Favorite Grocery Store(s) in the tri-city area? (Memphis, Clarksville: lease, transfer to)

[Carolina Knight]

Originally Posted by DubbleT

If you have not tried the meat or produce at Aldi, you might be in for a pleasant surprise. I was reluctant to try the meat, but broke down last week and bought a package of 93% lean ground beef and it was quite tasty. I find the produce is at least as good as at the regular grocery stores, and the price is usually so much better. I got baby carrots Saturday for 49 cents, whereas the next closest price was 99 cents for the same item elsewhere.

I have tried Aldi's meat and products. The freshness and quality at Aldi is not as good as the meat and produce service departments at supermarkets, hypermarkets, and specialty organic and gourmet grocers.

[Rangerred]

I've noticed that Kroger has recently lowered prices, sometimes significantly, on many items. I'm not sure if this is due to Aldi entering the market, the coming of Publix, or what but it's been a welcome change. Even Fresh Market and Earth Fare are becoming more reasonable on a number of things. I'm not sure if Food City or Ingles have followed suit.

[DubbleT]

Originally Posted by Carolina Knight

I have tried Aldi's meat and products. The freshness and quality at Aldi is not as good as the meat and produce service departments at supermarkets, hypermarkets, and specialty organic and gourmet grocers.

Hmmm, it seems to me that lately the grocery stores have been going down in quality. The last few times I have bought fresh produce at Kroger and FC (both in JC and Bristol) I haven't been overly impressed, especially with sale items which seem to go bad within a day or two. OTOH quality at Aldi seems to have improved and the remodeling there hints at even more positive changes to their produce department.
They don't have the benefit of the butchers for freshness, but for pre packaged meat it's not bad at all and definitely beats what I can buy at Walmart.
The overpriced gourmet grocers, well, I'm not usually among their target market, I prefer the mom and pop ethnic markets, lol.

[Trevor92]

Originally Posted by Serious Conversation

Isn't Publix a bit more upmarket compared to Food City? The ones I've been to in Florida and in Knoxville have always struck me as a half-step above most of the Food Cities in presentation and quality.

I know people have complained about their prices on the FL forums. I took a list of commonly purchased items down to Knoxville a few months ago to help a poster I was talking to privately and went to Publix, Food City, Sam's, Kroger and Costco in Farragut. Publix was almost always the most expensive on the basket of items I had listed.

For the rural, poorer counties, I think Publix would be sort of like a Whole Foods - nice, but too expensive for their budget.

For what it's worth, I had to reload on a lot of staple items yesterday because we had to replace our primary fridge. I bought most of my stuff at Walmart and Aldi. While I don't like shopping at Walmart, at all, many of those primary items I buy were a good 10%-25% cheaper at Walmart. Aldi can be even cheaper depending on the item. I probably won't drop Ingles or Food City for fresh meat or produce, but I can at least save some money by going to Walmart and Aldi for staples.

There was a published article out of the Richmond Times that compared grocers there a few days ago:
Richmond grocery wars: Find out who has the lowest prices in the region | Local | richmond.com

I believe from cheapest to most expensive it went from Walmart, Lidl, Aldi, Wegmans, Food Lion, Kroger, and Publix. So some of the same grocers as Johnson City. Of course there are a lot of exceptions such as maybe Coke was on sale that week at Food Lion and the shopper bought Pepsi. I also know a limitation of Walmart is fewer store brands, and at Food City they had a lot of store brands we liked that saved us money compared to other stores. And the preservatives in meats at places without a butcher give me pause so we usually don't go to Walmart or aldi.We all have our reasons.

But it's a good article and worth reading.

[rccrain]

Interesting. I wonder if some of the grocers close the Walmart gap if only store brands are considered, or would it widen? I feel like most price sensitive customers are purchasing 90%+ store brands.

[sprintuser2014]

My favorite these days is Aldi, you can't beat the prices and actually they have pretty good meat and even produce. They are more limited but what they have is pretty nice. Many of their store branded items are just as good and often even better than the name brands and for way less! I also highly recommend you check out Aldi. It's a great store and even nicer as they recently did a very nice remodel and expansion to the Kingsport store.

