What should I know about Surprise? (Phoenix, Glendale: apartment, home, landscaping)

[jwblue]

I did a search and I know there are other threads but things in a town can chance pretty fast.

Would like thought on the following compared to other Phoenix areas.

- Pests
- Weather (heard it was a lot warmer)
- Food shopping
- Retail shopping
- Restaurants that serve healthy food

[MGS4EVER]

Pests..lol. The usual, plus scorpions which is what you're probably asking about. Most people spray. You can do that yourself to save on costs. Go to Do it Yourself Pest Control store.

Weather- a lot warmer than where? Phoenix? It's all the same in the valley. June is the hottest month. You will turn on your AC the end of April/beginning May and won't turn it off until Oct. It's hot. If you buy a 2 story home you'll be paying $$$ to cool it.

Food shopping- like whole foods? You'll have to drive to Phoenix for those. There is a Sprouts though. Otherwise there's the usual grocery stores and a newer Costco nearby.

Retail shopping-nothing spectacular. Glendale has a mall and the outlet mall.

Restaurants- healthy food? You'll have to go to Glendale, Phoenix, Scottsdale etc.

Surprise is not San Diego.

[Suesbal]

Surprise - Not What You Expect.

[LookingatFL]

Pests - having lived in FL and TX (both humid places) the pests aren't as bad in Surprise...which is not to say that there aren't any. The apartment I rented had roaches. There are some mosquitos, but not nearly as many as other places. In 3 years, I have been bitten by them once. In FL and TX, I was bitten by them nightly. There are scorpions, carpet beetles, spiders, etc. There are roof rats, kangaroo rats, rattlesnakes, poisonous toads, bees, wasps, coyotes, javelinas, and bob cats. It is like everywhere else, nature abounds. I haven't seen any squirrels or skunks at all. I cut down on a lot of the problems by not having fruit trees in my yard.

Weather - the summer gets very hot. It is uncomfortable to be outside in the late morning to early evening. Once the sun goes down it becomes more pleasant. People tend to do outside things like walking their dogs in the very early AM and at night. Everything is air conditioned, so you go from your air-conditioned car to the air-conditioned building. There is pavement and rock yards everywhere which absorb and reflect the heat that that makes it even hotter. The winters can get very cold. I wrap my exterior pipes and bring in my garden hoses, but I notice I am the only one I know who does so.

Grocery Stores - Whole Foods is pretty far away. There is a Trader Joes here along with Frys, Sprouts, Safeway, Albertsons, Walmart, There are also specialty stores close by like Kahramana Mediterranean Market in Sun City and A To Z Polish Market in Surprise.

Retail Shopping - as mentioned above Bell Road in the Arrowhead section of Glendale has just about anything you could want, including a mall. Surprise is growing. It has a number of shopping centers that contain the usual big box stores. They also have restaurants. Village at Presada is being built now and that will have the usual big box stores and a variety of restaurants. I don't know that any restaurant has healthy food. They are about taste not about health, so they use a lot a butter/lard salt, sugar, cream, and fry a lot of food. There are also a number of farmers markets in the area.
.
Surprise is a typical suburb. There are some very pretty areas.

[Mike from back east]

One of my gripes is there are ZERO Whole Foods west of I-17, the north-south interstate that bisects Phoenix. None. What's up with that? Same for one of my favorite eateries, La Madeleine, none west of I-17. There's plenty of disposable income on the west side of I-17. Your guess is as good as mine as far as some sort of restraint of trade situation where big chains have "agreements" to not compete in each other's territory.

I like the baseball stadium in Surprise. Bell Road is a major thoroughfare; just about every fast food joint you can think of is found on that six-lane road.

There are two Costco locations, one just off of Bell Rd in the Arrowhead Mall area and one on Waddell just off the 303 Loop.

[Burning Madolf]

Originally Posted by jwblue

I did a search and I know there are other threads but things in a town can chance pretty fast.

Would like thought on the following compared to other Phoenix areas.

- Pests
- Weather (heard it was a lot warmer)
- Food shopping
- Retail shopping
- Restaurants that serve healthy food

It's a suburb.
It's pretty safe.
Many new chain stores built and on the drawing board.
There are jets.

