Mistake above: Harris Teeter for Boars Head deli products. Giant sells that brand but we’ve gotten bad product.

Wegmans produce and store-baked bread And Boar’s Head deli.
Harris Teeter seafood.
Giant and Safeway staples. The quality of each store varies.

I'm picky and I shop for different items at all three. For instance right now:

Harris Teeter and Safeway have good plums. The plums at Giant are terrible.

Giant has pretty good fresh farmers market squash. The squash at Harris Teeter is consistently dried out.

Safeway has the best house brand frozen vegetables.

Whole Foods used to have good produce - now it's consistently bad. I mean bad. The do have good economy packs of frozen salmon.

Mom's Organic market has some really nice snacks you can't get anywhere else and they have the only edible oranges Ive been able to find lately.

Trader Joe's has really good unique products - their steaks are excellent. So is their house brand ice cream.

I try to rotate between markets and stock up on enough of what's good at one place and limit my shopping but I do shop for my elderly parents, a brother who is immune compromised and my own family, too, so it has been interesting.

Giants are gross. Never clean, hardly ever have cashiers, rotten food on the floor.

Safeway as bad as Giant hard to believe maybe worse.

Harris Teeter at least they try. Everyone is helpful and stores are pretty clean compared to the others.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Harris Teeter seems weird.

In what way?

Dairy is in sliding-door display fridges, not the usual open kind.

Anonymous wrote:While I do go to Wegmans on occasion I find it to be more flash than substance. The prepared foods are much better than the other stores but for basic groceries I prefer Harris Teeter

It’s funny...I go back and forth on this. If you can get through the endless prepared junk (which yes, is good but WAY more money than I ever want to spend on anything) the store brand stuff is actually a really good deal. For example, we love their store brand marinara, which is .99 (!!) a jar, their pasta is .79, canned and frozen vegetables are cheap also. It’s just not getting distracted by all of the nonsense.
I do not like their deals on meat, though. Again, the meat is delicious but so pricy.

Anonymous wrote:Harris Teeter seems weird.

In what way?

While I do go to Wegmans on occasion I find it to be more flash than substance. The prepared foods are much better than the other stores but for basic groceries I prefer Harris Teeter

Harris Teeter seems weird.

Anonymous wrote:It’s funny that HT is perceived as more expensive...I think they often have great deals. Frequently buy 2 get 3 free on things like shredded cheese you can freeze (so $6ish for 5 bags of shredded cheeses), double/triple coupon promotions other stores don’t have, etc. I actually think overall they’re the best deal.

Agreed.

It’s funny that HT is perceived as more expensive...I think they often have great deals. Frequently buy 2 get 3 free on things like shredded cheese you can freeze (so $6ish for 5 bags of shredded cheeses), double/triple coupon promotions other stores don’t have, etc. I actually think overall they’re the best deal.

Giant has been part of Royal Ahold, a Dutch company, for many years. Since the acquisition they've redone their stores, which are now far better than they were when we moved to the DC area in the mid-90's. For my money they're now good enough that I'm happy to shop there most of the time, instead of making the longer trip to Wegmans (and I started shopping at Wegmans in 2004 in Dulles VA). Not clear to me that the Harris Teeter stores in a given area are bigger, brighter, cleaner than the Giant stores now.

Agree that Wegmans is the best, hands down. However they are too far away to go regularly.

Of the ones you mentioned, Harris Teeter is newest to the area, therefore the stores will be bigger, brighter and cleaner. They're also the more expensive one. in reality, convenience is king: you're going to go to the one that's closest to your house.