[Serious Conversation]

Food City's ValuTime and Food Club (Topco) brands are found in other stores. They are not unique to Food City. Food Club was available at Marsh in Indianapolis when I lived there.

I would say the gap would close between Walmart and the other stores if you throw out the store brands. Of course, Walmart has its own Great Value brand.

I stopped in at Aldi yesterday, and if I can find what I want, they're usually at or below Walmart. I got their "Fit and Active" yogurts for $.35. Even the Food Club yogurt is often $.60. I got a bag of their store brand frozen chicken tenders for $4.99 that taste no different than the $8.99 bag of Tyson at Food City. The Driscoll's organic blueberries were $2.99 - at Food City, I think those are $4.99.

[sprintuser2014]

Originally Posted by Serious Conversation

Food City's ValuTime and Food Club (Topco) brands are found in other stores. They are not unique to Food City. Food Club was available at Marsh in Indianapolis when I lived there.

I would say the gap would close between Walmart and the other stores if you throw out the store brands. Of course, Walmart has its own Great Value brand.

I stopped in at Aldi yesterday, and if I can find what I want, they're usually at or below Walmart. I got their "Fit and Active" yogurts for $.35. Even the Food Club yogurt is often $.60. I got a bag of their store brand frozen chicken tenders for $4.99 that taste no different than the $8.99 bag of Tyson at Food City. The Driscoll's organic blueberries were $2.99 - at Food City, I think those are $4.99.

I don't get the appeal in Food City and I never have, it's a very mid range store and their prices are high. Plus most of the Food Club and Valutime stuff is awful like it's the worst store brand you can get. I'd go to Kroger or Walmart over Food City. Kroger is about the same quality but their prices are much lower and their store brand is very nice. I will say Food City has some nice and larger stores and sometimes they have items you can't find elsewhere so I do see the appeal in that. However to me Food City is far too expensive to make them a frequent shopping spot to me. They just are too high and you can do better elsewhere.

[Serious Conversation]

Originally Posted by sprintuser2014

I don't get the appeal in Food City and I never have, it's a very mid range store and their prices are high. Plus most of the Food Club and Valutime stuff is awful like it's the worst store brand you can get. I'd go to Kroger or Walmart over Food City. Kroger is about the same quality but their prices are much lower and their store brand is very nice. I will say Food City has some nice and larger stores and sometimes they have items you can't find elsewhere so I do see the appeal in that. However to me Food City is far too expensive to make them a frequent shopping spot to me. They just are too high and you can do better elsewhere.

The best Food City in Kingsport is the new one by Domtar. The best one in the area is the new one on North State of Franklin in Johnson City.

I went into the Kingsport Kroger a few months ago and found nothing I wanted. I haven't been back. That store used to be nice, but seems to have been neglected. Kroger has some amazing stores that blow anything you find around here out of the area, but they don't invest as much here.

I agree that Food City is very expensive for what it is, but groceries around here are extremely expensive anyway.

[sprintuser2014]

Originally Posted by Serious Conversation

The best Food City in Kingsport is the new one by Domtar. The best one in the area is the new one on North State of Franklin in Johnson City.

I went into the Kingsport Kroger a few months ago and found nothing I wanted. I haven't been back. That store used to be nice, but seems to have been neglected. Kroger has some amazing stores that blow anything you find around here out of the area, but they don't invest as much here.

I agree that Food City is very expensive for what it is, but groceries around here are extremely expensive anyway.

Actually that Kroger in Kingsport was remodeled not long ago, it's a smaller but decent store. I still think we could use a larger and still more up to date one but it's good enough. That Food City downtown is quite nice but as I said Food City is just too expensive for me to regularly shop at. Aldi and Walmart Neighorhood Market are my two favorites and I have mostly positive experiences at both. Especially Aldi which has shocked me with how good they are and by far the cheapest on well about everything. Kroger has some great deals now and again and it's decent but I just don't hit them often. I think the one I never ever ever go to is Ingles. I hate Ingles, it's crazy high and their sales never ring up right and the employees seem to refuse to adjust anything correctly or even look in to it. I admit though Ingles in JC and Kingsport always seems to be dead anymore. I think Ingles won't make it much longer around here since we are starting to get more choices.