So funny, around here, and I am about an hour away from where you were, Publix is considered the Queen. I buy frou frou foods there- the flank steak pinwheels, for example- as they are overpriced on everything.

And Ingles, it's the Toyota, dependable but a bit pricey. A regular grocery store, a little step above the local Wal Mart.

I shop at Ingles all the time, but I buy most stuff at Aldi's and Wal Mart. Both are closer to me than Ingles, but they are better at what I want, in general, and so much cheaper. Inlgles carries things like Bob's Red Mill and La Brea bread which I like.

It's all about the location though. When I lived in Sarasota years ago, Publix was a dump and I've been in a few sorry Ingles. We also have Bilo, a competitor of Ingles.

On the West Coast Winco is beating Walmart with prices and selection! Plus it's HUGE! It's a 20 minute drive from me, but the savings and selection are worth it.

When we travel, stopping at an unusual/unknown grocery store is as much fun as visiting the usual tourist traps. After we watched the movie "Driving Miss Daisy" we stopped at a Piggly Wiggly in Tennessee just because of the name from the movie. It was in a depressed area of town and wasn't much of a store, but there wasn't any charge for admission ;-). There's a Publix where our daughter lives in Tennessee and I usually stop there and a World Market in St. Louis and stock up on food items I can't get here in the middle of nowhere, unless I shop Amazon.com. I love Sprouts where our son lives, and always go there before leaving town to come home. They have wonderful currents, something I can't find locally.

Kroger in WV varies enormously. The one in Lewisburg is terrific and getting even better. The one in Hinton is disgusting.

A new one for me is Fresh Market. There is one a few towns over, so I only pop in when i am shopping in that town. There was also one in Ocala, Florida.

It's upscale, so even if local, I wouldn't do my major shopping there.

The area certainly has a lot to do with it, the Piggly Wiggly in south Myrtle beach is quite fancy with a Fresh Market atmosphere and I can buy a $400 bottle of wine if I like.

Grocery stores seem to have such a low bar. Wegmans is great; there are many PNW stores that just blow the doors off of anything... PCC Markets in Seattle -- they are more expensive, but do show what nice merchandising, selection, etc. can do. Fresh produce (not tired, beat up, etc.) and local ...when the Pence peaches come in, its crazy. It IS more expensive to shop that way regularly, but one would think there's a happy medium between the hard, unattractively merchandised stuff we generally see (NE). Winco is not super fancy but the prices and produce are great, and they do have some interesting stuff (fresh garbanzo beans...had never seen them before)...I know the margins are tight in that industry but there are clearly different models.

The mention of Piggly Wiggly brings back memories. Although they only have a couple locations left in the state, I remember being in them way back when. Interesting history too. First self-serve store, first to have uniformed employees, first to use shopping carts, first to price everything in the store, first with refrigerated produce cases and more.

HB, I have been LOOKING for fresh garbanzos to recreate a salad I had recently. Which WINCO store had them?? eta: omigoodness, I just googled Winco and there is one in my town. Who knew? I'll check there.

Winco is debit or cash. They keep their prices low for that reason AND you have to bag your own groceries. Small inconvience for what they offer. I'm shopping there on Saturday for the 4th. Hoping they have Lobster and Fresh Oysters to go with my Filet Mignon 4th feast. They usually have the big bags of seafood on special weekends.

Seriously, I NEVER would have gone to Winco because I thought (I don't know why) that it was a big box store version of something along the lines of a dollar store for food, or a Big lots, or maybe Walmart (where I won't shop). Probably because of where it's located in our community; just not on my route for anything, but I am going to check it out. I saw in their ad that they are worker owned, too, which I love supporting.

I really miss Wegmans because they had a food court where I could grab dinner before grocery shopping, something I often want to do at the end of a workday. If I have to go home and cook dinner after work, chances are I will not go back to the grocery store, and if I go grocery shopping before dinner, by the time I get home it will be a PB&J most likely for dinner, and I'll have gotten all kinds of frou frou things I shouldn't have because I was so hungry.

Wegman's is clearly the class of food stores in this area (east central NJ). ShopRite tries to come close with prepared foods, but nothing like Wegman's. I also have Whole Foods, Acme, and Foodtown (locally-owned chain), Dean's Natural (local chain of organic foods), and Trader Joe's within reasonable driving distance. Foodtown is the closest, and is OK for general stuff, and the service meat counter has quality goods. There is a farmer's market in town on Sundays through the early fall. Oh, and there is an honest-to-goodness butcher shop three blocks away, with another one across town.

I am in the N Ga mountains & I love our Ingles !