What is your favorite grocery store or supermarket?

Question

What is your favorite grocery store for vegetarian/vegan specialty items?

Some of the stores in my area that have a great stock of veg foods are:

Kroger

Whole Foods (out of my way, but a wonderful store)

The Fresh Market

Answer 1

We live in the Harrisburg, PA area and we use Giant.  It is really convenient.  Before we start shopping we have some lunch from their cafe.  I get some crusty rolls from the bakery and head to the salad bar to get fresh veggies and fruit.  My husband and I have the sandwiches while my kids like to have mac and cheese from the hot bar.

After enjoying our lunch we drop the kids off at the daycare center that the store provides for free.  They get to play with fake food, art supplies, and video games while my husband and I shop.  It's not easy concentrating when you have 2 young children with you!

I head for the vegetarian section to get the tofu, smart dogs, smart ground, meatless meatballs, vegan garden spread, soy milk, soy ice cream, soy yogurt, and soy cheese.  Sometimes we buy Tofutti better than cream cheese as a treat.  Also ricemallow is good too.

Then we head to the produce section to buy our fruits and vegetables.  I would like to buy all organic, but I really can't spare the extra money.  We just buy what we like and watch for specials.  We always buy apples, potatoes, bananas, and spinach.  We don't have to buy tomatoes because we grow them.

Then we hit the rest of the store buying frozen vegetables, bread, hot and cold cereal, peanut butter and nuts, dries fruit, pastas and canned tomato products and sauces, coffee, condiments, and so on.

We also buy our cleaning supplies there.  We buy green works for most of our cleaning needs, but I like those toilet wands too.

We buy our budgie and guinea pig food there, but we get our timothy hay from a local farmer.  It's surprising, but our budgies like to eat timothy hay too!  I also give all of them fresh fruit and vegetables, but the budgies usually just throw it around.

Then after we pay for our groceries we leave the cart with the attendant and pick up our kids.  We take them and put them in the car.  Then we pull up and the attendants put our groceries in our trunk.  It's pretty sweet.

I really don't like putting the groceries away though:(  At least my husband brings them in.  I am usually ready for a nice nap after grocery shopping.  It is hectic and it grinds on my nerves sometimes:)  Good question and I which we had Kroger.  I heard they are good.

Answer 2

I shop a lot at Trader Joe's.

Answer 3

I like Vons, they have great selection.

Surprisingly enough so does Walmart.

But I'm not a vegan, i just have good eating practices :)

Answer 4

It's Only Natural organic market. Whole Foods is pretty good, but it doesn't have things like Boca Burgers.

Answer 5

My favorite is probably Gelson's or Wholefoods. Gelson's is expensive but they have awesome food.

SuperKing in Los Angeles is frikken awesome too but they only have 2 locations. Seriously, if you live in LA, check out SuperKing because they have the cheapest veggies I've ever seen!! Lots of Middle Eastern foods too. MMmm!!

Ranch 99 is my regular location since it's only a block away from where i live. Super cheap veggies, huge selection of Asian foods and cheap housewares.

Answer 6

Here we have Fred Meyer, which is a Kroger market.  By and large, it's not a fancy grocery store and it's cheaper than a lot of it's competitors.  But they have a fabulous and extensive natural foods section, including a huge array of bulk bins.  In addition to a great selection of vegan and natural foods, including lots of fairly esoteric ingredients, I can get all my vegan body care products and cleaning supplies, etc... there.

I love Whole Foods, but I rarely have to go there because I can get most of what I need in one stop, which is nice.  I hit up Trader Joes pretty often also, since they have products you literally can't get anywhere else.  We have a small vegan grocery here, but I really almost never have to go there; it's reserved for vegan snacky foods like seitan jerky and vegan smores.

Answer 7

the farmers market is always nice, but one must plan ahead for that

whole foods is great but expensive, as is wild oats

hyvee or sunfresh are my normal grocery stores that i actually use most of the time, the seem to do better than any of the other chains in my area. i find that more urban grocery stores tend to do a better job of stocking the kind of things that i want than the suburban ones do.

Answer 8

That depends on where you live. I live in Canada. I buy a lot of stuff at health food and specialty stores.

Answer 9

i hate whole foods because of the fact that they support "free range" sh*t. free range isn't better than factory farms or battery cages, but they can't get their heads around that. i personally shop at my local food co-op

Answer 10

Whole Foods is sooo good, but I think it's overpriced.  

I love Trader Joe's, but have to be careful.  I bought muffins and chocolate mix there and both wound up having fish in them (to fortify them with Omega-3s) so I had to give them away because I'm vegetarian.  You have to read labels carefully at that place!

I generally shop at Albertson's because they have good prices and a good variety.  I would love a farmers' market but I live in the desert and people don't grow anything around here. :P

Answer 11

In the US, Trader Joe's and the farmers' market near my house..

where I now live, it's not actually a grocery or supermarket.. It's my friend's organic veggie and fruit farm.. they also sell free range eggs and honey to select customers which I am one..They supply my restos produce..

I am sure you won't be interested where I buy meat and our own farm does not count cos we don't really buy from ourselves ;)

Answer 12

Sprout's is really good too......

Answer 13

My local supermarket carries pretty much everything (Super Stop and Shop).   Trader Joes is decent but out of the way and I do have an overpriced natural market nearby called Mrs. Greens where I stop occasionally.

Answer 14

I like Trader Joe's.

Answer 15

Wow- this is actually a hard question for me. I shop at a lot of different stores b/c they carry different products.

Meijer actually has great prices on tofu and refrigerated soy meat substitutes, but their selection isn't that of Kroger's.

Kroger has a great selection, but their prices are a bit high. On the flip, they have GREAT sales on my vegan food sometimes!

There is also a Mom & Pop natural food store that I patronize called Bassett's. They have *really* hard to find foods and other natural items.

I don't have a favorite actually. I like them all for different reasons and at different times. :-)