In Chicago, the two BIG chains are Jewel (Albertsons) and Dominick's (Safeway). My Dad always shopped at Jewel, mainly because it was across the street from them. On the left coast, my Mom always shopped at Safeway, mainly again due to proximity. Until I moved back east, I shopped at Larry's Market because it was the only supermarket chain open at 1:00 AM, when I got off work.

So anyway, I move back to Chicago, gotta pick - Dominick's or Albertson's. Hmm. We keep Kosher. Dominick's in Lincolnwood has a great selection of Kosher foods. Jewel's is better, but more expensive. Fast forward a couple of years, we're eating ground turkey every night because Dominick's can't be bothered to stock Kosher beef any more. No cheeses anymore either. Their Kosher section is getting smaller and smaller. So, despite the higher prices, I go back to Jewel because - well, they care that I eat more than friggin ground turkey for dinner every night.

I'm antagonistic towards "my grocer" because they artificially raise prices and only offer me the opportunity to purchase food at a fair price if I allow them to record every purchase I make and database it against my age, income and home address. I'm tired of being databased, parsed in a system and being a number to some f**k at "corporate."
Why don't you consider the food on your shelves as your "product," not me, my privacy, and a dossier of my spending habits? Stop selling a rundown of my lifestyle to Proctor and Gamble and I might be loyal again.

Go Trader Joe's. I swear by that place. And I live ontop of another large grocery chain. I go three blocks to trader joe's. They care about fresh/healthy food. Their selection is relevant, and there staff is friendly and seems to enjoy spending their time their. Huge difference... I shop there a lot, and I let people know it. Keep up the good work.

The store I go to sucks. Their produce is old and wrinkly. Bananas never get yellow. They go rotten in a few days. You have to check the expiration dates on everything. I almost bought a jar of baby food that expired TWO years ago. Why do I keep going there? Because they still float checks and I always run out of food before payday. I have priorities...

I have totally adopted the Costco lifestyle, for better or worse. So everytime I walk into a grocery story to get something Costco doesn't carry, like a few potatoes or a bottle of lime juice, I feel like I'm being screwed, price-wise. In addition (at least where I live), the groceries don't have enough help, there aren't enough checkouts at peak hours, prices generally suck, nor do I have my own loyalty card - the one I found in the parking lot does nicely.
See you at the Costco Anonymous meetings.

The problem with the average grocery store is that service is entirely dependent on the staff member that one deals with. It is so easy for a person to say "we don't have that in stock" or "we can't accept that coupon/discount" simply because they don't feel like checking with someone else (or they simply can't be bothered).

At this point, I will simply check the weekly flyer and buy sale items. I have no loyalty to a single store.

@xianzomby: same with me. Prices on food are ridiculously expensive and i can only afford things when they are "on sale."

Of course I don't like my current grocery store. I'm living in a city that is just a bit smaller from where I used to live at (Jacksonville, FL now instead of Columbus, OH, by population, not area). And all the grocery stores are half the size of what I'm used to. They have no real variety here, the one chain that did have a better variety, Harris-Teeter pulled out a couple of years ago. Albert's left the area, so now it's either Winn-Dixie (my store), Publix (the variation that I go to just to be different) and Food Lyon (which has a rather horrible past both personally and with other friends—in other states no less). Wal-mart? I tend to avoid going food shopping there. The other three are closer to me anyway.

I want Kroger to come to the area and kick all of their asses. Giant Eagle might do the same thing, although I've only been in their stores a couple of times. Big Bear when it was on its way out was better than what I have today.

I love me grocery store (Albertson's) and the employee's too. If I did not care for it I would go somewhere else.

I guess it depends where you live because I have about 12 full size grocery stores within a few miles to choose from.

Those with not much choice (usually depressed areas in large cities) are stuck with what they have.

@Bryan Price:
Funny you should pine for Columbus; I live there and agree that all of the major stores here are pretty decent. Meijer is like Wal-mart without selling your soul and Giant Eagle is top notch but expensive. Kroger is starting to lose me, because only the sale items are reasonably priced. Still, much better than what you get at the stores I visited in other states.

