Lilya wrote:Are there any other larger, consistent chains worth looking out for? I know about Casey's Foods for meat, but past that...

I am a big fan of Michaels Fresh Market on Rt. 59 in Naperville. Huge selection of good produce with a nice variety. Some interesting selections in the deli counter (olives, several kinds of Feta, Fage, etc). Tons of ethnic foods up and down the aisles that you would not find in a Dom/Jewell. And prices much better than either of those chains, and of course less than Whole Foods. The seafood counter is weak, but the meat/poultry selection is good, if weak on the higher end offerings (not much of a Filet/Porterhouse/Strip Steak/Rib Eye selection, but a great source for short ribs/chuck roast/tripe).

Biggest news around is the pending opening of H-Mart on Ogden near Naper Rd in the old Dominicks space. H-Mart will amaze you with their enormous selection of produce and seafood. Its nominally a Korean food store, but they have a very good selection of pan-asian food as well as American standards. TThey plan to open sometime in August.

There is also a local store in naperville called Medeterranian Oasis that I have not been to but gets very good reviews.

I do most of my grocery shopping at a Meijer store in the suburbs these days, even though I live in the city. The produce and meats at Meijers are always fresh, good quality, and consistently less expensive than Jewel or Dominicks. Meijer also introduced its own house brand organic food line recently, and the prices are competitive or even better than what I've been finding at WF or the other big groceries.

If your in the burbs, I think Meijer is definitely a store to go out of your way for.

My points are these:

1) Whole Foods, Dominicks, and Jewel are very expensive to shop in and are generally more expensive than your local independent and soem of the smaller chains (to include Trader Joe's and Aldi's). Whether Whole Foods is more expensive than Dominicks for me is fairly irrelevant. It is like comparing the prices of Mercedes and Lexus models. Since I don't buy either, I cannot tell you.

2) I would not expect the Big 3 (SuperValu, Krogers and Safeway) to discount any organic products since those products produce the highest profit margins in the store.

If Whole Foods sets the price of organic products high in the Chicago area, the large supermarket chains are very happy to meet (but not beat)their price. That way, the supermarket chains increase their profits, the producers increase their profits, the middlemen increase their profits and the CONSUMER LOSES.

The only way that this cycle is defeated is that someone - like a WalMart or Trader Joes comes in the market and offers the product at a lower price. TJs lacks the muscle to do so - at this point.

3) For the record, I have no stake in this whole process. Most of my produce comes from shipments from Ohio (both my father and my in-laws produce huge gardens of which they consume little). What I cannot receive from them, I tend to buy at salvage (when available) or buy at small local independent markets.

I see a lot of working families stuggling to feed their families in a healthy manner in these inflationary times.

If you can get to Palatine, Joe Caputo & Sons store carries some organic produce and products. I don't go to WF often, so I don't know what their prices are, but I have bought some organic produce at good prices. They sell organic apples, carrots, baby greens, raspberries etc.

They also carry some organic groceries - juices, pastas, salad dressings, etc. I haven't explored it too much, as I don't buy a lot of the organic groceries, but I can take a look and report back if there is interest.

Here is the address:

2070 N Rand Rd
Palatine

There is a store in Des Planes and there is one opening soon in Algonquin, but I have only been to the Palatine one.

I fournd myself at Jewel Saturday because I made a deposit at TCF Bank. So I noticed they had sugar on sale and picked up a bag. At checkout, after declining the "Extreme Value", I was asked if I had my Preferred Card, and I replied I had forgotten it, as I always do, and the clerk said "No problem, I'll cover you," and scanned their generic Preferred Card into the register. Then she said Jewel was toughening up their rules and soon I would need to have my own Preferred Card or pay full price.

I can't believe they want to lose business that badly.

i like jewel... they make a good 7 layer dip and i always though their chicken was better than dominicks

MBK wrote:i like jewel... they make a good 7 layer dip and i always though their chicken was better than dominicks

I'll remember that the next time I need 7 layer dip.

Cogito wrote:

MBK wrote:i like jewel... they make a good 7 layer dip and i always though their chicken was better than dominicks

I'll remember that the next time I need 7 layer dip.

We should make a game out of seeing who can stay out of a Dominick's & Jewel the longest (unfortunately for me, I need to go today to buy a couple of CTA passes).

I grew up with National/Jewel. When I lived in Roscoe Village 20 years ago, I shopped at Dominick's a few times. Dominick's was always a little more trendier than Jewel. They had bulk food items displayed in open burlap sacks, food samples and more Italian food products. They had better tasting deli products than Jewel like their spinach dip. It was always packed on a Saturday. I've been stopping at that shopping plaza the last couple of years and my impression is that it's going out of business. It's always bereft of customers. Jewel has gotten to be too expensive. Romaine from Canada for $2? I can get it for .69 at Andy's. I like a few products at Jewel like their frozen orange juice, frozen vegetables and Oberweis lemonade (made with cane syrup). The Dominicks' at the Fullerton El stop is a marketing phenomenon. BTW, they have a bathroom on the second floor (this is something El riders need to know) and if you need to grab a quick bite en route, you can do so in their store.

