Favorite Grocery Store

[Icy Tea]

When I want top of the line bakery and deli, I go to Shady Maples and occasionally Stauffer's of Kissel Hill although that's pretty far away. Redner's is my personal favorite just for prices and selection of food. The worst place I've seen is Whole Food's, I guess it was okay for buying vitamins and such, but they didn't have much besides that.
Still for meat, produce, fish and other items, go to a good farmer's market.

[lititzman2003]

Hoover's in Rothsville has the best produce and plants in the area. Hilltop in Manheim has great sales and their meats are good.

[Mugatu]

I really wish there were some other major supermarket chains in the Pittsburgh area besides a billion Giant Eagles and a few Shop N Saves. I really don't like either, and both are very overpriced. I usually end up buying groceries at Super Walmart just because they are so much cheaper, but I HATE going in there, just an awful shopping experience. Why does Giant Eagle have such a monopoly on this city?

[tremontpa]

Personally, I do not find the massive "mega-mart" type stores to be the optimum shoping environment. I prefer the smaller, yet not tiny, grocery stores to be the best suiting. Weis fills this need. The size is not utterly massive, however it is not of a size that lacks a decent selection. Furthermore, the quality is outstanding and the food is always fresh.

[drshang]

Originally Posted by Mugatu

I really wish there were some other major supermarket chains in the Pittsburgh area besides a billion Giant Eagles and a few Shop N Saves. I really don't like either, and both are very overpriced. I usually end up buying groceries at Super Walmart just because they are so much cheaper, but I HATE going in there, just an awful shopping experience. Why does Giant Eagle have such a monopoly on this city?

Giant Eagle is terrible terrible. If you live in the city check out Trader Joe's.

[dugdogmaster]

Originally Posted by Mugatu

I really wish there were some other major supermarket chains in the Pittsburgh area besides a billion Giant Eagles and a few Shop N Saves. I really don't like either, and both are very overpriced. I usually end up buying groceries at Super Walmart just because they are so much cheaper, but I HATE going in there, just an awful shopping experience. Why does Giant Eagle have such a monopoly on this city?

There's plenty of mom n pop stores around the city, The Strip, Trader Joe's as the above poster stated, the food co-op in the east end.

[ki0eh]

Giant Eagle is pretty cheap compared to anything in the Harrisburg area, in the ones I've been in. I must only have been in the good locations.

For this Upstate NY boy Wegmans of course blows out everything else. I'm disappointed in their "Harrisburg" store though, since it doesn't stock a lot of the Upstate NY comfort food and its location is very inconvenient to my home and work.

[danwxman]

I've read in retail trades and heard from some pretty good sources that the Harrisburg trade area is in fact one of the cheapest, if not the cheapest, market to buy groceries in the whole country.

[drshang]

Originally Posted by ki0eh

Giant Eagle is pretty cheap compared to anything in the Harrisburg area, in the ones I've been in. I must only have been in the good locations.

That's interesting...I think Whole Foods in Southern California is cheaper than Giant Eagle was in Pittsburgh...that's how expensive I always felt Giant Eagle is. And don't get me started on how expensive WF in Pittsburgh is. When I lived in Pittsburgh I shopped at Trader Joe's and in the Strip. It was super great shopping you could get everything you need between those two stores and your food bill was so cheap for high quality goods. A lot of the ethnic markets in the strip have real cheap produce that's fresh and other staples that are well priced.