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Your Favorite Local Supermarket
by The Webmaster
Giant Food - Lake Ridge Commons
Your Favorite Local SupermarketThe Woodbridge Patch recently ran a poll (very similar to the one we run about favorite Chinese restaurants) asking its readers to identify their favorite local supermarket. Therefore, we're sounding off about our favorite food stores. If the recent holidays were an indicator, I personally would have had to select nearly "all of the above". We literally shop at nearly all stores listed in Patch poll. From Thanksgiving through New Year's Eve, we shopped at Safeway,Giant, Wegmans, Shopper's and BJs. Call it Food Lion or Bloom, the supermarket has become a favorite thanks to its middle of the road prices on everyday products, an increasing selection of products not normally found in a Food Lion/Bloom and really good prices on those food products you would not touch with a ten foot pole in other stores. And I am not talking about Wegmans. Wegmans IS a specialty store by definition. Its reputation precedes it and is well deserved. One of my relatives lives just outside the Big Apple and while they have an incredible selection of supermarkets we would love to have in our own neighborhoods, she and her friends would give their *I teeth* for a nearby Wegmans. They entertain constantly and our holiday present to them was a Wegmans shopping bag filled with the goodies we know they all crave or would use while entertaining. It included a nice selection of "specialty" or unique items they would use preparing their everyday meals. The use of Wegmans shopping bags now draws some attention and quite a few questions while packing your groceries at their local A & P or King's. Back to Wegmans for a minute...it has proved to be a middle of the road store for regular grocery products. In our mind, it is no more expensive to purchase the majority of grocery staples at Wegmans than it is to go to your neighborhood Giant or Safeway. It stands out in the crowd thanks to its incredible selection of specialty cuts of meats, the produce section, the fish counter, the deli and cheese selections, and their outstanding bakery. Moreover, who does not like their food bars? Safeway and Giant always seem to be more expensive - on every level - although we still shop there for certain Safeway brand products. Harris Teeter is just plain, all 'round expensive! If we were to use specific grocery products, purchased almost weekly, as an indicator, then Bloom has them all beat by a mile. One of Clark Howard 's recent consumer tips raised this question: are store brand groceries a better deal? Our general experience has been that the store brands were of inferior quality but in many cases, it is simply not true. Store brands can and do save you money and in many cases, we found Bloom's store brand products to be well prepared, quite tasty and a bargain. So...as consumers and customers, we are sad to see certain Woodbridge, Virginia Bloom supermarkets leave the premises. We've shopped at the Bloom in the Staples Mill Plaza Shopping Center on many occasions due to its convenient location off Minnieville Road. One can certainly not argue the lack of potential customers for this store with all the existing and new housing developments mushrooming in the immediate vicinity on Spriggs Road. One could also not argue the lack of customers at the Post Office location. We've shopped there frequently - again because of its convenient location near the intersection of the Prince William Parkway and Minnieville Road. On more than one occasion, we've stood in long lines at both locations. We are, however, happy to know that others store will remain - hopefully with the same selection of products. Last year, it was a pleasant surprise to find items on their store shelves that we usually purchased elsewhere. Yet, it was not so long ago that we also noticed certain deli items were available in one store and not in another. Was it a precursor of things to come? In closing, purely out of shopping habits, we will continue to shop at all our local supermarkets depending on what is advertised in their weekly flyer and which one delivers the best price on the products we consider staples. Just our two cent's worth.
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Sesquicentennial EventsWoodbridge VA
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