Madison, what's your favorite grocery store? (Eagle, Dane: coop, to buy, live in)

[Chelito23]

Madison has many chain grocery stores. Many have also come and gone.

There is so much variety and competition that the prices are generally low, the quality and selection is good, and the hours are convenient.

But this brings me to my question, which store is your favorite, and why?

I like Cub Foods for their bakery products and dirt cheap prices. Also the 24 hours being open is convenient. I know most people don't like Cub since you bag your own groceries.

I have read on other forums in other cities that there is a following for the German grocery store Aldi!! Anyone enjoy that store??

Also, Woodmans is good for price and selection (bakery too), but is increibly massive.

The only store I dislike is Copp's, it seems to be more expensive and there is no obvious reason as to why it is more expensive than the other local stores. I suppose they have more prime urban locations?

I didn't have room in the poll to inclue Aldi or Trader Joe's, which I figure will be popular...so just speak up if I left out any other local stores.

[quijote]

You didn't include Whole Foods and the Willy Street Co-op in the poll? In other threads I've seen polls with over 12 options, so I wonder why you were limited to 4 here? Maybe a technical glitch?

[MidwesternBookWorm]

While Woodman's is the "traditional" grocery store that we most often shop at, we actually get more of our food from either the Dane County Farmers' Market, our semi-weekly share from the CSA farm, and Willy Street Co-op than we do at Woodman's.

[tchemgrrl]

I don't think I've ever been to any of those. When I lived close to campus I shopped at Cap Centre or Sentry (I liked Sentry because at the time the bus stopped right out front; no need to run through parking lots with my hands full!). Now that I'm on the east side, Jenifer St. Market and the Willy St. Coop are close enough to walk, so I go there.

When I first moved here from the east coast I had a heck of a time figuring out where the grocery stores were--I remember finding a listing in the yellow pages for "Stop and Shop" (which is a big chain in the Northeast), only to find that it was a teeny convenience store on State St.!

[Chelito23]

Yes, I was limited to only four options...who knows why.

I did forget to mention Sentry and Whole Foods also...

[Drover]

Woodman's. In fact I just hit up a Woodman's this evening. Nothing beats it for sheer variety of brands, the prices are very competitive, they are employee-owned, and they have lots of shelf space for Wisconsin-based mom-and-pop food producers, even down here in the Illinois locations. Plus the Wisconsin locations have the best beer selection I've ever seen in a grocery store, though the closer you are to Madison, the better the beer selection is. My only issue with Woodman's is their produce is a perpetual letdown. That's the one area where Sentry shines and the higher prices are worth it.

[quijote]

I'm surprised to hear so much praise for Woodman's, in this thread and elsewhere. I've found their selection to be somewhat narrow in terms of overall product diversity, but with a good selection of options within the range covered. For example, you won't find the selection of goat cheese, bleu cheese, or specialty cheese (such as Paneer) that you'll find at places like Whole Foods, but you will find over a dozen kinds of Cheddar. Or for another example, you won't find the 10 varieties of mushrooms that Whole Foods may carry, but instead you'll find 10 different versions (whole, sliced, etc.) of maybe four or five kinds of mushroom. At least, that's been my experience with Woodman's: 50+ different kinds of frozen pizza, but hardly any foccaccia, if any at all.

[nl2134]

Woodmans!!!

I was so happy when I saw this thread, so I could express my love for the employee owned store. Anytime I needed groceries (at whatever time during the day), I always would go to Woodmans. It'd be an adventure...it's so big, and I'm the type of person that doesn't make a list to buy groceries and just buys. So I would spend around an hour going through every isle getting my groceries. Whenever I went to Copps or Sentry, it'd cost more for almost a third of the food, another reason I always went to Woodmans.

Never went to Pick n Save or Cub Foods...

[remixedkitty]

Are there any places that compare to kroger in selection and price, and don't suck like giant eagle does. GE charges way too much and they don't have anything gourmet or anything that is not the absolute mainstream foodstuffs. They do not have my fav brands of noodles and artichoke hearts and peppers among alot of other items, plus it is hectic to shop there and alot of the stores are dirty and the one around where I live in depressing and draws the bad crowd of people.

[Drover]

I didn't think they had Giant Eagles in Wisconsin. I haven't seen one since I was last in Pittsburgh.