• Trouble logging in? Send us a message with your username and/or email address for help.
New posts

luvthebeach57

Beach Lover
Feb 11, 2008
71
1
Columbia, MD
Have any of you heard of Wegman's? They are the ultimate grocery store! Fortune magazine has voted them as one of the top companies in the country to work for. The average store is 160,000 square feet and is two stories tall. I drive 45 minutes to get to the only Wegman's in Maryland. It is the most incredible store you will ever shop in. I don't think there are any in the south. They originated in New York.
 

TooFarTampa

SoWal Insider
Have any of you heard of Wegman's? They are the ultimate grocery store! Fortune magazine has voted them as one of the top companies in the country to work for. The average store is 160,000 square feet and is two stories tall. I drive 45 minutes to get to the only Wegman's in Maryland. It is the most incredible store you will ever shop in. I don't think there are any in the south. They originated in New York.

There was some survey last year where Wegmans was No. 1 nationwide, Publix was No. 2.

The average Publix btw is 40 something thousand sqft.
 

Rachel_Lee

Beach Crab
Mar 2, 2008
1
0
Best place to live for organic foods?

Hello,

My name is Rachel, this is the first time I have used this site. I am considering moving to the gulf coast area. Anywhere from Navarre to Destin. I eat mostly organic food and it's really important for me to be near a grocery store that can offer a wide variety of organic food products... Could someone tell me what the best area to live in would be? Or tell me the grocery stores that carry organic foods and their actual addresses? I have tried to find this info in a Google search and am having no luck. Please feel free to email me as I am having a hard time finding where I can bookmark this page and I don't know if I will be able to find my way back here as I just came upon it accidentaly during a google search.

Thanks,

Rachel
 

Kurt

Admin
Staff member
Oct 15, 2004
2,332
4,985
SoWal
mooncreek.com
Re: Best place to live for organic foods?

Hello,

My name is Rachel, this is the first time I have used this site. I am considering moving to the gulf coast area. Anywhere from Navarre to Destin. I eat mostly organic food and it's really important for me to be near a grocery store that can offer a wide variety of organic food products... Could someone tell me what the best area to live in would be? Or tell me the grocery stores that carry organic foods and their actual addresses? I have tried to find this info in a Google search and am having no luck. Please feel free to email me as I am having a hard time finding where I can bookmark this page and I don't know if I will be able to find my way back here as I just came upon it accidentaly during a google search.

Thanks,

Rachel

:welcome: bookmark = Ctrl D

www.ShopForTheHealthOfIt.com = Blue Mountain Beach
 

beachmouse

Beach Fanatic
Dec 5, 2004
3,504
741
Bluewater Bay, FL
For the Health of It has a lot of good organic foods, including stuff you won't find anywhere else. Publix has a number of stores throughout the Panhandle, and has a pretty big organic selection. Fresh Market in Destin doesn't have a huge organic section per se, but they carry a lot of European products, and EU food standards tend to be higher than what's over here.
 

ShallowsNole

Beach Fanatic
Jun 22, 2005
4,300
855
Pt Washington
That would be Johnny and Winnie Ziel's store, my aunt and uncle in law.

Who lived in the house that later housed the Sweetheart Shop, and were very wonderful people, who sold the store to my dad and my aunt when I was just a wee tot. Whether it was called Ziel's or Dickie (he HATED to be called Dickie by anyone other than my grandmother!) Saltsman's depended on when you became familiar with it. :love:

Oh, and the answer to the trivia question was LeBleau's. When I met Fuzz, roughly 2/3 of his meals were eaten there. In fact, our rehearsal dinner was there - and Frank LeBleau surprised us by tearing up the bill. :D

Great food, but I'm told you didn't want to see the kitchen. :blush:
 

ShallowsNole

Beach Fanatic
Jun 22, 2005
4,300
855
Pt Washington
About Kelley's...

The Kelley family has, or possibly had, stores in Fort Walton Beach and Niceville. When they bought the IGA in Freeport, folks were ecstatic as the quality of the meat sold at the Kelley's stores was phenominal. I have no idea if that is different now, or how involved the Kelley family actually is in the Freeport store these days. I've only been in there once or twice in the last four years, and felt like I needed to go home and take a shower both times.

I don't fault Kelley's for their prices, as there is no way that an IGA, a Piggly-Wiggly, a Thriftway, or a Kelley's can compete with a Winn-Dixie or heaven forbid, a Wal-Mart. This is because the "wholesale" price a grocer pays for his merchandise is based upon the volume he buys. The same truck (Lewis Bear, Wood Fruitticher, etc) can stop at two different stores and charge two different prices for the same item. The last store I worked at (won't mention names) would ask me to stop at Wal-Mart and buy film because Wal-Mart's retail price was less than our distributor's wholesale price. But I digress...

Because of this, smaller stores absolutely must step up to the plate in customer service to maintain their clientele when the big boys come to town.
Thriftway in DeFuniak, which has EXCELLENT meat and local produce, has done this successfully. If Publix - who is higher than Wal-Mart and Winn-Dixie but provides cheerful customer service - comes to Freeport, Kelley's is toast.
 
New posts


Sign Up for SoWal Newsletter