On every local-shopping related website, it seems like people always praise the Teeter and place it on the same level as Weggie's, Whole Foods, TJ's etc. It just seems like it has that "modern" and "hip" edge that can easily de-classify a neighborhood as a ghetto.

You see, this may be 100% true, as Harris Teeter has a strangling monopoly on Eastern Loudoun grocery, with the exception of a few Big G's, Lions, Safeways, Walmarts, and only one Shoppers in Leesburg. (not an SFW advocate, just seems like that is the BIGGEST victim to this pseudo-luxury store!)

I personally dislike Teeter because the store looks so nauseating, smells just like Giant, and is overpriced. I remember going to the one in Brambleton, where buttermilk was priced at 5 dollars. This world is corrupt...

-------------------

Mmm... EVERYTHING!
K, thanks for
reading my post.
Stick around!

-------------------

It's nicer than Giant, and when they have sales their prices are really good. Cleaner than Giant, smells better, and slightly higher end selections. The deli is bangin too! Comparable to the better Safeways.

Whole Foods sucks.

Safeways really vary by location, some are shitty, others are pretty good like the Vienna one.

Weggies is great

Walmart is pretty shitty, they have good prices but limited selection.

Giant is overpriced and shitty selection, they sometimes have good prices on meats.

In terms of stores open to the general public (e.g. not including Costco, BJ's, Sams's whatever crappy co-op you go to) it goes like this:

Wegman's > Harris Teeter > Whole Foods > Giant > Safeway > Shoppers > Wal-mart

The Official Grocery Store Ranks Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In terms of stores open to the general public
> (e.g. not including Costco, BJ's, Sams's whatever
> crappy co-op you go to) it goes like this:
>
> Wegman's > Harris Teeter > Whole Foods > Giant >
> Safeway > Shoppers > Wal-mart


I will leave out Whole Foods since I never go there.

Wegmans > Harris Teeter > Safeway > Giant > Shoppers > Walmart

Harris Teeter's stores are small and devote a lot of their space to prepacked pre-prepared meals. There are better options that supermarkets for carryout.

Actually, it's:

Wegmans > Harris Teeter > Whole Foods > Bloom = Safeway = Giant = Shoppers > Food Lion = Walmart > Aldi's > Bottom Dollar

1) it isn't huge like Giant and Safeway where it's a hike from one end of the store to the other.
2) It has normal stuff (unlike Traders) and it has some high end stuff (unlike Shoppers)
3) The one on Columbia Pike has a great parking lot, easy in and easy out, rarely do you have to park a mile away.
4) They all have self checkouts but HTs seem to work the fastest.

Bottom line is that I can leave my house, buy what I need, and get home in ten minutes. Safeway and Giant are a 30 minute trip.

The one on Columbia Pike is open 24 hours

I like Shopppers best overall - best prices for same items everywhere else, and has the 2nd best bakery, next only to Whole Foods.

VudEN Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Actually, it's:
>
> Wegmans > Harris Teeter > Whole Foods > Bloom =
> Safeway = Giant = Shoppers > Food Lion = Walmart >
> Aldi's > Bottom Dollar

How can Bloom be better than Food Lion when they are the same thing?

Dumbass

Crunch Berry Beast Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> How can Bloom be better than Food Lion when they
> are the same thing?
>
> Dumbass

Bloom is defunct nowadays anyway. Most converted to Food Lions, the rest simply closed. But Bloom was definitely a "classier" experience than Food Lion. Bottom Dollar is part of the Food Lion family too.

H-T is owned by Kroger. Kroger is "hip"? They have recently at least targeted store placements in upscale neighborhoods while closing stores in middle-class areas. Is that what's "hip"? I'm not really seeing this "hip" thing I guess.

Food Rion Famiree Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Crunch Berry Beast Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > How can Bloom be better than Food Lion when
> they
> > are the same thing?
> >
> > Dumbass
>
> Bloom is defunct nowadays anyway. Most converted
> to Food Lions, the rest simply closed. But Bloom
> was definitely a "classier" experience than Food
> Lion. Bottom Dollar is part of the Food Lion
> family too.

That made me LOL. We had a Food Lion near me and when it switched to Bloom the only thing that changed was the sign. The inside of the store was still a smelly stinky mess with the same retards working there.

