Food shopping options in Florida: A handy guide and rankings list

[Tommy_Carcetti]

Last edited Tue Sep 19, 2017, 04:01 PM - Edit history (7)

1. Your Publix--Admit it, your Publix is essentially an extension of your own house. You're probably paying property taxes on it. You know all the faces, all the names, and are forced to attend awkward holiday events with all the employees who--for better or worse--know everything about your food selection options and prescription drug history. So, will that be paper or plastic?

2. Another Publix--Say your Publix is closed. Say you are miles away from your Publix. Say your Publix got swallowed up in a massive sinkhole or the egress to your Publix is currently blocked by a group of large alligators. (Hey, don't say either or those things can't happen, because one of the two probably will.) So you decide to go to.....another Publix. And as you shop up and down the aisles, you think, "Hey, this is fine. They have everything at this Publix as they have at my Publix. I'm totally comfortable here. I really am." And yet, deep down you will be unable to escape the lingering feeling that this is in fact not your Publix. And it will continue to eat at you all the way until you stash your shopping cart awkwardly on the curb in the parking lot.

3. Whole Foods/Fresh Market--The favored food store for those people who don't mind paying a $5 upcharge on all foods labeled "Organic", "Farm Fresh", "All Natural" or "Quotation Marks."

4. Trader Joe's--Face it, from the looks of it, this is basically a 7-11, if 7-11s only sold one brand of food and were inexplicably obsessed over by yuppies and hipsters.

5. Local independent non-chain grocery store--Just because, you know, Yeah small business! Or whatever.

6. Winn-Dixie--Primarily exists for the unlikely event all Publixes get suddenly raptured.

7. Costco/BJ's Wholesale--Recommended only for two small, underserved segments of the population: 1) Compulsive hoarders and 2) People who are too cheap to buy lunch so they decide to pig out at the sample stations instead, and no, I swear you haven't seen me here before so can I please have another quarter slice of a ravioli on a tooth pick, thank you very much.

8. Primitive hunter/gatherer society--Hey, it worked for centuries, so how bad could it be?

9. Cannibalism--In the event that Option 8 collapses.

10. Aldi--"Hey folks, Aldi here. We're not the worst option, are we? Please tell me we're not the worst option, right? Hey, we make you pay for your grocery cart! That means we're exclusive, right? Oh, and you bring your own bags because we're not giving you our own bags. That's so wacky and colorful and crazy. No way anyone can hate on that! Also, I'm not 100% certain, but I'm pretty sure we're foreign! So I'm just going to say we're cool and exotic so please, please, please don't hate us."

And finally......

11. Walmart--(Takes Seppuku sword, briefly look up to the heavens with a tinge of regret in eyes, and then thrusts it deep into chest).

[Sedona]

1. I'm totally stealing this

[Tommy_Carcetti]

2. Please do! nt

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. At times, any store that has water and batteries ...

... well, except Costco, where you can only buy enough water to fill a swimming pool and enough batteries to power a small town.

Good list, but are there no Piggly-Wiggly stores in FL?

[Tommy_Carcetti]

4. There might be in the Panhandle region.

Not sure though.

I know they had Food Lion up in North Florida for a while.

[csziggy]

6. The Food Lions got chased out of Tallahassee

One opened in a new shopping center that was extremely unpopular since the developer basically bribed the powers that be to get permission to clear cut the tree covered acreage. There was no official boycott, people just didn't shop there. The Food Lion parking lot was always empty - that one closed, then there was like a domino effect and pretty much all of them closed in town.

Even though it has to be twenty years since Food Lion closed there, that shopping center has never prospered. Retail businesses don't do well even if it is on a major intersection. A lot of us old timers still miss those beautiful trees that used to be on that lot.

[csziggy]

5. There was a Piggly Wiggly in Panama City

But I am not sure if they are still open. When my husband gets home later tonight I can ask if I remember.

[csziggy]

7. 12. The local hippy food co-op

That is my second choice after "my" Publix - the local food co-op. Well, they used to be a food co-op, now they are customer owned and buy-ins have to be approved. Anyone can shop there but "owners" get a discount and a check for a share of the profits at the end of the year. It was started in the late 1960s/early 1970s by a bunch of hippies who wanted to get whole grain stuff cheap. Mostly in the early days they sold bulk products - flour, rice, pasta, etc. Then they started selling bulk herbs (when the local head shop that had sold herbs closed down) and locally grown produce. Now they sell organic foods, locally grown produce, free range chickens and eggs, grass fed beef, locally produced cheese, and other great stuff.

I'd shop there all the time but they are not as convenient as Publix....

