I love Sobeys. The problem is that there is neither one close to where I work, nor live…read more Markham used to have one over a decade ago on McCowan, just south of 19th Avenue. I used to work near Mount Pleasant and Eglinton in Toronto. I'd often swing by the Sobeys there. I then got laid off. One of my choices is to go to this Sobeys Extra in Aurora. I decided to drop by one Saturday. I parked in the lot. It was odd that there was a concrete island that separated a single row of spots on one side and a ton of spots that you'd expect on the other. It was different. I was just pleased to park somewhere. I love this store. It's nicely organized. The fruits and vegetables section looks inviting and healthy. I particularly liked the natural source section. It has a ton of dairy-free, gluten-free, and vegan food options. I don't know much about cauliflower pizza, but I was happy with the varieties available. This place has empanadas! I love them so much. Yum! You can grab a number of take-and-eat items if you are either hungry and need nourishment fast, or want to bring something for lunch to work the following day and not make your meal. I also enjoyed all the pepperoni products from Noah Martin in St. Jacobs. I bought a pepperoni stick to try out and chomp on as I drove home. It was delicious. I need to come back and get more. Customer service was friendly. I didn't have to wait. I put my items on the conveyor belt, paid, and left with my groceries. Don't forget to swipe your Air Miles card here. The cashier let me know how much I could redeem, which was nice. Prices seem about the same as what you'd expect at Longo's. Some items are even cheaper. It's all about product variety for me and this grocery store has what I need. I definitely will. (291)

Look out Whole Foods. Sobeys is not letting you into Canada without a specialty food and gourmet…read moregrub fight - and us consumers are going to be the sole benefactor of this new next level battle of the grocery giants with Jaime Oliver leading the charge for Sobeys! The new Sobeys 'extra' concept is a total revamp, with a focus on specialty items and giving each item or genre of food on your grocery list it's own spot in the sun. This ain't your florescent lit-aisle after aisle- "discount on fish fingers in aisle 3"- grocery store anymore, it's a living breathing market filled with warm colours, soft lighting, expert displays and specialty EVERYTHING! Every aspect of the store has a tactile market feel that brings you in, gets you interacting with the store, it's shelves, displays and various specialty counters. Like the market your grandparents would have gone to, you'd interact and inspect each item before you purchase it. It's no different here. Except, Sobeys wants you to interact with the store itself. For example, sectioning off the dairy items into individual glass door-ed refrigerators which look slick and well polished - asking to be opened so you can grab your pick from behind it. The flow of the store begs to be shopped, there is no more walking up and down aisles, in Sobeys 'extra' you're led to the next item on your list in a natural flow as you would at a Sunday farmers market. Why have one counter for all deli when you can break it down into specialty counters, one for cheese and gourmet crackers, and one for deli meats. You can say goodbye to Starbucks, Tim Hortons and McDonalds in stores because at S.e. they're roasting their own beans in store in front of your eyes before they make you your cup of coffee! Amazing! I also eluded earlier that Jamie Oliver has his stamp all over this place as Sobeys new spokesperson. You see his books, his gourmet items and recommendations everywhere, as if he was some sort of Grocery Dictator. Hail Leader! *Salutes with organic carrot* These are a new breed of concept store and thus not everywhere, BUT, if you have a chance to visit Aurora (just off Hwy 404), north of Bayview and Wellington. I recommend that you do - It will blow your mind!

