Last weekend I went to both Grand Mart and this Harris-Teeter.
Grandmart: 26 bags of groceries for $112
Harris Teeter: 1 bag of groceries for $42
Today I bought a bag of grapes from Harris-Teeter because they were on sale for $3.49. Turns out that's not the price of the bag, its the per pound price. A "sale" bag of grapes costs $10.69, more than half the bottles of wine in the store.
Its hard to imagine how anyone could find the prices reasonable unless you've lived in the downtown of a large city for years, and the only thing you're comparing it to is Whole Foods. Food shouldn't cost this much, even in a city. Mercaditos Ramos, a few blocks from Harris-Teeter, sells stuff for 1/4 of the price (but unfortunately has a very limited selection). Yes! Organic, also a few blocks away, sells the same brand of sushi rice for less than half the price (and Yes! itself isn't somewhere I think of as "inexpensive."). Chevre is more than $10. Even Whole Foods beats that price.
I'm fine with paying a bit of an up charge for one-stop shopping, but I've never found all of my produce or all of my meat at Harris-Teeter on one trip. A lot of basic produce is out of stock every time I go, and H-T doesn't sell a lot of other things I'd think were common.
The pattern seems nonsensical; on one trip in winter they didn't have parsnips, brussels sprouts, chives, or squash of any kind. But they did have artichokes, multiple types of asparagus, green beans, avocado, and watercress. A small produce section would work fine, if the produce was seasonal, but it seems to be the opposite.
Meat and fish selections tend to be limited and random. On one occasion, they had no clams or mussels, but four types of oysters. I got a legitimately great deal on a whole pork tenderloin one week, then the next week the butcher told me they had never at any point sold pork tenderloin in the display case and that I must have bought the Hormel pork-in-a-bag and gotten confused.
The wine selection is poor. It is nearly exclusively mass producers, and there are no fortified wines, which would be useful for cooking.
Overall, its gotten to the point that I'm better off simply planning on visiting several of the smaller groceries in the area. Its a hassle, but I know I'm not going to get everything I need at H-T anyhow, so I may as well benefit from reasonable prices.
This would be a one-star, except for two legitimately good things about the market:
First, its got decent prepared food. In fact, I expect that's why this market has so many good reviews. If you don't cook from scratch, but don't feel like going out, its a decent option.
Second, the parking is free and its always easy to find a spot. That's a big deal in the neighborhood. read more