Funny thing, Meijer is the cheapest and the only one without a "loyalty" card.

I love my grocery store as well. Sudbury Farms is a small family owned chain which is very local to where I live. There prices are not the cheapest but they are pretty close to it. Their staff is usually pretty friendly and they dont seem to hate their jobs or their life. Not to mention they help you take your groceries out to the car, unnecessary but a nice touch. What impresses me most is how much they give back to the community. They frequently donate to local events and if you are having something catered and its for a non-profit or the proceeds benefit a cause. They will usually double your catering order for free which to me, is a very well run family supermarket.

I'm sorry - I can't read this story unless I know the answer....

Is that Pedobear???

After shopping at a regular grocer in college for a while, I switched to a Co-Op (there are many in the Twin Cities). I wouldn't go back. The prices aren't bottom barrel, but with food, you get what you pay for. I get organic food from local growers. Can't say that about a Cub, Rainbow, Jewel or whatever else the mega-stores are...

@xianzomby:
AMEN

My gripes about stores fall into two categories:

(1) Filling the aisles with tables of merchandise. Albertson's is notorious for this and they tend to make you run a gauntlet of them to get past the entrance.

(2) Not having enough checkers and baggers working the register. Store, show you care about the community and hire a few extra checkers and baggers. I don't want to wait in line 10 minutes and I don't want to be bagging my own groceries when I'd rather be watching the price scans.

@ghostwriter: Trader Joe's is great, but they aren't really a full-scale grocery store. Every so often we give it a try, but we have been unable to cover an entire shopping list at TJ's without making an additional trip to another store. I wish TJs was in the same shopping center as my regular supermarket!

I don't have any serious loyalty for "my" supermarket (Acme, currently owned by Albertson's), but I don't have any complaints about them either.

After trying several chains here in WA state, we have finally gone with Central Market. Safeway lost us when they started jacking the price of products and putting their "Select" brand next to them on sale...then replacing stuff we bought with their brand and lying about it, saying they do not replace national brands with their own. They have and do. Plus, they got rid of the seafood guy and just put a case out there with pre-wrapped stuff. QFC got bought by Kroger, which instanttly ruined those storesm, bringing them down to the level of Fred Meyer. Top Foods/Haggen has horrible produce and no real butcher dept. So that left Central Market...live seafood in tanks, aged beef, real butcher shop, great selection of fresh, organic produce, best wine/sake selection around...and they have fresh sushi made to order...that does not suck.

Around here it seems to be a question of location. There is a Kroger and an Albertson's near where I live; both are pretty ghetto and have poor selection. In the town that's fifteen minutes north of here, the Kroger and Albertson's both are nice, clean, well-stocked, and have better selection. I wouldn't go to the pharmacy at the "nice" Kroger on a bet, though - they've screwed up my prescriptions once too often.

We have Tops and Wegmans here, both use those shopper club cards, but Tops is HORRIDLY overpriced. They seem to think a good business model is printing up a millon tags with " 5 CENTS SAVINGS ON THIS ITEM" on them, in order to make you think your getting a sale on an item, instead of just offering lowered prices outright. Wegmans is ok and has much lower prices than Tops, and they don't have retarded business practices. They both like to inch prices up 10 cents each week though on various items, and you can see the increases, although Tops increases are significantly higher. For example a gallon of Perry's ice cream is typically 5.99 at Tops but about 2.50 at Wegmans.. thats how drastic the price differences are between the 2 stores.

We also have the other grocery stores such as Family Dollar, Aldi, Save A Lot, that carry generic brand products. The trouble is these stores don't save you that much money (if any at all) and the quality of goods is significantly lower. These stores are slowly bridging the pricing gap between the lowest price products at Wegmans and their products, because they know they have tons of customers coming in to buy their products due to percieved savings because their brands are generic, when the savings are just that, percieved. There might be 10-20 cents difference per product between generic brand and a brand name at Wegmans. For our family of 4 adults that does not overbuy groceries or have massive portions of food for every meal those savings are negligable at best. Better off just going to Wegmans.