This FreshCo used to be a Sobeys -- Markham's only Sobeys. Well over a decade ago, I used to shop…read moreat this Sobeys often. I loved it. The store was open 24 hours a day and had everything that I wanted. It shut down. I was sad. I sought other places to get groceries. The hours were the best. I remember shopping here after the company Christmas party at around 1 am. I was the fanciest person wearing a chiffon skirt, shiny blouse, and a long coat in the store. I also pumped gas in that outfit afterwards. Ah, memories. Anyway, I don't shop at FreshCo often. There's one on my old route from the office in Etobicoke that I'd drop by once in a blue moon. A few weeks ago, just before Easter, I decided to check this FreshCo location out. I'm glad that I did. I am so used to getting a cart without requiring a coin deposit that I was shocked to see that you needed a quarter to unlock it. I don't carry change with me during this pandemic. Luckily, there was a nice man with a plastic green tool that simulated a coin. He inserted it into the coin slot of my cart and it was unlocked from the one ahead of mine. Yay! Such an angel. I thanked him and carried on. The produce is in pretty decent shape here. The celery and melons looked fresh and pristine. I got a bag of avocados that were perfect. I also got carrots, mushrooms, and onions. I was happy. The bread section is also great. Cinnabon and Sun-Maid breads were there. I liked the brioche baguettes that looked fancy. My main reason for dropping by this store was for a couple of items to make my Easter meal: stuffing and a turkey. The best prices were at FreshCo and both were in stock. I love Stove Top stuffing. It's a great supermarket shortcut. I aad finely chopped mushrooms, onions, and celery to it. I love it so much that it disappears fast. At the beginning of this pandemic, only huge turkeys were available, and I'm not talking about some of my colleagues. I'm glad that 5 to 7 kg turkeys are available these days. It's plenty for me and my parents to devour. I got a Butterball and was happy. After getting my main list of items done, it was time to check out the rest of the supermarket. The frozen foods are impressive. I have never seen so many variations of Jamaican patties, including vegan ones. I bought a box of baked beef ones and they were yummy. The other highlight was the assortment of paratha and naan available. I stood in front of this fridge section for the longest time trying to decide which flavour I wanted. I settled for the onion paratha. As an aside, they pan-fry nicely and quickly. They are flaky and so good. I came back recently and got a box of empanadas. They were excellent, too. Both times, I had no difficulties at the checkout. Both women helping me out were nice. I tapped with my debit card and my groceries were all mine. You do need to either bring your own bags or get a free box from the pile before you exit the store. I had bags during my first visit. I had a handful of items during my second visit, so I carried them to my car and put them in a reusable bag. I like this FreshCo. It's clean. Prices are cheap. The quality is decent. The only weird thing is the quarter deposit to get a cart. I need to find one of those coin contraptions that the nice man had. There was plenty of parking both times that I was there. I backed into my spots both times. I'll be back. I'll likely try every paratha and patty flavour that this store offers. (150)

Liza is amazing and very helpful and always has a smile…read more Everything she does is over and above. Great leader.

As of late, I have been enjoying getting groceries at FreshCo. Lately, I have been taking in movies…read moreon Saturdays at the SilverCity in Richmond Hill. Before heading over there, I like to get most of my errands out of the way, which includes getting groceries. The closest FreshCo by the movie theatre is this one on Major MacKenzie Drive, just west of Leslie Street. Why do I like this store? - You can earn Scene points on everything - Prices are decent, especially if you are targetting sales every week - The produce is fresh The only thing that can be tricky is that you do need a quarter to use the cart. I sometimes have change. I sometimes don't have any. I have had a quarter once out of my two times shpping here. I ended up using a basket when I didn't have any change, which was fine. I only needed a few items. The produce is excellent. I had the best strawberries here. They were ripe and in pristine condition. The celery was in great condition too. The apples in bags are also competitively priced and are yummy. The only downside that I saw were eggs in cartons. Many of them were broken. I don't know if it's due to customers or if the eggs were broken in the first place. It was a bit of a downer trying to find a decent dozen. I was unsuccessful and ended up getting a carton at Shoppers Drug Mart. I like the frozen food section. The more carbs involved, the more interest I have. I have had the paratha stuffed with potatoes and plain ones. Both heated up so nicely in a hot skillet. I've also had garlic naan, which was perfectly yummy. I've had the pork and chive potstickers. They were excellent, too. I've seen steamed buns that I'd like to try next. Prices seem to hold for weeks. The Pillsbury Pizza Pops have been at $3 for a box of four when you buy three boxes. You save practically two dollars per box and take advantage of getting the Old El Paso beef and cheese taco, which is excellent. It was this price both times that I was there. I hope that the deal is still around. The cereal aisle is cool. I have seen everything from strawberry milkshake Frosted Flakes, to Cinnamon Toast Crunch Minis. I like variety and seeing what sugary flavours are out there. I've had friendly cashiers at this grocery store. Getting my Scene barcode on my phone scanned has never been an issue. I've also paid with a credit card both times. Easy peasy. It's a clean supermarket. The parking lot does get a bit busy, but I've always been able to find parking. (202)

Feels like a long weekend... Sunday morning at 10:30a and there's hardly anyone in the store…read more Some questionable donuts with opened safely seals?? Mid way through the flyer week and specials are still in stock, except for OJ! Great local store with good selection.