Here's some more 'stuff':
https://www.villageatprasada.com/directory

[thinkalot]

Nice park and stadium.

I always think of Surprise as a family friendly area.

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

- Pests- Same as everywhere else. Unless you buy in a burb that butts up against the desert. Then, you might have some more scorpions. Treat them and call it a day.
- Weather (heard it was a lot warmer)- You heard wrong. If anything, it is a LITTLE cooler. Every 1000 feet of higher elevation is 5.4 degrees cooler (all things being equal). It's 1385' elevation. Goodyear is 968' for instance. So Surprise is about 1.8 degrees cooler. The only other element to consider is the heat island effect. Every year, Surprise is adding additional infrastructure to raise the temps.
- Food shopping- There is every major chain brand but Whole Foods. It's saturated.
- Retail shopping- Big box stores plus every essential that you could imagine. But there are very few specialty stores.
- Restaurants that serve healthy foodWhen I lived in Surprise for 9 years, I often ate at Vogue Bistro https://voguebistro.com/ Also a couple of sushi spots. Surprise mostly has chain restaurants. But every menu usually has an item of two you can find that is semi-healthy. Then ask to slightly modify what is quoted. I ask for double vegetables (hold the butter) versus a starch option, etc. Even at Pei Wei (home of the 1000-1400 calorie Asian meals), you can have them steam the meat versus the pan-fried option and ask for lighter sauces. That will knock it down by 400 calories (sugar and fat). Choose the salmon versus the steak etc. But if you are looking for soy and tofu options (yuck), you are picking the wrong town.

As you may have read in other threads, I left because of the jet noise. I don't miss it. The East side of town has a lot more restaurants. But it's a lot more expensive. I pay double for landscaping, a handyman, and 30% more for cleaners. It's shockingly more expensive now.

[wilberry]

Originally Posted by MN-Born-n-Raised

- Pests- Same as everywhere else. Unless you buy in a burb that butts up against the desert. Then, you might have some more scorpions. Treat them and call it a day.
- Weather (heard it was a lot warmer)- You heard wrong. If anything, it is a LITTLE cooler. Every 1000 feet of higher elevation is 5.4 degrees cooler (all things being equal). It's 1385' elevation. Goodyear is 968' for instance. So Surprise is about 1.8 degrees cooler. The only other element to consider is the heat island effect. Every year, Surprise is adding additional infrastructure to raise the temps.
- Food shopping- There is every major chain brand but Whole Foods. It's saturated.
- Retail shopping- Big box stores plus every essential that you could imagine. But there are very few specialty stores.
- Restaurants that serve healthy foodWhen I lived in Surprise for 9 years, I often ate at Vogue Bistro https://voguebistro.com/ Also a couple of sushi spots. Surprise mostly has chain restaurants. But every menu usually has an item of two you can find that is semi-healthy. Then ask to slightly modify what is quoted. I ask for double vegetables (hold the butter) versus a starch option, etc. Even at Pei Wei (home of the 1000-1400 calorie Asian meals), you can have them steam the meat versus the pan-fried option and ask for lighter sauces. That will knock it down by 400 calories (sugar and fat). Choose the salmon versus the steak etc. But if you are looking for soy and tofu options (yuck), you are picking the wrong town.

As you may have read in other threads, I left because of the jet noise. I don't miss it. The East side of town has a lot more restaurants. But it's a lot more expensive. I pay double for landscaping, a handyman, and 30% more for cleaners. It's shockingly more expensive now.

But it has a Trader Joe's! ( with jet noise )
it has loop 303 and Northern Parkway where can watch the jet landing and taking off from Luke AFB

[MN-Born-n-Raised]

Originally Posted by wilberry

But it has a Trader Joe's! ( with jet noise )
it has loop 303 and Northern Parkway where can watch the jet landing and taking off from Luke AFB

Agreed! Having a TJ's close by is a nice benefit. I love their hard cheese pricing, specialty sauces, and fast in-and-out service. Their employees are easy to find if you want to find something fast.

As far as watching jets take off and land. That is interesting.... Once. Maybe twice. Then the box has been checked. If you lived in Gilbert, drive out once and get that box checked. Then, count your blessings that you don't have to listen to the F-35 140 jets that are at Luke!