It's a decades-long debate: what's the best supermarket in Seattle? Is it a low-end one like Safeway or Albertson's, a high-end one like Metropolitan Market or Thriftway, or a speciality/organic one like Trader Joe's or Whole Foods.

We all have our own ideas as to what makes our preferred supermarkets great, but one thing we rarely have is a clear understanding of how cheap or expensive they really are. Ask 100 people on the street which is more expensive, QFC or Whole Foods, and almost everyone will say Whole Foods (or "Whole Paycheck" if they feel strongly about it). There is also great ambiguity as to exactly what a "Club Card" does. Does it lower already low prices, or without one are you paying out the nose?

Over the last two weeks, I've set out to answer these questions and more in a secret shopper special investigation. The rules were as follows:

1. Decide on a representative basket of brand-name goods.
2. Visit one branch of each major supermarket in Seattle, record the prices of said goods, and tally the totals.
3. For each item which has a cheaper/generic substitute in the store, find the lowest price substitute, and tally new totals. This would essentially be your bill if you were as price-conscious as possible when shopping. Substitutes were chosen for things like flour and olive oil, but not for things like wine because generic wine isn't a close enough substitute to the original item.
4. Perform steps 2 and 3 both with and without Club Cards if the supermarket had a Club Card program.
5. For the two stores which contained almost none of the name brands (Trader Joes and Whole Foods), simply create the closest basket possible with substitute brands, and tally the totals.