I just love the Bloor St Grocery Outlet Store in Oshawa.We have brought our Toronto friends out…read morethere to shop and they love it. Organic ,vegan,high end food brands at a very reasonable price. Large and airy and very clean and organized. Rachael the manager is such a wonderful person.Very approachable, friendly and inviting.All of her staff are the same.Helpful and friendly. I live in Toronto but we always go to the Grocery Outlet store in Oshawa.Atleast once a week. I definitely recommend this store. There are other store locations but I/ we prefer the Bloor Street location.

I love all Grocery Outlet stores because they sell discounted food products (short-dated, slightly…read moreimperfect, unpopular items that didn't sell in supermarkets, etc.). They also sell exotic products imported from other countries, like exotic Pringles from Belgium. This location is huge and spacious! Much bigger than other locations I've been to. I like! They have more inventory than the one in Brockville too, which is the one I go to most often. It's in a strip mall with lots of free parking.

Tips: - No coin deposit is required to use a shopping cart…read more - Collect Moi points with every purchase. Last Saturday, I wanted to shop at a Food Basics store. It had small, whole watermelons going for $3.44 each. I also wanted to visit a Food Basics that I had never been to before. I was in the eastern part of Markham. I did a search and found this one roughly ten minutes away. Perfect! It was easy driving over here. I've been to this area a bunch of times this year. This Food Basics is next to Home Depot, and across the parking lot from Michaels. There was lots of parking in front of the store. I backed into a spot and walked over to the main entrance. I like that you don't have to find a coin to unlock a shopping cart. Put your coins away! Rather, if you decide to take this cart home with you, the cart will freeze when you are away from its home base. Plants greeted me as I approached the entrance. They were colourful and pretty. I got the produce and fruit sections when I first walked in, which I needed. The celery was in fine condition. Folks shopping here seem to love watermelon. There was one left. I snagged it. It was heavy. I had a feeling that it was a good one. Everything else that I bought felt like bonuses. I got my watermelon. Mission accomplished! I liked the reduced pricing on watermelon and pineapple spears. Nothing was wrong with them. I looked at the expiration dates. They would give me enough time to devour them at my leisure. They were naturally sweet and delicious. I got ground pork meat that was reasonably priced. I also got pork link sausages. I've used both of them to make burgers and a breakfast skillet, respectively. Yummy and of good quality. It was sad to see a stand for bubbles (I'm guessing it's boba) in yogurt. That combination has always intrigued me. I felt that paying $4 to get the product itself was a bit much. I need a sale! Six-pack bottles of Diet Pepsi were cheap here. They were all between the frozen food fridges, which was weird to me. This store has Limca! I love this Indian drink that tastes much better than Sprite. I wish it came in a sugar-free form, but indulging now and again is okay. I went to line up to pay for my items. I got a loud, obnoxious cashier. Her voice and the volume at which she spoke gave me a dull headache and I was only there for maybe five minutes. Sadly, the couple in front of me took some time to pay and pack their items. This cashier had an obsession with thank-you stickers. When I took away my six-pack of Diet Pepsi, she seemed so offended that I didn't let her put a sticker on it. You put a sticker one this six-pack of pop, but not my twelve-pack of canned Diet Pepsi. I don't get the inconsistency. You clearly didn't run out of thank-you stickers. Perhaps you should have. My watermelon got a sticker. Maybe you need a sticker to thank yourself for using thank-you stickers so randomly. I got my Moi barcode scanned off my phone. I paid with a credit card. I tapped and was done. I packed all my items in my reusable bags. I then left as fast as I could, to stop my head from aching. It felt so much better heading to my car. No grating cashier voice with a bunch of orange thank-you stickers to haunt me. The fresh air also helped. I liked shopping here. I hope to avoid sticker-happy woman with the grating loud voice next time I'm here getting groceries. (262)

