What's Your Favorite Grocery Store?

[NenaE]

Central Market.

[IronTiger]

Super H-Mart.  Awesome Korean foodcourt inside.  Marinated bulgogi by the pound and fresh kim-chi (not just the cabbage variety).

Yeah, I've fallen in love with H Mart too. The bakery is semi-separate from the rest of the store (in the food court), and the stuff in general tends to be a bit pricier than your typical store, but it does carry a coconut water beverage I like (at only a dollar, too!) and the seafood department is absolutely fantastic.

[Hasek]

Favorite: Central Market (cant afford it)

Daily use: HEB on 18th

Major shopping HEB Bunker Hill

 

I used to work for HEB and love the company best friend roommate worked for krogers, i hate krogers and the only time ill shop there is if i cant get to bunker hill in time 

[kylejack]

HEB Montrose. Great product selection, good prices

[Subdude]

Favorite: Central Market (cant afford it)

Daily use: HEB on 18th

Major shopping HEB Bunker Hill

 

I used to work for HEB and love the company best friend roommate worked for krogers, i hate krogers and the only time ill shop there is if i cant get to bunker hill in time 

 

I've been to Central Market once, got lost, and never went back.  Is the layout not confusing, or is it just me in my dotage?  At least HEB sells some Central Market items.

[barracuda]

^ I like exploring Central Market from time to time for their seafood and specialty selections, but I agree the store layout is terrible. I suppose they're trying to manage the traffic in a sense, but if you forget something in one section, it's annoying to go backwards through the maze and play bumper cars against the tide of shoppers. 

[august948]

I've been to Central Market once, got lost, and never went back.  Is the layout not confusing, or is it just me in my dotage?  At least HEB sells some Central Market items.

 

I actually like the layout of Central Market.  It's main thoroughfare meanders through different departments rather than take the grid approach of a conventional store.  That said, when I go there it's to browse and explore, not to get the milk and toilet paper and get out as fast as possible as I do with normal grocery stores.

 

Best thing by far about Central Market, though, is you can buy single bottles of good beer on the cheap and drink them on the patio upstairs with whatever cheese or deli items you find.

 

[Purpledevil]

Piggly Wiggly. What's not to love, especially with a name like that? Hated to see it leave Houston. We went to the N. Main location in near Northside. I think it's called El Güero now.

Active grocers, I actually don't mind Joe V's on Vets Memorial and Antoine. Good prices, easy to navigate. I don't care much for Kroger itself, but if I'm near the one on 20th and need to pick up something for the Mrs., I'll stop there since I know a good amount of the longtimers that work there. Some, like Paula and Miss Delia, have been there since I was still in school.

[IronTiger]

Kroger in general I've found works as a second best alternative to H-E-B in most cases. I don't like it because the quality from store to store is inconsistent, worse brand names (although that one isn't quite fair, since the HEB brand names tend to go above & beyond the norm), the noxious Kroger Card has to be used to get an equivalent price to H-E-B, and stores generally tend to be smaller and less upscale than H-E-B (at least, that's my experience), while on the plus side, they tend to have more lanes open and have a simpler layout (maybe because of smaller stores, but most H-E-Bs force you through a maze of some sort). I haven't been to a Randalls store before, but if the combined Albertsons/Safeway can get it moving in the right direction like what Albertsons has been working on with the United division--namely, comparable prices to H-E-B/Kroger and no shopper's card, they just might bump Kroger to third place. Either way, I'll have to go to it before I rate it on my list.

I've been to a Trader Joe's now (but not Aldi, WF, or Central Market, either) and while I do like it, it's hard to put it on a list like I would Kroger or H-E-B. Fiesta at least crosses the gap where it's "special" enough to put it on the list but "mainstream" where I could bunch it with Kroger/H-E-B, while H-Mart and TJ's are on the "exotic" side of the scale. I like them, of course, but they'd never work as a "real" grocery store for me. Maybe an ideal grocery store would involve Fiesta's bakery, H-Mart's seafood department, Trader Joe's cleanliness (at least I seemed to get that impression), Walmart's general merchandise department, H-E-B's store brands, and Kroger's layout.

