I live only a couple blocks away from this Carrs. It's located on the side of Northway Mall and is my go-to grocery store for all of my basic food item needs. There's a pharmacy, deli, and Starbucks located within the Carrs and the grocery store itself is open 24/7. The Northway Mall area is located directly across from a trailer park that is notorious in Anchorage for being a sketchy area. Because of this, a lot of people opt out of stopping by this specific Carrs, because it's 'not located in the best part of town'. With that being said, I have to recommend you stop by anyways. This is by far my favorite grocery store in all of Anchorage.
This place is huge and very well-maintained. It's always clean, well-stocked, and has a great array of items. They're organic food section is fantastic and their produce section is huge. They also have fresh Alaskan seafood items available year round. They have a great selection of free-range and organic meat and dairy products. They also carry a few different reindeer options (although I really wish they had reindeer stew meat- it's the only thing I can't seem to find in their store!). They have a lot of organic canned fruits and vegetables (as well as frozen fruits and veggies). They have a great gluten free section and a lot of non-GMO items. The place is very well-organized and easy to get around.
The staff are very friendly. They do hire handicapped employees to do the restocking and sometimes they can be a bit 'too eager' to help you with what you need (asking more than once if you can find anything and showing you every option of the specific thing you've asked about), but I don't mind that. The rest of the employees are also very nice and professional. The man who runs the seafood area during the day has given me some great recipe tips for cooking different things I've purchased from him. The people at the front for check-out ALWAYS offer to help me carry everything out to my car when I purchase a lot of items. Even the Starbucks employees (which I realize aren't affiliated with Carrs) get along with the Carrs employees in a very respectable manner.
There's a heated entry area on both entrances of this Carrs, so if you need a taxi to pick you up, you don't have to wait outside in the cold. I recommend getting a Carrs card. With this card you earn points with each of your purchases. You can redeem the points at Carrs gas stations and get $0.10 off of each gallon of gas per fill-up per 100 points. I'm not sure how their points system works, but I gain points relatively fast and the free gas money definitely helps my budget. Carrs is a bit more expensive than other grocery stores in Anchorage (Wal Mart and Red Apple are both significantly cheaper), but you get a better shopping experience and a better selection with Carrs. If you use your Carrs card you can also get some pretty great deals. Watch their sales items and you can stock up when things are 1/2 off and save a lot of money.
Overall, if you're looking for a grocery store that's clean, well-stocked, has very friendly employees, and has a great selection of organic food items- Carrs at Northway Mall is a great option. Love this place and it will be my go-to grocery store for as long as I live in Anchorage. read more