decide what to buy and where.
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