My three closest stores are 2 safeways and a giant. I REFUSE to go to the Giant because it's impossible to get out of the parking lot under 5 minutes (Loehmann's plaza) and the store is huge...takes 30 min to shop for everything you need. Next closest store is the Safeway in Annandale on 236. Hate that store because there are NEVER enough lines open, and all of the employees are rude surly assholes. Furthest safeway is the best, West Falls Church shopping center on 29. Clean, smaller store so you can shop quickly, nice employees, and almost never have to wait in line.

Harris-Teeter is "hip"? Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> H-T is owned by Kroger. Kroger is "hip"? They
> have recently at least targeted store placements
> in upscale neighborhoods while closing stores in
> middle-class areas. Is that what's "hip"? I'm
> not really seeing this "hip" thing I guess.


Kroger has only owned H- for about a year. It was not a hostile takeover, H-T put themselves up for sale (something a failing company does).

Other grocery giants considered making a bid for H-T. Publix, a top notch store was one. It would have been great to get Publix into this area. Another was Ahold, the Aholes that own Giant Food. Giant sucks, so that wouldn't have been any kind of improvement.

Publix rules Florida. There are sometimes 2 right across the street from each other. I hardly ever see any other grocery stores in south Florida.

Grocery store mafia?

+1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Kroger has only owned H- for about a year.

Yes, and before that, it had been owned by a holding company -- the Ruddick Corporation -- since 1969. Not much "hip" there either.

> It was not a hostile takeover, H-T put themselves up for
> sale (something a failing company does).

Ruddick's founder died. Offers were solicited within months.

> Other grocery giants considered making a bid for
> H-T. Publix, a top notch store was one. It would
> have been great to get Publix into this area.
> Another was Ahold, the Aholes that own Giant Food.
> Giant sucks, so that wouldn't have been any kind
> of improvement.

Publix and Ahold were linked to an H-T purchase by rumor-mongering so-called "analysts" anticipating offers that never materialized. The only actual player was Kroger.

Publix and Ahold are meanwhile large but otherwise unremarkable regional grocery operations. Publix is employee-owned, while Ahold runs a confusing network of related holdings. The idea that at the retail end, one of them is superior and the other a sham is principally a projection of personal preferences and biases.

Shoppers has the best donuts!

Harris Teeter is much nicer than Safeway or Giant and almost always has much shorter lines, but their prices suck. I pretty much only buy stuff on sale there. I do most of my shopping out at Wegman's and the Walmart down the street.

Yeah safeway and teeter are way overpriced

Wegmans for the win

Irving X Zistwheel Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Publix rules Florida. There are sometimes 2 right
> across the street from each other. I hardly ever
> see any other grocery stores in south Florida.

No Winn-Dixie? No Piggly Wiggly? That seems odd.

Many retired people approach grocery shopping not as a hurried necessity, but as a gently practiced art form. And like art or deli sandwiches, beauty will be always be in the eye of the beholder. I find things to appreciate across many different grocery stores, and would not rate even the same store equally across its various outlets. I like the PanAm Safeway fine for instance, but unlike the poster above, I find the one on Lee Highway between Falls Church and Merrifield small and cramped, and the parking lot there is awful. Not as bad as the one at Wegman's in Fair Lakes, but still pretty bad. I hit that Safeway as needed because they carry two items that I don't consistently find elsewhere. I'll swerve in and stock up. Otherwise, I regularly shop pretty much everything between SFW in Fairfax and the Fresh Market in Vienna. No MOM's in Merrifield or Trader Joe's anywhere. Whole Foods maybe once or twice a year, but I end up not buying anything there as often as not. I'll check out Harris Teeter at the Dunn Loring Metro when it opens, but the one on N Harrison in Arlington isn't all that much. I haven't been to the Aldi at Kamp Washington yet. I'll try to get there sometime soon. I liked the Bloom just up the way from there and was sorry to see that go.

Bottom line is that your mileage not only may, but absolutely will, vary. You have to go to places and explore and evaluate them for yourself. Enjoy!

HT is wildly overpriced. Their sale prices are often higher than Wegman's regular prices. But not always--their BOGO items are often OK, and they'll let you buy one and charge it at half price (which is really nice--who needs TWO watermelons, for example?!).

I stopped in the Arlington HT once a few years ago, around dinnertime on a Thu/Fri/Sat (I forget) and it was a meat market, full of singles flirting with each other. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

Greybeard Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>> I stopped in the Arlington HT once a few years
> ago, around dinnertime on a Thu/Fri/Sat (I forget)
> and it was a meat market, full of singles flirting
> with each other. Not that there's anything wrong
> with that...