Due to the increase in the value of the Canadian dollar (i live in a border city), we have massive amounts of Canadians coming over to shop in our stores, which raises the prices because the stores here cannot keep stock of products because there is such an influx of customers and it makes things more expensive because the demand is there no matter what price is charged. People have to eat, people will never stop buying groceries, peroid, so grocers feel they can overcharge because there is huge demand for our products.

I am not loyal to any grocery store, I have no reason to be, they are all the same here. No I will not drive 3 miles to save 10 cents on a pound of butter but I will go to whatever store has the lowest price on item X here. All of our grocery stores are within 5 min of each other in the same shopping area.

@magic8ball: Yeah...Albertson's=ghetto around here too...no one seems to mop the floors, there are always fat chicks with screaming kids and carts full of tater tots and generic kool-aid...makes me cringe if I have to go in there for something...I take the lesser of our vehicles too because no one there seems to respect other people's doors.

where i live at home we have midsize grocery stores like foodtown, keyfood, walldbaums and king kullen, and all of them are pretty equal in price. i prefer trader joe's. up at school i pretty much only go to wegmans. they are a little more expensive, but ours is so massive and fun to be in, and is open 24 hours which is wonderful for college kids. plus, their international food section is incomparable to anywhere else. they have kosher, chinese, japanese, german, eastern european, israeli....anything you can think of (that's really authentic).

@Bryan Price: I want Kroger to come to the area and kick all of their asses.

I totally agree. I do a lot of food shopping at Costco, but you can't get everything in bulk. The rest of your choices in Florida are either:

Publix- Nice and clean, with a great deli, happy smiling employees but expen$ive. You need a second mortgage to shop here.

Winn-Dixie- Slightly cheaper, but filthy. They save money on cleaning, and pass the savings along to you! Canned goods only from here.

Albertsons- Expensive, incompetent, run by miscreants. Ever been sneered at by a grocery clerk because you don't speak spanish? Here's you chance.

Food Lion- Cheap, grungy, hicky. You must need a pickup truck to shop here. Nascar brand bacon anyone?

Save-A-Lot- The bare bones champion. They have one of each brand of everything, and only one. Never heard of Seriglio brand cheese? Neither did we.

I'm still bummed that Raley's pulled out of New Mexico. All the Raley's stores in my areas have been picked up by Albertsons. This is a Bad Thing(tm). Also, our local Smith's (Kroger) suck *bad*.

@xianzomby:
You and all the conspiracy theorists crack me up. "I don't want them taking ANY of my data, even though it's not personalized in any way". The reason the stores can offer lower prices is because they can use the statistical data to make decisions. I simply do not understand what you crazies have against data mining, particularly non-invasive kind they do at your grocer. I imagine you are working on a manifesto of some sort? With a section devoted solely to Grocery Store discount cards? Get over yourself and take the discounts.

We hit up at least two, sometimes three grocery stores every time we need to shop. Why? Because we want to avoid Jewel/Dominick's. It's ridiculously expensive there, so we go to Aldi to buy basics and then to somewhere like Meijer or Super Target to get the stuff Aldi doesn't stock. All three stores are much farther than the Jewel or Dominick's, but it's worth the hassle. They just remodeled the Dominick's to a "lifestyle" store, which makes me wonder if they're just trying to hide the fact that they cost so much more AND require a club card to avoid massive wallet assault. Maybe they're afraid of the Whole Foods being built. I know I am; they're even MORE expensive.

When we're feeling adventurous or are in the area, we go to Trader Joe's. Unfortunately, the closest one is about a half hour away, so it's not a very viable option most of the time.

This is news? I honestly don't know anyone who's even vaguely "loyal" to a given grocery store, except for maybe Trader Joe's, which apparently can do no wrong.