Pickering now has a Food Basics to contend with the Loblaws over in the next block and all the…read moreother independent grocery stores. How does it measure up? Well first things first, it's still really new! It's located next to the Home Depot but other than that, its parking lot is not really shared with anyone else so parking was a breeze. There were a lot of carts on our way in including ones that are fun for toddlers since they had cars they could sit in. As you enter, there are some deals to check out which we kind of just passed by and regretted not looking at until we were leaving. Once you're inside the store, you'll find yourself in the produce section. To your left you'll find baskets for lighter shopping trips and kid-sized carts. These carts are kinda cool since they have a tall flag attached to it so you can keep an eye on them from farther away. The aisles in the produce section were a little bit squishy. The carts seem like they're wider than at other grocery stores so two of them passing by each other is really tight and we'd often have to wait for someone else to go before we could maneuver out. All of the displays were stacked neatly and everything looked really fresh and clean. We did pick up a few cartons of blueberries which were only $1.67 each. Normally they're at least $2.50 when I get them at Metro on sale! The rest of the store had more spacing between the aisles which made navigating around a little bit easier. The Food Basics store brand are the Selection items which are almost always a better deal than the national brands. We were able to get 3 200g bags of Selection chips for $4 whereas the Lays chips in 250g bags were 2 for $5. Marginally cheaper. Whatever, a deal is a deal. I'll take it and get to try more flavours lol. When we got to checkout that process also went smoothly. Each of the checkout lanes has the bagging item area separated into two for maximum efficiency. You do have to bag your own groceries. We definitely found a few great deals and the shopping experience was pleasant and stress free. Loblaws better watch out and Metro might regret having their low cost competitor in town!

This review is not for the entire Sobeys store -- only for the balloon department, and in…read moreparticular, the older lady working there today. Today was my child's birthday. We were hosting a party and came to Sobeys to buy balloons. Along with the balloons we purchased in-store, I politely asked the lady if she could also help inflate a few balloons we brought ourselves. I even offered to pay for the service. Her response? A flat-out "No," delivered with a tone so cold it felt like I was asking for a personal favor instead of being a paying customer. When I asked why, she simply said, "We don't take responsibility." I asked what kind of responsibility she meant -- she had no answer. She just repeated that they couldn't do it. Her attitude was downright unpleasant. She even told me to "go to Canadian Tire, they'll do it." Honestly, the entire interaction felt like I owed her money or had done something wrong, when all I did was make a simple, reasonable request -- as a customer who had just made a purchase, no less. Well, I did go to Canadian Tire. And guess what? Their service was fantastic. They gladly helped inflate all the balloons -- including the ones I brought -- and their prices were better too. The exact same balloons were cheaper there. So here's my advice: If you're preparing for a birthday party and need balloons, go straight to Canadian Tire. You'll be met with friendly service and fair prices. But if you go to this Sobeys and happen to run into that same grim-faced lady, be prepared to have your day -- and possibly your child's special day -- completely ruined.

Very disappointed with their AAA cross Rib Pot roast. Very tough, didn't taste like AAA. Bad…read morelabeling. More like A

I used to drop by Ajax practically every weekend. I stopped doing it for a couple of years, but I…read morerecently revisited what I used to do. Instead, I drop by once a month. When I am in Ajax, I pass by the Real Canadian Superstore often. Shockingly, I had never been in the store until yesterday. My dear friend and I like Joe Fresh. We decided to drop by and check out what this supermarket has to offer. It's a large, typical Real Canadian Superstore. We found the Joe Fresh area and browsed. She was there to look at pants and jeans. I love the selection in this section, especially the loungewear. I like coming to this store to check out nail polish. I haven't given the Joe Fresh brand a try. One of these days, I will give it a shot. There is a huge assortment of gift cards. I have never seen anything like it. I also loved that you can get the lowest price on M&M's chocolate bars. I was happy. The produce is fresh. I also love the bakery. There was plenty of parking here, even with the extra gardening section that blocked up part of it. I will need to visit this store more often. It's tough when you have this store and a decent Sobey's roughly a block away. (177)

This is a big, bright beautiful store, with logically organized aisles (I hate it when they label a…read more"cookies" aisle, but not one for crackers - Real Canadian labels them both!). Their seafood section, deli and meat section always features very fresh products. Anything that isn't is sold for discount. If you want to buy deli meat, I recommend buying it from the actually deli counter. The lower cost will save you money. The lack of packaging will save the environment. Win-win, I call it! I bought $5 of parma prosciutto at the deli counter, and the same product would have cost $10 from the fridge case. They have a wide selection of foods from various cultures and cuisines, in addition to books, magazines, clothing and household items. You could do pretty much anything here except auto repairs! There is even a wine store in there. If you want one-stop shopping, then this is the place to go!

Lovely grocery store to replace the old deteriorated price chopper. So clean and well organized…read more I appreciate that his store takes covid precautions very seriously! Saw the manager actually ask an anti masker to leave the store if they weren't going to mask. Love the hot food selection. They regularly have promotions on their pizza and mammoth chickens. I love coming here for the 9.99 XL 3 topping pizza. It's a nice change from having pizza pizza from across the block. This metro is on the smaller side so grocery selection is limited. However, I found most of my essentials here.