[rurallib]

8. Walmart - home to many food like substances

test them on your friends

[NightWatcher]

9. They forgot The Better Publix Which Happens To Be Across Town

It's got a better selection of craft beers than your Publix and it has softer bread in the sub shop than Another Publix but it's way on the other side of town and you're only over there legitimately once a year.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

11. Oh yeah, that Publix! I know that Publix.

It's like a family member who struck it rich and decides to show off how fancy he or she is to the rest of the family.

There's also Publix "Greenwise" Market, which is basically a Publix that Xerox copied the floor plan of a Whole Foods.

[Awsi Dooger]

10. I can't imagine preferring Publix to Aldi

Beyond scary, as a handicapper.

I live in Miami and only started to give Aldi a chance two years ago, after mostly wandering through some Aldis in the Saratoga area beginning a decade earlier. In those days I was a tunnel vision idiot, ignorantly dismissing Aldi due to all the obvious knockoff cereal boxes and cramped conditions.

What a colossal moron I was. Now I can't even imagine contemplating Publix without making damn sure everything I want/need isn't available at Aldi. Because if it is available, the price and caliber will be exponentially superior.

Shopping at Aldi is truly a joy. And I don't say that about many things anymore. While living in Las Vegas for 25 years the priority multiple times per day was beating the price. I'd have a smug grin leaving a sportsbook after taking +5.5 on a college basketball game when I knew darn well that number was no higher than +4.5 anywhere else in town. Multiply that by tens of thousands of examples beginning in 1984.

These days I'm mostly in the stock market but beating the price is still a target. I know which gas stations move the price fast and which ones linger. I know that the Moser Roth 85% Dark Chocolate in individually wrapped segments at Aldi for $1.99 per package is so far superior to anything Publix offers that I'm surprised I'm not stopped and confronted while leaving the Aldi front door.

What is a grocery cart, BTW? I grab a box at Aldi and have the checkout clerk drop my purchases into the box. Never a problem. You've got to be a world class dolt to go through the cart process or care about it, as some type of deal breaker.

Yeah, I prefer to pay $4 for strawberries at Publix instead of $1.39 at Aldi, because the cart situation is more convenient. That's the type of person I want to be.

There are several websites detailing what to buy at Aldi and what to avoid. Very astute, for the most part. Oh jeez...that takes a little bit of time. Another deal breaker. Instead I'll wander into Publix and delight at all the smiling employees while I pay 50% more than I need to.

Publix is decent for occasional Buy One Get Ones. I'll even offer a tip: The website iheartpublix.com has a woman who publishes an early look at the weekly specials every Monday afternoon. She provides the entire list. You've got to be an idiot to wait for the Wednesday or Thursday flyers but idiocy is what Publix depends on. I can see what the Publix bargains are and then compare to Aldi's offerings, which aren't fully online -- produce and all -- until the wee hours on Wednesday.

Winn Dixie is also unfairly condemned. Their stores can vary dramatically from site to site but if you pick the correct one it offers advantages that Publix also can't threaten. I'm fortunate to have a great Winn Dixie not far away from me at Bird Road and 107th Avenue in Miami. Last week that Winn Dixie was so thoughtful to stay open until midnight beginning just days after Irma passed and power was restored. They had limited stock on the shelves and not as many employees as typical but they stayed open and discounted many items while making sure everybody who was in the store was taken care of, even when it extended well beyond midnight. I was making trip after trip to that Winn Dixie after talking to neighbors who all needed different items and not many of them had cell phone service, let alone power.

The pathetic Publix not far away on Bird and 112th closed promptly at 5 PM.

Not exactly a surprise.

[Tommy_Carcetti]

12. Winn Dixie is usually servicable. Not always great, but some locations do pretty well.

My family had a little vacation place in St. Augustine, the nearest Publix was several miles away but the Winn Dixie was within walking distance. And it was more than adequate for all our needs.

Winn Dixie's main "sin" is only that it shares the same market as a grocery store that is revered by its region on a near Godlike basis, and it will forever be overshadowed. It's essentially the Jan Brady of Florida area grocery stores. But it's pretty much at the same level as most respectable grocery stores across the country.

Aldi, however, just depressed me the moment I walked in the door. Like Walmart, their prices are great and I have a feeling their quality is much better than Walmart. But also like Walmart, the place looks like something that came out of 1970s Communist Poland. And like their corporate partner Trader Joe's, their stores are small with limited selection, but they're not even bright and cheerful like a Trader Joe's.

[FSogol]

13. I don't mind Publix, but hate how the Spanish Locals pronounce it.

Instead of Pub-licks, they say Pube-licks.