Consider salvage grocery stores the "thrift stores" of food and specialty grocery items. It is my understanding that standard grocers such as supermarkets and pharmacies send their promotional items, purchase dated foods, dented and ripped and torn packaged products, cards, books, toys, coffee and other foods that need to be moved quickly get shipped to salvage stores for final resale. Items at salvage can be purchased at a significant discount

I loved shopping at my salvage store (it has since moved). Dented cans are fine, so are boxes that are ripped and re-taped as long as the product is bagged also, such as cereal products. Most items that have a "sell by" date do not necessarily expire by that date and can be used afterward; the sell by date is for product freshness guarantees. There are exceptions to this and one has to find by trial and error which are best after the sell by date. Specialty items and promotional items, such as holiday candy or candy promoting, say, a movie, are awesome purchases in this regard and you can save a lot of money on some great stock-up treats. Matches purchased at salvage worked perfectly fine, toys were much loved by the kids who didn't mind that the package may have been re-taped. Cookies were hit or miss, usually hit. Specialty items such as expensive salsa, reg. 4.99 for fire roasted, were only .99 at salvage; I stocked up to the hilt. I drew the line at cake mix and pasta, the savings of which were negligable at salvage.

If you cruise the salvage isles very carefully, you will delight in items such as premium biscotti or deluxe assortments that you normally would pass by at regular supermarkets due to high cost. These are the treasures of salvage.

You can google "salvage grocery" or "salvage stores" with your city and those in your area should display without any difficulty. I find I get the most results with "Salvage" and then city name. Some of these may be automotive and metal salvage, so look for grocers or discount centers.

A caveat: Caution when buying cereal or any cardboard covered product and boxes. Roaches love the glue on these items and do find there way into these stores and these items. Carefully inspect any product with cardboard--all items, really-- you don't want any insect stowaways hitching a ride home with you.