Reply #24: Raley's/Nob Hill (Northern California) did not make the cut

[musette_sf]

and they are my preferred market. meats are fairly good, you can find a butcher to cut you something special if you want, produce is very nice, good organic/health foods section, very good selection overall.

HATE Safeway. and they carry NO meat that is a higher grade than Select, which is third down the grade list. they call it "Safeway Select", which is supposed to make you think that it is specially selected, instead of the crappy grade that it actually is. at least Raley's sells Choice grade (second, after Prime).

HATE Albertson's. i just hate shopping there. most of the stores are way too big and offer very little selection compared to Raley's.

i never go to Whole Foods any more, their prepared foods are just not what they used to be, and i don't like to get my prepared foods from a potentially germ- and bacteria-laden self-service setup, which is what they have now in the store nearest me. i much preferred the deli setup where servers adhering to sanitation standards serve the portion for you. otherwise, just WAY too expensive for something that is just not so special any more.

and i do go to Trader Joe's, they often have better meat than Raley's. however, long-time favorites can be discontinued at a moment's notice, and the quality of some items has been off lately, in my observation.

and now that the gas prices are so low, you would think the 1/3 additional tariff that everything on the shelves at ALL markets seemed to have recently added to their prices would come down, but NO.