I love Kroger... store brand items that are better than the brand name, decent prices, good health food and international selection, and consistent layout (unlike the local Meijer's which isn't even recognizable as my childhood Meijer's anymore). Kroger layout also tends to be pretty consistent between locations, varying only a little.

Only downside is they stopped carrying Kraft "fat-free" mozzarella which I used a lot, and reformulated one of their store-brand crackers so that it's slightly worse than before.

Availability of Kroger was a consideration (though obviously not a major one) when looking at moving to various places for a job after graduating from college.

I live in a crappy neighborhood, so the grocery stores near me are really scuzzy. Since I don't have a car, my choices are very limited. What bothers me most is all the expired stuff out on the shelves. Both the HEB and the Fiesta closest to me are atrocious in that regard. Sometimes I go to Whole Foods (it's not a too-horrific trip by bus), and they're insanely expensive but a good place to get the occasional treat.

I live in downtown Chicago, and I have no car. My options are Jewel, which is cheap, but has terrible employees, and Dominicks, which I use all the time. The Dominicks is new, nice, fairly spacious, and has reasonable prices. The other "options" are Trader Joe's (which we occasionally frequent, but is a decent walk), Whole Foods (Hippe store that I dislike, aside from being expensive), and Fox and Obel (ultra-fancy grocer that is crazy expensive, but has things like Kobe beef, etc.). Overall, Dominicks is very nice, has a competent staff, and has reasonable prices (for downtown Chicago).

Someone above mentioned this but the supermarkets around me here in Queens, NY need some help with making the customer experience a little better. They all crowd the isles with displays or tables that make navigating your cart impossible without begging other customers to moving their carts.

As a teen I worked at a local Waldbaums. I'm not sure if this is true of all store but the store managers received bonuses for ordering more merchandise from the warehouse. It didn't seem to matter if this merchandise sold (we threw out cart fulls of outdated food every night) so they just piled our products in the warehouse and in the isles. It created a sometimes dangerous situation for both the customers and the employees.

Anyway, they just opened up a Trader Joes near me so I'm going there.

The best thing that ever happened by me was all of the Farmer Jack stores closing. Ever since my local Farmer Jack turned into a locally owned store, the quality has gone up by leaps and bounds. They always have plenty of cashiers and people working thoughout the store. Best of all, I think the food is fresher based on the fact that the meat sections no longer smell like old fish and rotting beef.

Trader Joes also rocks but their selection is a bit limited. Of course I would rather shop somewhere that does a few things well instead of many poorly.

Anyone go to Stop & Shop?

Never had a problem with them ... prices are decent, store is clean, there are lines during busy periods but I shop off-hours. And the couple times I've bought something rotten or something that just wasn't right, I never had any problem getting a replacement or refund.

@xl22k:

...and forgot to mention, whenever I forget my Stop & Shop card, they always have the "manager's card" they'll scan so I can still get the sale prices...which is awesome in my opinion.

So yea, I guess I'm loyal to my grocer now that I think about it.

Here at college, I have 2 choices (small towns suck). Wal-Mart or Kroger. Kroger is twice as expensive as Wal-Mart for the same stuff, and on a college budget, money counts, so Wal-Mart it is. I hate that place, and wish I had something better.

Back home (St. Louis), there are a few options. There's Shop n Save, which my mom swears by (they are cheaper, stores aren't as nice and you bag your own groceries, but the savings are significant compared to the competition). We have Dierbergs a locally owned chain, owned by some multi-millionaire asshole....I used to work there back in high school (the Dierberg family were all a bunch of snobbish douchebags, I don't care if I'm not supporting the "local guys" because I can't stand them) which is expensive, so I don't go there often. We also have Schnucks which is even more expensive. St. Louis County is getting it's first Wally World Supercenter (which I don't plan on ever setting foot in). And they're putting up a new Target like 2 miles from our house. I don't think it will be a Super Target, but, since it is right next to a Schnucks and they want to compete, they should have a fairly decent grocery section which I imagine we'll be going to often. Probably meat and produce from one of the grocery stores and everything else from Target. Their prices are almost as cheap as Wal-Mart, and I don't need a rusted, 30 year old barely running pickup truck and a mullet to not feel out of place there.