There be some pussy in that place ...........

Dagwood's cousin Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Shoppers has the best donuts!

And a cheap, though crappy, hot food bar. Anywhere else I can get a hot breakfast in a supermarket at 7 am?

Blondie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dagwood's cousin Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Shoppers has the best donuts!
>
> And a cheap, though crappy, hot food bar.
> Anywhere else I can get a hot breakfast in a
> supermarket at 7 am?


It's okay not too crappy, go self checkout and put it halfway on the scale to save even more.

Blondie Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Dagwood's cousin Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > Shoppers has the best donuts!
>
> And a cheap, though crappy, hot food bar.
> Anywhere else I can get a hot breakfast in a
> supermarket at 7 am?


The HT in Alexandria there at Foxchase used to have a hot breakfast bar when I lived around the corner a few years ago. Teh one across the street from where i live now doesn't, which I kind of miss at times.

FormerObozoSupporter Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There be some pussy in that place ...........

But no soup for you...

€4.60 / lb ($6) Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> go self checkout and put it halfway on
> the scale to save even more.

Brilliant. And you know you can take a bite out of gas prices by adding a quart of water to the tank every time you fill up. That's one dollar off, baby!

I live a block from a Harris Teeter store that is open 24 hrs a day. I quit going there when I found that an 8 oz package of spaghetti there costed $4.oo plus change, and their breakfast bowls and frozen microwave dinners from Healthy choice cost a couple of $ more than the ones found at other places, including Wegmans and Walmart. The spaghetti is available for $1.00 plus change everywhere else (except maybe Whole foods).

The reason became transparent when I saw a register tape that my roommate had brought in--she shops there still-- and announced they were selling everything off dirt cheap. There was a note on the tape detailing how many millions of your hard-earned cash (added above and beyond the fair price of the stuff you are buying) has been siphoned off from your wallet to be given to the schools around here. Like we have to subsidize schools by another hidden enforced food tax in addition to our state, federal and local and fake inflation taxes) populated by kids of people living in the highest-income county in the country, with parents who are driving multiple SUV vehicles costing upward of #35,ooo + each and living in McMansions costing upwards of 600 + grand? Sorry. I already have to pay more than enough in taxes. My food bill for a single person is already double what it was 2 years ago.--ie. way too high. A friend is teaching me about how to shop in the regional Korean supermarkets for a fraction of the cost.

Produce Korean Market
Wegmans everything else
If you aren't close to Wegmans Giant actually isn't too bad where I am. They are good on meat and many other things. Produce is a bit high but that is what the Korean market is for. Milk is high but I don't feel like going to Shoppers just for milk. (Shoppers is more expensive than Giant on many staples)

owner is profiting HEAVILY off of other peoples labor - farmers - by "buying" leased building, freezers, and a few cash registers - and likely does little work at all

if a costco moved in next door it'd close down

nice - but not that popular or nice

Love that Harris Teeter is open 24 hours a day. Love that (at least at my Harris Teeter) all the cashiers speak English and that there are plenty workers. Gladly pay a little bit more to not wait on some ridiculously long line only to have the cashier not understand a word I say. Love the Teet!!

Harris Teeter is pretty nice, my preferred grocery store to go to. Free cookies too at the front.

Another reason I like Harris Teeter, they sell boiled peanuts! I know that is a either a love or hate food, but they sell it which I don't think other stores do that I can remember. Steaks and stuff, I go to Wegman's. HT does have these good bacon cheddar and sweet onion cheddar burgers you can buy. some allso have some pretty good sausages for grilling as well. Their sweet tea that they sell in the gallon jug is good as well.

Another reason is the samples! Shopping at HT is the only time I really eat fruit.

I think it's because most white like to pay higher prices so they can shop amongst their own kind.

I shop at HT all the time and never noticed that they have higher prices, I never look at the prices I just grab what I want/need. My time and convenience trump any cost differences ten times over.

why you ask?! because they have fantastic sushi

Need more Trader Joes and Aldis. Whole foods sucks, Safeway is overpriced, Giant is so-so. Shoppers used to have a lot better prices, but not so much any more. There aren't many Harris Teeter or Wegmans around Burke/West Springfield.

It could be the Harris Teeter Farmers Market in every case brimming with new produce. For the record, the store has been conveying 600 new produce food every day of the year. The Harris Teeter Farmers Market can keep up its quality since they uphold the neighborhood ranches where the family actually handpick the items for the store.

.

.

.

.

.

.