It's not fancy. But for 10 years, even as the other grocery store chains went all upscale, it's…read morebeen my grocery store. I may go to McGonigle's for tasso and boudin, and Hy-Vee for shrimp and gas money, but this is where I do my everyday shopping-overall, a cart full of plain old groceries costs me less here than Hy-Vee, Price Chopper, or Sunfresh, and it's as close to my house as anything else (I REFUSE to do WalMart).
While Festival doesn't harken back to the days of the original "box store", it's plain inside, but clean. There's no floral shop, but they have pretty much every other department you'd find at the snootier grocery stores: deli, salad bar, bakery, pharmacy, a small liquor department. And in this transitional neighborhood, that's enough. Unlike another reviewer, I have no problem with the quality of their meats, and they nearly always cost less than other places. And I have yet to find a better bagel than their bakery's honey wheat or multigrain. Sadly, I can't buy Roasterie here-they tried a limited selection for awhile, but it just didn't sell well enough in this mostly working class area. Probably because of the growing ethnic diversity of the area, there's a fairly expansive selection of Mexican food, and you can buy Halal meat (whatever that is) and a whole goat (with prior notice)! The employees are always friendly, and the manager always at least nods and says "Hi, thanks for coming in." That, and the low prices, have kept me coming in every week for the last 11 years.