STL kinda gets screwed when it comes to grocery stores. The UFCW union has always been pretty big here, lots of influence, so that's why we're just now getting our first Wally World Supercenter (we still have normal Wal-Hells though) and don't have a Target Super Center or any of the other nationwide chains. Rumor has it that they've basically been lobbying (aka bribing) the county to not issue building permits for non-union competition, but I guess they finally gave up. I remember when Wal-Mart and Target first started selling groceries and the union threw a fit, because the union stores are expensive, the big box stores are cheap, and people started going to the big box stores (Gee, imagine that?) When I worked at Dierbergs (union) they preached all that "Wal-Mart and Target are evil, don't ever go there" crap. I eventually got fed up, quit and went to work at a Target. Fuckers.

Although I guess they got the last laugh because Target sucked just as bad.

I don't really care much for my grocers either. Rant alert!

The closest one to my house is a local chain called Food Dynasty/Key Food or whatever they're calling it now (they seem to have a penchant for changing the store name every couple of years). Despite a recent expansion, the food selection sucks, they're notorious for selling expired items and they're experts at bait and switching (or not honoring their sale prices). Almost every employee looks like they're miserable from working there. It's a nightmare. Shame this store had to be right across the street.

Then, there's a Stop and Shop about four long (midtown Manhattan-sized) blocks down from my house. In comparison to Pathmark. They're occupying a huge footprint, yet they have closed off many sections. Goodness, they're right in line with the products they sell (huge packaging, little substance). They're consistently the most expensive out of all the area stores. Good to see that they provide jobs for elders as cashiers. Only problem is, they really cannot clear out the crowd when "rush hour" equivalent comes. I've seen people abandoning their entire shopping carts and leaving after waiting in line before.

Finally, there's Pathmark, one of the earliest supermarket chain serving my neighborhood. Far from perfect, but the least detestable grocery shopping experience there. They seem to have a penchant for misleading sale items though (e.g.: stocking non-sale items in big pile at a conspicuous location with a sale sign on it, making you think the item is on sale. Only if you read the fine print on the sign, you can find out that the stocked item is NOT on sale!)

Move down south, shop at Publix, be happy.

Whole Foods is A++. Once you realize how bad some of the garbage they put in food at most other places is, you'll dread shopping anywhere else.

My closest supermarket is Safeway. I don't hate them, but I don't love them, either. They're extremely average. I feel their selection could be better, and they never, ever have enough cashiers.

The one thing I hate about them is their deli section. They make pretty decent sandwiches, but they're always out of some ingredient. And management has forbidden them to get supplies from elsewhere in the store - so if they're out of sliced turkey, the deli guy who is 10 feet away can't give them any. And I too have noticed that seafood is now shrinkwrapped and in cases only.

I have not been to a real grocery store (read: supermarket) in months. There is a little natural foods store a couple blocks away, but I honestly get most of my "groceries" if any from the deli across the street. Yeah, I'm not a single guy.

If you're in the North or Northwest burbs of Chicago, go to Jerry's in Niles.
The absolute cheapest produce around.
Also has a lot of weird specials.
Lots of overstock & closeouts from all over the place.
I loaded up on Nestle turtles a few weeks ago, just 99¢ a box, over $4 everywhere else!

@humphrmi:
Also always has matzo unbelievably cheap for months after Passover.
At one point, farfel & meal was 10 boxes for $1!
Last I saw it was 5 for $1!
Or try Stanley's Fruit Market at Elston & North Ave.

Otherwise, most shopping is done at Costco, but Aldi is for staples.
Jewel & Dominick's are so overpriced it's disgusting!

SuperTarget is great, personally. My wife has a chronic illness, so she racks up the 10% cards (one for every 10 scrips filled) nearly monthly -- 10% off your grocery bill is a heckvua perk for getting your drugs there (we easily get a month of groceries free then!). If they were to discontinue or otherwise reduce the program we'd seriously think about going somewhere else or back to delivery or something.

