Supermarkets

[fan-of-fans]

What supermarkets are in your area, and which do you go to?

In my town, we have two Publix stores, Aldi, Walmart, 2 Winn Dixie stores, and Save A Lot.

I’d say I mostly shop at Walmart, as it tends to be cheaper. I usually get milk and frozen goods there and sometimes produce.

I used to go to Publix pretty frequently, but I haven’t been going as often lately. It’s just gotten so expensive, and both locations are very busy with traffic that I get anxious. I also don’t think their customer service is a good as it used to be. I like their bakery and deli foods the most. Mostly I just go for the buy one get ones and their generic sodas. The one nearest my house is fairly new, and replaced a much older one that originally opened in the 60s. The other location is a former Albertsons, which left Florida. I can’t say I’ve really had any issues other than they’re just so crowded sometimes.

I’ve been to Aldi a few times, but honestly wasn’t that impressed with it. I tried their generic granola bars Av didn’t like them. Some of the generic stuff too wasn’t impressive once I opened the box. I guess you get what you pay for. I might try them again for produce, which I heard was good there.

I’ve been going to Winn Dixie more often lately for some items if I happen to go to Goodwill, since there is one next door. It’s an older store big remodeled nicely, is clean, the cashiers are very nice, and it’s usually not too crowded. I buy produce there sometimes, and it seems to stay fresher than what I get at Walmart. Some items I won’t buy there because the pricing can be high, but with the sales it tends to be cheaper than Publix on some items.

A lot of the Winn Dixie locations are being closed and converted to Aldi/extra retail tenant space, I haven’t seen any signs of that with the ones here yet. That particular one is across from an Aldi already, so I don’t see me it becoming one, but who knows.

I’ve walked in Save a Lot once or twice, but I’ve never bought anything there.

Other than that, once in a while I go to one of the Dollar Generals near my house if I need something on the way home from work, but I haven’t been doing so as often.

 

[parunner58]

We have the same stores up here in Davenport/Haines City area. Plus our Target has a small grocery area. I wish they would make it a Super Target. We shop mainly at Publix, as I hate Walmart, especially the one in Haines City. When we first moved here, they allowed the 55+ community next to them drive their golf carts in the parking lot, people were getting run over a lot and they never watched when they were driving around in the lot. I believe they are banned now. Another thing after working minutes doing my self-checkout my cards never worked there. And taking my friend there, his didn't work either for his order. this happened at the one in Kissimmee also. What Florida needs is Wegman's to move into the state. I worked for them for almost 5 years after I Retired the first time from Crayola. Left when I moved down here. They are as far south now as there are 3 Stores in the Carolina's.

 

[justjunque]

I'm almost sorry to say, we do probably the majority of our grocery shopping at Walmart.
But, for our local, northeast based stores, we have Big Y, and Stop & Shop. We do go to both of them.
Sometimes, it's just a matter of being able to find a particular item at one, that you can't find at the others.
When we used to visit Florida, (Orlando) we found that there was a fairly new (at the time) Publix just up the road from our hotel. Because we enjoy grocery shopping, we went there a few times. Huge, impressive store. I still have a clear glass cereal bowl that we bought there, that I call my Florida bowl.
Then, we discovered a Winn Dixie just up the road in the other direction, and went there once or twice. That was a smaller, older store, and more outside the "touristy" area of Orlando.

 

[fan-of-fans]

I do wish we could have another traditional grocery store in Florida, but it seems like nobody has ever been an able to really compete with Publix. I have been to a Whole Foods store once in Sarasota that was quite nice, but they aren’t in many places plus they’re expensive. There are Trader Joe’s also but again no presence here.

I remember we used to have Food Lion, they didn’t seem to do a lot of business, and they left Florida.

Albertsons also pulled out of Florida, and some of them became Publix stores, like the one here. They tried again to enter Florida a few years ago, with 3 new stores under the Safeway brand, and that didn’t last long at all.

We also had Kash N Karry, which was owned by Delhaize. Some of the former Food Lion stores converted to them as well. Later the chain became Sweetbay, and then Delhaize sold them to Winn Dixie, and Delhaize completely pulled out of the state.

So there have been numerous grocery chains in Florida, most of which ended up ultimately giving up on the Florida market.

I do wonder what will happen with Publix ultimately. They seem to be expanding super rapidly these days into other far away places, and I’ve heard some of the stores are not being managed with the kind of care and hiring like they did in Florida. I could see some of these stores possibly closing, particularly if they don’t have the edge in some of these other states like they do in Florida.

We don’t have a Target in my area, I remember rumors years ago that the Albertsons was going to be one, but they were just rumors.

I’ve heard of those stores in the northeast.

Kroger also works in Florida with some kind of delivery service, I’ve seen commercials for it, but not sure how it works or if it’s available in all areas. They don’t have any physical stores that I’m aware of.

I don’t use the self checkouts at Walmart anymore. When they upgraded them, I kept having problems with it locking up and once it wouldn’t take my debit card, so they had to print a receipt and send me to a regular manned checkout to pay. I’ve just started going through a regular checkout, as usually there isn’t a wait anyway.

None of the other grocery stores here offer self checkout, except for a Winn Dixie that’s way on the edge of the county. It’s mostly something I’ve seen in supermarkets at the bigger cities. The big box stores here all have it though.

 

[human]

Here in North Carolina, two regional chains dominate the supermarket landscape--Food Lion and Harris-Teeter. The latter has been a subsidiary of Kroger for the past decade, or maybe a little longer, which explains why the Kroger brand is now largely absent here. Another large regional chain is Lowe's Foods, which was started by a different branch of the same family that started Lowe's Home Improvement. Like Harris-Teeter, they focus on providing an upscale shopping experience, instead of competing on price. Price is important to me, so I've been an avid Aldi shopper for many years, but recently have been also frequently shopping at its closest German competitor, Lidl.

