My home town, Rochester, NY, is also where Wegmans was founded. There’s one 4 miles away from us, so we do most of our food shopping there. We also have an IGA affiliated, Food Town, 1/4 of a mile from us and they have good meats and seeing they’re close to home, it lends the convenience of picking up odds and ends when we don’t want to go to Wegmans. We also have Tops, but my wife does not care for them and there *is* a peculiar smell in their stores. I’ve heard it comes from not cleaning out the drains for their freezers.
I love IGAs...they are usually indie grocers [non chain] in small tows where the butcher knows your name. Plus I love supporting small, local businesses rather than a big, faceless chain.
i have been in North Carolina since last March... i have to say, i miss the supermarkets that are in the SF Bay Area... i am from the South Bay, and the supermarkets here in NC do not compare with the few supermarkets i frequented in Cali...
” We also have Tops, but my wife does not care for them and there *is* a peculiar smell in their stores. I’ve heard it comes from not cleaning out the drains for their freezers.”
Yup. They do smell. Like rotten meat. And their prices are high and they are filthy. And they are (surprise) union occupied.
I always attributed the stink to the fact they are union shops.
We prefer Wegmans. Clean, no smell, no union and better prices. (Wegmans seems to be a high/low price type store - just watch what you buy and you can get away fairly cheap)