Proof: Loyalty begins with a bribe. :)

The best grocery I've shopped at is Shopper's Corner in Santa Cruz. I miss it. Expensive as hell, succinct and awesome. They don't have much space, so they don't stock a lot of junk. If you want something they will get it for you- even if that something is "Venezuelan Beaver Cheese".

I guess none of the commenters here are from the SF Bay Area - My folks used to shop at Andronico's a block from home because it was convenient, but once I had to take over the shopping duties, it's about 95% Costco, 3% the Korean Green Grocer a few blocks away (Hi Mrs. Park! :-) ) and the rest Safeway (with my fake name club card) and the grocery bills have dropped dramatically.

Andronico's is like shopping for groceries at a Mercedes dealership - all super duper fancy and ultra luxurious inside with prices to match. I had no choice but to get some last minute dessert there with company imminent, and the $9 Just Desserts cake I could have gotten at Costco had time allowed was $18 dollars! 18 FRIGGIN dollars for a little cake to serve 6 people. A pint of Haagen Dasz was 4.99 (2 dollars MORE than the damn 7-11 (king of price gouging)

I'm sure that a lot of the pricing is due to the fact that our formerly middle class neighborhood has transformed into a yuppificated Wisteria Lane - and those folks make so much money they don't care if things are 50% more than you can get them somewhere else. Playland Safeway isn't too bad at the right time of day - but seems a little dicey after dark when all the homeless drunken folks start hassling you for change in the parking lot. I still miss Park n Shop though...

Ha, ha, you underprivileged kids. I live in Houston. I have six or seven favorite grocery stores:

Regular shopping: HEB (God bless you, Mr. Butts)... for more upscale shopping, HEB Central Market. Better HEBs at the HQ city of San Antonio, but the newer ones in Houston are just fine.

General ethnic food: The super Fiesta on Bellaire has the best prices and caters to every ethnicity imaginable.

Specifically Asian food: Golden Foods Supermarket, three kinds of everything and you've only heard of ten percent of it. If you can't find it here, you have to fly to San Francisco.

Whole Foods Market: Oh, I rarely actually push a cart there. Special ordering by the case is where it's at, baby.

Fresh local vegetables: The immense farmer's market at Greenway, every Saturday. Real farmers, real food.

Kroger, Randall's (the local Safeway front), Wal-mart, Super Target... KMA.

(puts down the glass of wine)...

OK, my point, to the extent I had one, was that I don't have A favorite grocer, and most of the ones I'm loyal to would never show up in a nationwide survey. So I don't know where that leaves the IBM study.

@atalantapendragonne: I think I have a clue where you live, if I'm right that it's Houston. The farmer's market I mentioned (Bayou City) is in the parking lot behind 3000 Richmond. [www.urbanharvest.org]

Trader Joe's is the only grocery store i've ever evangelized. The prices are good, and the selection is the way that i want it to be - a wide variety of products, but usually only one brand of each.

Also, there's always a free sample of something cooking in the back. Free sample!

If there's any grocery store worthy of loyalty it would have to be Wegman's. Those of you from the North East know what I'm talking about. :)

@mgyqmb: gb2/b/

@Pylon83: It's the principle of the matter. The product is IN the shopping cart, not PUSHING the shopping cart. The "loyalty" card form, at least what I've seen, has you fill out name, address, phone, and then some other survey questions from income to number of children. Some of the latter questions may or may not be there, but with the former stuff you can find out the rest.

If I *need* a card to not get the non-customer fine, I'll either not fill out the form or fill in false info. If I forget my card, I get a new one with equally missing/false info. If I haven't forgotten in a while, I'll make sure to do so.

I have a King Sooper and Safeway near me. I don't give a rat's behiind about either of them, but King Sooper is open 24 hrs. and offers me a discount on gas (which is still the cheapest around even without it). If Captain McFartyPants' opened across the street tomorrow, there's nothing special about either King Sooper or Safeway that would keep me there.