Carly R.
Yelp
I'm fairly new to the neighborhood after living near campus/walking distance from the small Wheatsville location on Guad. I've been upping my cooking game since moving & it's great to have a store with quality products a short walk away (after quickly realizing a reliance on neighboring WalMart meant seriously slim & chemical-laden food pickins.) So the prices ain't low (at least on meat/dairy/Cliff Bars), but I like how much diverse inventory they pack into a small space. It reminds me of living in Italy, where the grocery stores are all the size of this location; big stores get overwhelming when you end up zigzagging all over the place, walking a mile by the time you're done. Very friendly & helpful staff that is high in ratio to customers. Great ethnic food aisle for a non-ethnic/small store (packs a punch in limited space, as mentioned). So I'm LOVING their personal care product aisle selection, combined with the fact said items are 10% off on Fridays and frequently on sale, adding to the discount. They not only have several lotions etc that my previous Wheatsville & N Lamar Central Market discontinued, but the base prices are a little lower. They have testers for everything...if I'd known that yesterday, I'd have taken advantage cause I ran out of the Korean face moisturizer I get from Amazon or Sephora (which aren't current options due to Covid at its height) & I knew I had to get something different from a grocery store or pharmacy. Depending how the one I got elsewhere works (& if Fresh Plus stocks it), at least I can test other products, which are far more affordable than my long-standing $44 brand & worth trial & error since more natural products wouldn't kill me. I'm far from vegan, but they have great vegan selection & meat worth the price tag compared to WalMart & other horrible sources of hormone-pumped animals. So far, I've used great ground lamb & beef tenderloin. I'm not this vegan/all-natural type who cares to think about animal testing/treatment/slaughter, but I hope this store will help me swap out more meat products, personal care products & produce etc for more natural & responsibly sourced alternatives. It's a win-win since I just MIGHT avoid cancer by spending more on groceries. I'm also glad this store is making it easier to upgrade packaged foods like Pacific brand broths compared to the nasty stuff with literally 8-9x the sodium at WalMart. I'll have to ask them more about their meat & produce sourcing; seems pretty local & up to higher standards. My tenderloin was wagyu or like it according to an employee to whom I confessed sticker shock. I'm more concerned with whether animals for meat are pumped w/hormones than how they're treated (nothing against animals, I just prefer not thinking about it & care about HUMAN lives more than animal lives), but kinder animal conditions (& even perhaps slaughter methods) tend to go hand in hand with cleaner quality meat for human consumption. I've toyed with eating kosher meat a few times (because the slaughter is merciful & dignified), but considering there are like NO Jewish ppl here compared to my native Northeast, maybe I can learn more about the meat sourcing without getting squirmy. I'm confident local sourcing not from big gross Tyson type companies bodes well. It's ok if a rabbi isn't doing the dirty deed. Anyway, the personal care stuff is dangerous for my wallet & adds up, but if I spread it out & avoid that aisle outside of Fridays & actual need of something, I'll live. I'm almost out of body lotion & love the goat milk variety I got to sample today (in addition to the Andalou scented lotion I'd watched get discontinued at Wheatsville & Central Market & got to replenish today, having forgotten where I got my current bottle). Looking forward to trying the Alba aloe/mint shave cream, natural hair dye brand in RED that I've never seen at Whole Foods (since I use awful box stuff right now), other Andalou lotion scents (plus another brand I sampled) & of course, more meat, produce etc...The woman in the personal care aisle said local customers maintain demand for the diverse selection, so guess there are like-minded ppl in Allendale...products I love always get discontinued at the store or company level (RIP Liberté' Lavender Yogurt!), so hopefully the great inventory is maintained & maybe I can even convince them to order certain things they don't stock or that they run out of...What a rant Someone's procrastinating...will update in the future, so far so good.