Yes, that would work, I suppose.

[Luminare]

HEB Montrose and HEB Buffalo Speedway

 

There is just so much to appreciate with how much HEB have grown in terms of their attention to detail and degree of sophistication in their developments. Yes they are still big box stores (yuck), but they go the extra mile to actually incorporate thoughtful design into their buildings and it's obvious that people appreciate that. Of course their prices and selections beat any grocer right now.

[august948]

Yes they are still big box stores (yuck),

 

Is that an architectural opinion or a knee-jerk reaction?

 

[gene]

the new Whole Foods Post Oak will be....its on the street i live on and 2 blocks from the street i work on!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQpu9s15tM8

 

opening THIS Thursday 11/06/14!

 

[shaernurse]

HEB. But they are taking there sweet to to come to Oak Forest or Garden Oak. I used to drive to the one on Bunker Hill.

[cspwal]

I realize that Randall's has had sort of a bad rep since the Safeway acquisition, but does anyone have a feel for how Randall's prices compare to the competition?  They used to have a reputation for being a good bit more expensive.  I've only been in one recently to pick up one small item so it's hard for me to say.  

 

I go to the Randall's in midtown mainly (walking to a grocery store? In Houston? Blasphemy) and their prices seem about inline with other Krogers the few times I go there.  Main issue on the price front would be the card discounts aren't typically as good as at Kroger, and since they do card discounts the without card price is way higher than HEB

[technoevil]

Daily use:  Randalls in Meadows Place on W. Bellfort

Favorites:  HEB on 6 and 90, Costco on University, and Trader Joes on Voss (Can't wait for the Westheimer one to open!)

[IronTiger]

So I went to a Whole Foods or two recently, and I gotta say...even though I'd probably never shop there normally (not too big on organics or "natural" stuff) but they had a great sandwich bar and a place to get beer and wine by the glass, which I probably would've indulged in had I not been driving around (plus on a budget).

 

Do any HEB stores locally have a beer and wine bar?

[august948]

So I went to a Whole Foods or two recently, and I gotta say...even though I'd probably never shop there normally (not too big on organics or "natural" stuff) but they had a great sandwich bar and a place to get beer and wine by the glass, which I probably would've indulged in had I not been driving around (plus on a budget).

 

Do any HEB stores locally have a beer and wine bar?

 

Central Market sells beer and wine for consumption in their seating area and patio.  Don't think I'd go so far as to call it a bar.

 

The new Whole Food on Post Oak actually has a microbrewery/bar.  All the other Whole Foods I've been to have had bars put in recently.  Haven't seen that at any other grocery chains, yet.

 

EDIT:  just remembered you can buy bottles of beer at the main Phoenicia and I recall there being a bar at the downtown location. 

[MikeRichardson]

I go to the Randall's in midtown mainly (walking to a grocery store? In Houston? Blasphemy) and their prices seem about inline with other Krogers the few times I go there.  Main issue on the price front would be the card discounts aren't typically as good as at Kroger, and since they do card discounts the without card price is way higher than HEB

 

 

Ever since the Safeway/Albertson's merger closed there have been some really good Randalls card sales.

 

Right now you can get 12 packs of Coke, Pepsi, DrPepper, 7 Up etc, cans, $2 each pack as long as you get 5. 

 

So $10 for 60 cans of name brand soda. That's cheaper than the damn store brand literally anywhere. It's cheaper than "Always Low Prices Walmart". And you can mix or match.

 

They also have some "Monopoly" promotion kind of like McDonalds now? I don't know if it's any good or not but you get a bonus Monopoly ticket for every case of soda, and a lot of other stuff as well. Some of the tickets are instant win for free products.

 

Anyway there's some good deals to be had depending on what you buy, but on any given week I am likely to hit all 3: Randalls, Kroger, and HEB.

[august948]

Daily use:  Randalls in Meadows Place on W. Bellfort

Favorites:  HEB on 6 and 90, Costco on University, and Trader Joes on Voss (Can't wait for the Westheimer one to open!)

 

Is that the building they've built in front of Kohl's?  Is it still a go?