When I think about it, most of the supermarkets we shopped at when I was growing up--A&P, Colonial Stores/Big Star, and especially Winn-Dixie--have either exited the area or are no longer in business at all.

 

[fan-of-fans]

We had A&P here in Florida. Before my time, but my grandfather worked in one for years in the meat department.

We also had Grand Union stores which again were before my time.

I do recall seeing Thriftway stores, a chain of very small, old grocery stores, they went out of business sometime in the mid to late 1990s. One of our old neighbors was a manager at one, and then ended up working at Publix after the chain closed, and eventually went to corporate in Lakeland.

Winn Dixie years ago was Kwik Chek markets and Winn and Lovett, hence the “Chek mark” in the Winn Dixie logo, and the Chek brand sodas. Again, way before my time, but often had those stores in old storefronts in towns here.

 

[justjunque]

We used to have A&P around here too. My mom and I used to walk to one when I was very young. My mom never drove. I don't think there are any left in this area. The last I knew, the one we used to walk to was a U-haul rental place.
And, we also have Aldi now, as of several years ago. More recently, they opened one in the next town over from us, just up the road from the Walmart where we do most of our shopping. So far, we haven't tried them. But, my grand niece speaks very highly of them; especially for fresh meat and fish. We'll give them a shot, one of these days.

 

[wstonehockertv]

I grew up in New Jersey, so I had Wegmans, Stop & Shop, ACME, and ShopRite. A&P ceased to exist in 2015.

Here in North Carolina, we have Ingles, Publix, Harris Teeter, Fresh Market, SAV-MOR (owned by Ingles), United Grocery Outlet, and Food Lion. I also forgot Trader Joes and Earth Fare.

 

[justjunque]

Oh yeah. I forgot about ShopRite. I think the nearest one to me now is in the next state over. Not too far though. I live kind of near the state line.
When I was a kid, my parents mainly shopped at ShopRite. And, before that, in the same building, it was a PathMark.
And, while I'm strolling down Memory Lane; we used to have Waldbaum's/Foodmart.

 

[wstonehockertv]

justjunque

I forgot about Pathmark.

 

[human]

fan-of-fans wrote: We also had Grand Union stores which again were before my time.

I reply: When I was in high school in the early '80s, I worked at a grocery store called Big Star, which was owned by Grand Union. They closed up shop and left the Carolinas in the late '80s.

wstonehockertv wrote: Here in North Carolina, we have Ingles, Publix, Harris Teeter, Fresh Market, SAV-MOR (owned by Ingles), United Grocery Outlet, and Food Lion. I also forgot Trader Joes and Earth Fare.

I reply: You must live in the western part of N.C. I only know of only one Ingles store here in the Piedmont. They do tend to favor small towns. And Earth Fare? I thought they went bankrupt and shut down. I do miss the one that was here, although they did put in a nice Aldi where it used to be. Earth Fare was a little more of an affordable alternative to Whole Foods (aka Whole Paycheck) and Fresh Market.

 

[justjunque]

I keep thinking of more.
We have Price Rite, which I believe is an offshoot of ShopRite.
There's also the occasional Whole Foods or Trader Joe's.

 

[fan-of-fans]

We had a few Earth Fare stores in parts of Florida a few years ago. They didn’t last but a couple of years. Pretty sure most of them ended up going to Bravo Markets and Winn Dixie.

On further research, it appears Earth Fare is still around in a few places.

 

[wstonehockertv]

human

Yes, I do live in western NC. Earth Fare is still around today.

 

[gottahaveahoove]

My late uncle was a manager

at Winn Dixie.


 We have:


Redner's, Wiess, Mr. Z, Aldi, Price Chopper, Wegman's

 

[rainbowd4c]

Up here we have Harding which is a local chain mostly in Michigan. Then we have Martins (my personal favorite)which is Michigan and Indiana. Meijer which is a cross between Walmart and Target, Target in a few locations and Walmart.

 

[fan-of-fans]

From what I understand, all Winn Dixie stores will either be converting to the Aldi format, over the next few years, or if they don’t convert will be closing. Aldi says there will be a meaningful number of stores staying the same, but seems like most people don’t believe that. I don’t know anyone that works in corporate to ask about it, and I don’t want to ask anyone working there as the prospect of job loss would make it a potentially upsetting question.

I really wish they wouldn’t all convert or close as I do like Winn Dixie. I like Publix as well, but I wish we could have more choices of grocery store beyond super expensive Publix and then Aldi and Walmart on the cheap end. I do shop at Walmart for groceries if I happen to be there getting something else but not a huge fan of it.

We all use the same Winn Dixie rewards number in my house so we share points and coupons and with the app I can get a lot more points than just what you get at checkout.

 

[tazcatsdad]

Here in Western NY, we have Tops Friendly Markets, Wegmans Food Markets, Dash’s Supermarkets, Price Rite Marketplace, Save-a-Lot Food Stores, and Aldi Food Markets. At one time, we also had Loblaws, Bells, Acme, Super Duper, Twin Fair, Harvest Markets, Jubilee Foods, Quality Markets, K-mart Foods, and A&P. This in addition to any number of “mom-and-pop” stores that dotted the various neighborhoods.

I’m presently a cashier at one of the local Wegmans locations.

 

[tazcatsdad]

We also have Trader Joe’s, Target, and Walmart, plus BJ’s Wholesale Club and Sam’s Club. Costco is coming soon. One chain that I’d love to see open up here would be Lidl.