That’s what you’ll pay to shop at Omega Mart in Las Vegas, but you go for the art, not the artichokes.

Jungle Jim’s in Cincinnati is on this list, as are a number of specialty stores I used to shop in CA. None are local to me, but my Italian neighbor took me downtown on Saturday to visit Galuccis - a fine Italian market. He showed me around and made suggestions, and the cheese/sausage samples alone made the trip worthwhile. We went early to miss the crowds and the guys behind the deli counter were helpful and friendly. Big fun!

Do you shop at any of these places?

Not your average markets.

Wow, some of those are rather wacky!

We have King Kullen, ShopRite and Fairway locally, but only ShopRite currently in Staten Island. Used to have a King Kullen. KK and ShopRite are fine but I didn’t detect what makes them special.

Fairway in Manhattan and Brooklyn is interesting and they DO have an amazing array of olive oils.

Everyone raves about Wegman’s, a family run chain that started in Rochester. They are now in Brooklyn and New Jersey.

Of course, we all know about Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods. WF does carry a lot of obscure local brands of coffee and other foods, which is admirable.

Most ethnic foods are sold in smaller groceries catering to their populations.

Wegman's is fantastic. Just great. I wish it were here. I've been to a few, they are all uniformly high quality.

There's a really good Shop-Rite in Princeton, New Jersey that's terrific. Others, not so much. It seems to vary a lot by location.

Of the ones on the list, I’ve only been to Mitsuwa Marketplace. But only once because of the distance from where I live. Mitsuwa stocks mostly imported Japanese food. The rest of the stores I never heard of.

Here in Chicago, I was disappointed that the Treasure Island grocery store chain went out of business a few years ago. It was a family owned chain grocery store. They stocked lots of products the larger chain stores didn’t have.

I think the worst name ever for a chain grocery store is Piggly Wiggly. What an awful name. They are mostly located in Southern states.

I mostly shop at Aldi’s, farmers markets, one Spanish grocery store, and one middle eastern grocery store. Farmers markets are outdoor markets but they run only from May to October. The two Spanish and middle eastern grocery stores that I go to are both small, clean, and modern. They carry products that the big chain stores don’t have and plenty of Anglos as well shop there too.

quote:

Originally posted by QuirtEvans:
Wegman's is fantastic. Just great. I wish it were here. I've been to a few, they are all uniformly high quality.

There's a really good Shop-Rite in Princeton, New Jersey that's terrific. Others, not so much. It seems to vary a lot by location.

When Rob and I were going to Rochester all the time we went to Wegman’s all the time rather than eating out every meal. It’s a fantastic grocery.

quote:

Originally posted by dolmansaxlil:

When Rob and I were going to Rochester all the time we went to Wegman’s all the time rather than eating out every meal. It’s a fantastic grocery.

Say, Dol, don’t Wegman’s markets require a huge amount of floor space? That could be why we haven’t seen them in NY City (although I heard there were plans for one in Manhattan).

Everything they said about Mitsuwa would accurately describe Uwajimaya. The main store in downtown Seattle is an experience unto itself. Asian grocery. Asian bookstore (Kinokuniya). Asian gift/housewares/cosmetics store (although they’ve downsized that in recent years to make more room for groceries). Huge deli and hot food bar plus food court. The freshest seafood around (Japanese seem to be very fussy about their seafood). It takes up an entire city block. And has an apartment building above it.

The satellite stores are a little smaller. I’ve never been to the one in Portland/Beaverton.

There are a lot of other Asian grocery stores in the area. And a couple Indian ones. They are great for spices.


Haggen has kinda fizzled. They took over Top Foods, a local mid-scale store, and tried to move them way upscale. Nearly all of the Haggen Top Foods stores closed.