New Sprouts Grocery Store Opening Up

[try2bfrugal]

We have a new Sprouts grocery store opening up in town soon. Their ads say they have a virtual farmers market of organic produce, most of it local, at low prices. It sounds good though I guess it is still a chain store.

Do you shop at a Sprouts and if so what do you think?

[Mrs-M]

I've never heard of "Sprouts Grocery Stores", before, but knowing they pride themselves in carrying quality produce definitely makes the chain sound inviting.

We have to travel 20 minutes to shop at the closet thing to that of an actual Farmer's Market.

[Rogar]

We had Sunflower Markets here which have merged with Sprouts and are now called Sprouts. Their produce is inexpensive but the quality is marginal. A lot of it seems to be seconds with smaller sizes and odd shapes, which I don't mind, but I have bought a fair amount of produce that is near the end of it's shelf life. I have asked the staff about some of their fish and my best guess if that some is not from sustainable harvest. Their store brand products are usually just fair or worse. Maybe they will improve as time passes since the merger was recent. They are popular here and I generally will shop there over the mega chain grocery stores, but have to watch what I buy as some of it just isn't that good.

[treehugger]

I've never been in one, but there is a new one opening soon within walking distance of my work. That will be very convenient, and I am looking forward to seeing what they offer.

Kara

[ApatheticNoMore]

I checked them out and was not impressed. I mean maybe I should check them out again sometime, to see if it has improved (and since I don't hate them near as much as some other recent entries in the grocery market, so I have nothing personal against them or anything). It's just that I was so unimpressed the 2 or 3 times I went there that I never went back. It was just like any other grocery store and I'd hoped for more.

I mean sure the farmer's market in the name sounds nice only it's nothing like a farmer's market, at all! I also thought initially they might be trying to compete with Whole Foods in the natural foods market (and heaven knows WF needs the competition in that market) but maybe a bit better priced. But they really weren't going for that market at all :( They weren't WF with it's emphasis on quality, on health food, and on organics (unless they have since improved).

All that "farmer's market" stuff, and a name like "sprouts" had gotten my healthy foodie hopes up too high. They do have some fairly cheap and wide selection of bulk spices.

[try2bfrugal]

Well, I will report back on Wednesday what the one by me is like. The new store is opening up a few miles from two Trader Joe's, a Whole Foods, a Fresh and Easy, a local regional store with great produce and some organics, and a ton of ethnic markets with great produce and prices but no organics. Competition will be stiff so I hope they have done their market research and have something unique to offer.

[Dhiana]

Sprouts & Henry's farmer's market grocers merged at some point and I have to say I loved the little Henry's/Sprout near me in SD.

It seemed like it's target market was between a Trader Joe's and a Whole Foods :)

Decent fruits & vegets at reasonable prices with a good variety randomly added seasonally such as the purple potatoes, yukon golds,
kabocha, etc...

LOVED their bulk section...it was better than Whole Foods'

Watch their sales & check fliers...I picked up some great deals on a couple of foods I frequently ate such as salsa and olive oil.

I miss the bulk spice section the most!

I forget the name of their 'generic' brand but I really liked their products, quality was nice.

They had the best prices on organic dairy products!
Same for eggs.

I was unimpressed by their meat selection because I would only purchase organic/free range/grass fed, etc and
they didn't stock it.

Enjoy your Sprout store!

[pinkytoe]

A differing opinion here...we won't do business with Sprouts even though there are several here. Over a year ago, they purchased our neighborhood natural foods store as part of a packaged buyout. This store had been at the same location for two decades and served many elderly who lived in nearby apartments. Thier employees had been there for years. Within six months of purchase (and right before the holidays), they laid off all the employees and shuttered the store that was once a neighborhood institution. A typical corporate move. Makes me wonder about their other business ethics. In any case, they have very cheap produce (mostly non-organic) and deals on other processed package "natural" items. I was never very impressed with the store itself.

[awakenedsoul]

I love our Sprouts. I read their flyer every week and buy organic fruit on special. I also buy my raw milk there. (It's the only place in this area that sells raw milk.) I really like the layout, the atomosphere, and the people who work there. The cashiers are very friendly and positive. I buy my lettuce there in the summer, and the quality is excellent. It's too hot here for me to grow lettuce in the summer. The organic melons are delicious, and reasonably priced. (I'm in California, so we have superb produce here. We're spoiled.) I do most of my bulk shopping at Costco, and at my organic food co op. I get my grass fed meat and raw cheese at the Farmers Market.

