Community Chat

[Cakers3]

@Spurt  I despise H-E-B.  Especially that HIll Country Fare brand or whatever it is called.  Tried it once and threw it out.

H-E-B has also removed some other brand name products we would buy from time to time.

Wal-Mart and H-E-B are only used for household supplies; I won't buy food from either one.

[Spurt]

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@Cakers3wrote:

@Spurt  I despise H-E-B.  Especially that HIll Country Fare brand or whatever it is called.  Tried it once and threw it out.

H-E-B has also removed some other brand name products we would buy from time to time.

Wal-Mart and H-E-B are only used for household supplies; I won't buy food from either one.

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@Cakers3

I know what you mean....they are carrying less and less of the national brands or they put the national brands on the bottom shelf in the hopes you will chose the brand easier to reach

The store nearest me is never stocked well....and one time the only thing left in the bread aisle was their HEB brand of bread....that was the WORST bread Ive ever had.it actually crumbled....And one time I bought some frozen green beans again only brand that was stocked and it actually had green bean STEMS in it....

[JaneMarple]

I just got home and after reading this thread I see that it'as a anti-Amazon (Bezos) thread pretty much like the one against facebook (Zuckerberg) yesterday. @Noel7 you made excellent points on your posts.

[conlt]

Most recently, I read that grocery prices are dropping because of the increased competition from delivery companies. Lets face it you can get almost any food delivered these days.I live in Florida and in my opinion Publix is the best store here, however I have shopped Winn Dixie for years but pretty much stopped when the BiLow take over happened. The quality of the meats was not choice anymore for the most part, and they used very tricky pricing. Example advertising a 8oz steak in a way that made it seem cheaper than it was. Also when I have gone to Winn Dixie, they often don't have what I want.  I shop at Publix a lot and Costco when I am nearby. I wonder if Publix is going to be able to keep their prices competitive while maintaining the same level of service at their stores. I am sorry to see business close. Our 3 Winn Dixies are not closing which is a good thing for now anyway. 

[Cakers3]

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@JaneMarplewrote:

I just got home and after reading this thread I see that it'as a anti-Amazon (Bezos) thread pretty much like the one against facebook (Zuckerberg) yesterday. Noel you made excellent points on your posts.

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@JaneMarple  ??  Some have good experiences with any retailer and some do not.

I don't know about the Zuckerberg thread but I think some good points were made and some good info was given out whether anti-Amazon or pro-Amazon.

Why can't we have both???

[JaneMarple]

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@Cakers3wrote:

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@JaneMarplewrote:

I just got home and after reading this thread I see that it'as a anti-Amazon (Bezos) thread pretty much like the one against facebook (Zuckerberg) yesterday. Noel you made excellent points on your posts.

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@JaneMarple  ??  Some have good experiences with any retailer and some do not.

I don't know about the Zuckerberg thread but I think some good points were made and some good info was given out whether anti-Amazon or pro-Amazon.

Why can't we have both???

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[RespectLife]

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@Noel7wrote:

It sounds like they did it to themselves:

"Tops, a 56-year-old chain with 169 stores in New York, Pennsylvania and Vermont, filed for bankruptcy late last month following years of mounting debt. Southeastern, which owns more than 600 Winn-Dixie, Harvey’s and BI-LO stores across seven states in the Southeast, announced a refinancing agreement on March 15 and says it will file for bankruptcy by April."

I don't like SF grocery stores, we have mainly Safeway and Lucky and they are so behind the times.

I see people here from the East coast talk about their stores and they sound so much better.

The Bay Area is known for fine food and leading foodie trends, but the stores are the pits.

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I agree with @Noel7

At least in our area, Whole Foods/Amazon had nothing to do with Tops downfall.

We don't have the other chain.

Before Wegman's came, Tops was it.  When Weg started building all over western New York, you could see that Tops struggled to compete.

However, we never had a Whole Foods til last spring and it JUST opened and there is only one.  Tops was in trouble way before that. 

I shop 95% Weg and 5% Tops. Tops carries things that Weg doesn't.

I would be sorry to see them go though...you can run in so fast to get something because the store is always empty!  Close parking too. 

Wegman's is mobbed and you get a nice walk through the parking lot.

[gardenman]

Supermarkets come and go. I've seen multiple chains disappear long before Amazon or Wal-Mart were around. Right now, part of the problem for supermarkets is competition from convenience stores. My local Walgreens sells lots of groceries, so do local dollar stores, and convenience stores like our local Wawa's. You can be in and out of the smaller stores in a fraction of the time it takes to navigate a full-size supermarket.

I've believed for years that the smart strategy for a supermarket is to build a large, full service store, then operate small satellite convenience stores from that big store. Stock the most popular items in each satellite store, use the big store meat department, bakery, and produce to help stock the satellite stores. The stock in each satellite store could even be adjusted based on what sells well in that neighborhood. A couple of vans/smaller trucks moving stock from the main store to the satellite stores could maintain stocking. Keep prices the same at every location, including sales prices, and you could thrive. Supermarkets are purposely designed to force you to traverse the whole store to buy the most commonly bought items. That's inconvenient for a lot of people and is costing the supermarkets sales. Drug stores, dollar stores, and convenience stores love it though.

[cherry]

@gardenman  you always come up with the best ideas!

[Spurt]

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@conltwrote:

Most recently, I read that grocery prices are dropping because of the increased competition from delivery companies. Lets face it you can get almost any food delivered these days.I live in Florida and in my opinion Publix is the best store here, however I have shopped Winn Dixie for years but pretty much stopped when the BiLow take over happened. The quality of the meats was not choice anymore for the most part, and they used very tricky pricing. Example advertising a 8oz steak in a way that made it seem cheaper than it was. Also when I have gone to Winn Dixie, they often don't have what I want.  I shop at Publix a lot and Costco when I am nearby. I wonder if Publix is going to be able to keep their prices competitive while maintaining the same level of service at their stores. I am sorry to see business close. Our 3 Winn Dixies are not closing which is a good thing for now anyway. 

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Sorry but the prices are NOT dropping...recently it seems everytime I go to the grocery store the prices have gone up just a little....

As for delivery I recently did that and they even tell you that the prices they charge may be different than the local store where you shop, because they use an overall average price, and let me tell you all the products being delivered were higher, they also charge you a delivery which is reasonable and expected for the service, and then there's the tip for the driver for delivering the stuff....

So the old adage is true you get what you pay for and I can see people using this now and then but not on a regular basisp--it makes the overall cost of groceries higher than if you went to the store yourself....and would be a budget buster for some....I dont think the delivery companies are the reason some grocery stores are going under it like you said its about the quality of the meat, produce and brand variety, and if prices are too high people will go to a place that charges less and offers better quality....

I remember when Albertson's was here and yes they offered an extensive variety of national brands but their prices were high, their produce was awful so basically people went to the local chain where prices were lower and brands mixed between store and national and meat and produce were better....And Albertsons closed up and left town.........