This is a digression, but out of curiousity, I googled Jewel and National and found this article about the history of Chicago's food stores at Encyclopedia of Chicago: http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/554.html

Another digression is the story of the Pink Palace Mansion in Memphis which I visited on the 20th annniversary weekend of the death of the King: http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/imagegallery.php?EntryID=S006. Timely, perhaps, since Mr. Saunders lost his new-found wealth in the stock market and left his Pink Palace unfinished.

Guilty conscience be damned, yesterday I walked to my local Dom's at Lincoln & Foster for some nacho supplies, and saw that they had mislabeled the ground beef as 7-bone roast. Thus, I bought a big package of ground beef for $1.49/lb. What's sad is they still made a profit off of it.

Saint Pizza wrote:Guilty conscience be damned, yesterday I walked to my local Dom's at Lincoln & Foster for some nacho supplies, and saw that they had mislabeled the ground beef as 7-bone roast. Thus, I bought a big package of ground beef for $1.49/lb. What's sad is they still made a profit off of it.

Someday when they knock down this disaster, I'll be there smiling, chugging down a six-pack (not purchased at Dominick's) and smoking a big cigar.

And I'll be happy.

Bster

I know this is the thread to loathe Dominicks and I'm about to write about Jewel. . .but I guess in a way this post is about why it's easyto loathe Dominicks.

I actually like the Dominicks on Clybourn, south of Costco. Although we buy very little at any large grocery chain, this one seemed to have more of what we needed. And, they upgraded the lighting, offered more gluten-free items, and generally I prefered it over the closest Jewel.

But, too often the employees have that, "I'm part of a loser-company that treats me like crap and I'm not going to make it any better" attitude. Can't say that I blame them. . .much. The last time I went, the manager on duty was being a checkout person rather than being a manager and the entire time she checked my items, she complained to me about . . .well, about something. I tried not to listen. In addition, the lines there are often too long.

The Jewel on Ashland is closer to me. I can walk there. They do carry stuff we buy from this type of store, but I do prefer the Dominicks. The Jewel started cutting staff and putting in those self-checkout lanes, though. For a year, maybe longer, if you didn't want to self-check, you waited in long lines. They would have 6 self-check lines open and 1 cashier. So, it was really a dice roll between the two of them - slow and miserable service or slow and miserable service.

But, my last two trips to that Jewel have been vastly improved. Well, the store looks that same and all that and the meat selection certainly didn't get any better, but they now have cashiers. Multiple ones. Waiting JUST for you. On both occasions, none of them had more than one customer and I walked directly to an open lane and started unloading. WOW!

This won't make me shop there any more often, but I can easily forego ever setting foot into Dominicks again at this point.

This seems to be the thread to talk about Strack and Van Tils. Was in the Elston/Logan location yesterday early evening, and was a bit worried for them--pretty empty. I mean, there were customers, but compared to any Jewel, it was tumbleweed city. There actually were certain aisles you could look down the entire length of and not see a solitary soul. That can't be good.

I hope the chain is successful here because they do seem to offer something a little different, both in the selection and in the store experience (which is a pleasant one, IMO).

+1. I stopped there out of curiosity since it is off my beaten track. I thought it was a big improvement over Jewel and Dominicks. Big selection and better pricing. Got a great deal on some big frozen shrimp. Their produce and deli departments seemed pretty good. I would suggest anyone nearby to give it a look-see.

Depends on when you go, I was there on Monday (Labor day) in the middle of the day and S&VT was packed.

If I lived near the Strack & Van Tils, I'd probably shop there -- it's big and bright and clean and they carry what you expect a chain supermarket to carry. But I didn't find it was anything special and it seemed more expensive than my local Dominick's and Jewel, which is to say a lot more expensive than the places I normally shop.

This is as opposed to, say, Shop & Save, which I think is worth going out my way for.

Edited to fix link

bananasandwiches wrote:Hey, at least they don't have those little mini "kid carts" like they do at Trader Joes. If I had a nickel for everytime some 4 year old rammed me in the back of the legs while their mother/nanny/guardian smiled cluelessly at them, I'd have a butt ton of nickels. Yes, kids will be kids. Yes, kids do best in a store when occupied. No, kids should not be pushing carts, mini or otherwise, especially in Trader Joe's where there's barely enough room for the carts us grown folks are pushing. If you pay for the food, THEN you get to push the cart.

I hate those things so much. This is one of those areas where I'm told I will understand when I have my own...but unless having children involves a lobotomy that will render me insensate to the bruised calves of fellow shoppers, I seriously doubt that I will.

Our D'ick's was at Devon and Ridge, and it was crap. The crappest crap D'icks ever - poorly laid-out, dirty, understocked, the help was more interested in scratching their oozing sores than, you know, helping (I wish I were kidding). But then it closed, and, well, I love Devon, but the shopping is limited. If you want to buy henna, garam masala, or usli ghee, you're in luck. Chocolate chips, cream cheese, dish soap - not so much.

