I did a little comparison shopping for something we have been consuming at an alarming clip this weekend.
Stores: -Giant/Peapod -Harris Teeter -Progresso Mercado (Mt. Pleasant St)
Store Brand - $3.49 -$3.69 - NA
Land O'Lakes - $4.69 - $4.89 - $3.49
How can the mainline stores get away with this crap?
What do you pay for yours? Do you think there's a significant quality difference between store brand butter and Land O'Lakes (let's not swerve into high end butters just yet)?

I just bought 1 lb. unsalted (nonorganic) 365 brand butter for $2.69.

Trader Joe's or Costco. Buy in bulk and keep frozen until needed. JMHO.

I do alot of baking, and I used to buy Land O' Lakes, but that got pricey so I've been buying butter from Costco instead. I haven't noticed much of a difference in the baked goods. Costco sells the butter in a pack of four 1-pound boxes for $7-something, if I recall correctly and they haven't raised the price lately.

Costco unsalted for baking and cooking, the nicer stuff is reserved for spreading on baked goods.

I also keep a supply of the Costco butter for basic uses. I've run out now, though, and need to get more.

Trader Joes: 1 pound of unsalted Plugra European style butter ( all the big kitchens in town use this) $3.69 pound; the same butter at Safeway is $4.69 for a half pound.

I buy butter from Jersey cows kept on beautiful green pasture. It is priced according to the season in which it is produced. Spring butter, from milk produced when the cows are eating the fast-growing spring grass with all of its nutrients, goes for about $12/lb, while winter butter, made when the cows are eating the hay the farmer grew the previous summer, is about $7/lb. The rest of the year, it fetches about $9.50/lb.

I'm not a baker, and I use butter mostly for sauteeing vegetables or making sauces, so my consumption is not that great. A pound will last me a couple of weeks.

I buy this butter because of the CLA it contains, which has been shown to help protect against cancer, and my husband and I both have a lot of cancer in our families. I think of it as a nutritional supplement as much as a fat for cooking. And it has a flavor unlike that of any supermarket butter!

Adding to the votes for Costco-today the Kirkland unsalted butter is $1.85/lb.