You were expecting it to be cheap alcohol, weren't you? Shame on you.

No, the siren song of Moscow cuts right to the basic instincts of college students: cheap food at WinCo.

Whether braving the crowds on the weekends or navigating around stocking piles at midnight, WinCo is invariably an adventure with miserly satisfaction waiting at the checkout lane.

Bins and bins of pasta, pancake mix, sour gummy worms and chocolate. If you’ve ever wanted to buy imitation bacon bits in bulk, WinCo is the place to go. They go through about 50 pounds a week, bulk food manager Kevin McDonnough said. About 100 pounds of oats go out every day.

But how do they keep prices so cheap?

“We just know how to buy,” store manager Dorothy Waddoups said. “It’s how we do our purchasing and distribution.” To save money, the private company doesn’t advertise or bother with specialty items. Food comes by the truckload instead of by the case.

“You see no fancy decorations, no fancy floors,” Waddoups said. “We’re here to sell groceries. Period.”