We go to the Jewel on Howard now. It's OK. They often have free cookies at the bakery on weekends.

Suzy Creamcheese, I have 3 kids and hate those kiddie carts too!!!

LAZ, give Aldi a whirl....it is far, FAR superior to any Shop&Save.

does anyone happen to know when the new Dominicks store on Chicago ave at damen is supposed to be open?? i can't believe i'm actually looking forward to it.

dddane wrote:does anyone happen to know when the new Dominicks store on Chicago ave at damen is supposed to be open?? i can't believe i'm actually looking forward to it.

I go by there every day, where are they going to put it???

leek wrote:I go by there every day, where are they going to put it???

It's just west of the McDonalds. I figured it was already open.

leek wrote:

dddane wrote:does anyone happen to know when the new Dominicks store on Chicago ave at damen is supposed to be open?? i can't believe i'm actually looking forward to it.

I go by there every day, where are they going to put it???

It's almost entirely built. It's in the old Edmar space on Chicago Ave, but much more of an monstrosity than Edmar.

I'm surprisingly looking forward to it as well; I practically live in a "food desert" right now. You need a place closeby to pop into now and then for emergencies.

So this must be a good bit off of Damen, because I go on Damen and I didn't even know there was a McDonalds around there.

leek wrote:So this must be a good bit off of Damen, because I go on Damen and I didn't even know there was a McDonalds around there.

errrr ... the McDonalds is about 50ft from the intersection

Saint Pizza wrote:LAZ, give Aldi a whirl....it is far, FAR superior to any Shop&Save.

I think you must be confusing Shop & Save with something else. The three Shop & Save markets (Niles, Des Plaines and Schaumburg) are locally owned, full-service stores that have wonderful delis with their own smoked meats and sausage and a wide variety of other charcuterie; extensive bakeries of their own plus many breads and baked goods from other bakeries; a wide array of interesting imported foods; complete produce departments; very good house-made soups, salads and other prepared dishes; as well as all the routine supermarket items and the major brands. (In the Niles store, in particular, it's sort of like two markets -- a regular supermarket in front and an ethnic one in back.)

Aldi -- at least the one near me -- offers a limited selection of discount goods in mainly off-brands amid unpleasant shopping conditions and requires self packing of groceries and a deposit for a shopping cart.

LAZ wrote:I think you must be confusing Shop & Save with something else. The three Shop & Save markets (Niles, Des Plaines and Schaumburg) are locally owned, full-service stores that have wonderful delis with their own smoked meats and sausage and a wide variety of other charcuterie;

The Shop and Save that the other poster is probably refering to is a discount grocery store that is owned and developed by SuperValu.

http://www.shopnsave.com/sns-webapp/index.jsp

I do everything I can to not go to Dominick's. But they host the Starbucks and Chase that are the most convenient to me. I haven't bought produce or meat from them in a few years.

I did have the pleasure of shopping at Casey's Foods in Naperville last Friday by recommendation of this discussion. I bought a couple filets that looked much bigger once I got them home One of the best cuts of meat I've ever had the joy of cooking. I also picked up some chipotle and hot italian sausages - all of which were very good.

For produce - I'll generally hit Michael's on Route 59 in Naperville. They also make wonderful salsa and desserts. I've never cared much for their meat.

DaveG wrote:I do everything I can to not go to Dominick's. But they host the Starbucks and Chase that are the most convenient to me. I haven't bought produce or meat from them in a few years.

Whoever decided to put banks and coffee kiosks in grocery stores was a genius. The ONLY reason to head into a Jewel store is to stop at TCF Bank.

tem wrote:

leek wrote:So this must be a good bit off of Damen, because I go on Damen and I didn't even know there was a McDonalds around there.

errrr ... the McDonalds is about 50ft from the intersection

i don't think it's even 50 feet. it's *at* the intersection. are you sure you're talking about Chicago Ave, leek? i nearly get hit by someone every other day who is pulling out of their drive through blindly passing in front of buses that are trying to get to the bus stop right there...

(across from the street from diner that advertises trash talking waitresses)

jlawrence01 wrote:The Shop and Save that the other poster is probably refering to is a discount grocery store that is owned and developed by SuperValu.

http://www.shopnsave.com/sns-webapp/index.jsp

There aren't any SuperValu Shop 'n Save stores closer than Springfield, Ill. Based on their web site, they also appear to be full-service supermarkets, which Aldi certainly isn't, so I remain confused.

Anyway, the local Shop & Save markets are not connected with SuperValu. They are great stores that I urge folks to check out.

http://www.shopandsavemarket.com

229 Golf Mill Center
Niles
847.803.6590

518 Metropolitan Way
Des Plaines
847.227.5800

830 W Golf Rd
Schaumburg
847.781.7000

(N.B. Cathy2: They make their own pickle soup.)