[try2bfrugal]

I tried to go to Sprouts today but it was so busy the parking lot was overflowing and gridlocked. They were giving away free shopping bags and had some grand opening specials. I got into the lot and could not get out. The car in front of me was just parked in the middle of the traffic lane. The driver was waiting for a spot to open up and the cars from the over direction never stopped, so I had to just sit there. The driver in front of me only moved after I flagged down a guy directing traffic to see if he could get the driver to move on and open up the gridlock. When a spot opened up people were fighting over it and risking getting their cars dinged. It was like Walmart on Black Friday. It was kind of ironic that many of the shoppers, some in 40K SUVs, were fighting over parking spots to get deals like a free shopping bag you could buy for 99 cents and a dollar off watermelon. It is just a grocery store so it is not like there were deeply discounted big screen TVs or anything major at stake.

I was just wanted to get out without getting my car damaged. I guess on one hand it is good that people are interested in natural foods and bad on the other hand that they were acting so rudely to each other to save a trivial amount of money.

[awakenedsoul]

What a mess! One of the things I like about our Sprouts is that there is plenty of parking. I'm glad that you got out of there safely.

[try2bfrugal]

What a mess! One of the things I like about our Sprouts is that there is plenty of parking. I'm glad that you got out of there safely.

There was still some construction going on so I don't know if the lot will end up being bigger. It is near a mass transit station so all of the on street parking I saw on my way out of the area was permit only to keep out the commuters.

Maybe the traffic will die down when the free shopping bags run out. :)

[treehugger]

try2bfrugal, the Sprouts I mentioned near my office opened yesterday, too. Now I am wondering if we are talking about the same store. No specifics, but do you live in the Bay Area?

I drive by this brand new shopping center every day on my way to work, and yesterday morning there was at least 15 minutes of extra traffic just to get past. Ugh. I won't be going that way to work again for awhile. I sure hope it calms down. I will walk over one day next week to check out the store, but there's no way I am driving into that parking lot for at least a month.

Kara

[try2bfrugal]

try2bfrugal, the Sprouts I mentioned near my office opened yesterday, too. Now I am wondering if we are talking about the same store. No specifics, but do you live in the Bay Area?

I drive by this brand new shopping center every day on my way to work, and yesterday morning there was at least 15 minutes of extra traffic just to get past. Ugh. I won't be going that way to work again for awhile. I sure hope it calms down. I will walk over one day next week to check out the store, but there's no way I am driving into that parking lot for at least a month.

Kara

Yes, that is the Sprouts I went to. Like that intersection wasn't gridlocked enough during rush hours before Spouts opened up!

[treehugger]

Yes, that is the Sprouts I went to. Like that intersection wasn't gridlocked enough during rush hours before Spouts opened up!

Well, howdy, neighbor! Small world, huh? :) Yeah, that intersection is awful, but I make my morning commute less stressful by not getting the freeway at all. I have to drive further, but there's no traffic that way (just that darn intersection, right at the end of my drive). But for now, I will have to go a different way. I don't hold it against Sprouts, though. People love new things; the furor will calm down soon enough.

Kara

[ApatheticNoMore]

Maybe the traffic will die down when the free shopping bags run out.

probably the cheap junky shopping bags that fall apart after a couple of washes as well - the artificial flimsy material :).

[awakenedsoul]

What a coincidence! I grew up in San Mateo. My understanding is that Sprouts is owned by the same people as Trader Joes. My mom says that it's way too crowded there, too. I go to Costco now. They have a lot of the same products, but in bulk and for cheaper.

[SAVERSgirl]

Sprouts took over our Sunflower and Sun Harvest stores here in Austin. I thought Sunflower had a better organic section, but they are all cheaper than Wholefoods (our Whole Paycheck as we say :)

[try2bfrugal]

Well, I made it to Sprouts today. The regularly priced merchandise was priced higher than what I usually pay at Trader Joe's, ethnic shops and warehouse stores. Maybe they are cheaper than Whole Foods but I wouldn't know. They did have some good loss leader specials on meat and organic produce. So I could see going there once a week or so just for the loss leaders. Today I bought some organic produce, boneless chicken breasts for $1.67 a pound and boneless pork ribs for $2 a pound. I thought the meat was a pretty good deal. The organic produce prices are the lowest I usually see, but the non-organic fruits and vegetables are still usually cheaper at the local ethnic markets.