After finding out about The Grocery Outlet through Jennifer late last month, we were chatting and she let me know that there are locations in Ajax, Whitby, and Oshawa, among others. What?!
Naturally, as someone who loves visiting grocery stores, I have a new goal, which is to visit the ones just east of me. I decided to give the location in Ajax a visit yesterday, since it's the closest one to me.
I used to visit Ajax fairly often a few years back. What I didn't know is that this store (it's still known as Almost Perfect, so branding isn't consistent) is in the heart of downtown Ajax. I had no idea that there was a downtown. Then again, I can see why it isn't advertised. This plaza throws you back to what it looked like in the 70's and still looks like now. It's a bit shabby and ghetto, but who cares when you walk into this store!
The store is next to Ajax Bowl, which seems to be in an office building. It must be interesting to be working in that office and hearing pins fall in the background.
There was plenty of parking. I thought that this plaza was a ghost town at first. However, there are other stores that had more cars parked in front, such as Rexall.
I walked in. This store is larger than the Toronto location. I was immediately greeted with a display of crisp bread and salami chips. I got two packages of the latter. They are tasty as snacks.
This store has a variety of items at cheap prices. It basically takes over-productions or imperfect food items and sells them at cheap prices. Nice!
I loved the frozen breakfast items. You can get apple crepes, egg white and regular egg patties, sausage patties, and more. There were also vegan meat items, such as vegan bacon and shrimp. The Chinese frozen section looked cool. I may need to give the five-spice pork a shot the next time that I am there.
I liked that the TRUE line of citrus crystals are available. When I am travelling, I like having lemons in my hot tea, but it may not be convenient to buy and slice up lemons. I buy the lemon TRUE packets and they are perfect. I bought a pack of orange ones. They are also cheap at $1.49 a box. At my local low-carb store, it's nearly three times as much.
The candy section is impressive. I love that Reese minis are available in both milk and white chocolate. You must give the latter a try. I got hooked on the regular white chocolate cups several years ago. They are delicious!
The desserts looked amazing. My regular cakey cookies were there. So were amazing-looking key lime pies. There are also vegan Sweets From the Earth cheezecakes and gluten-free goodies.
I checked out. There wasn't a lineup. The woman was helpful. I had a bag, so I avoided having my stuff loaded in either a box or a plastic bag. I bought a ton of stuff and it was just over $30. I was a happy camper.
This store had frozen cubed turnips for well under $5. It's perfect for me when I make my version of zuppa toscana, substituting potatoes for turnips. I made said soup hours after coming back from my shopping trip and it was yummy.
I love this store. I'll be back.
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