E & S Wholesome Foods

I’m both surprised yet not surprised by a couple of the less than enthusiastic reviews of E&S. I’ll begin with the slightly bad news.
Yes, it’s true that the customer service is weak. A couple of the employees do not immediately jump to charge you out at the register. You may need to wait 5 seconds until they’re done with their conversation or whatever it is they’re doing.
Also, there will never be an abundance of smiling faces behind the counter, and you’ll likely never get any useful help if you have specific questions about their products.
However, with that out of the way: I am so glad this place exists. Some of their prices are high, yes, for those items you’d normally purchase at Whole Foods. However, except for NY Healthy Choice at East 11^th, no other Avenue C bodega (or Avenue B, for that matter) offers the higher-​quality product of food and drink that can be found here, and NY Healthy closes earlier. So when you don’t have time to hit Whole Foods, or it’s later at night, I appreciate the shop for its cleanliness, and gluten-​free and vegan options (their smoothies are also delicious, and half the price of juicer places). I think this all very much outweighs minor customer service issues complained about by others.

Very poor service. The cook and cashier paid no attention to the customers and chatted between each other like no one else mattered.

This place is uninviting and I usually don’t go here. A couple of weeks ago I ran in to get some salad dressing, ranch and discovered that all the bottles were expired! Let the clerk know and he didn’t seem to mind. Yikes! Stick to dry goods here!

Solid corner bodega with upscale items. Really love this place for morning breakfast whether it’s an egg sandwich on the run or a platter. Good stuff. You can also get your fruit smooth on with a protein scoop. And much like any bodega/​deli, the sandwiches and wraps are solid. Prices here will be more than your typical bodega/​deli.
There are fancy schmancy cookies, snacks, cheeses, meats, etc. but are priced accordingly. Definitely a great place when you don’t have time to run to WholeFoods, but this place has very limited selection in terms of those fancier items.
Hours are good – open pretty early in the morning and closes around 11 pm every night.

E&S has taken over yet another bodega and made it upscale. In this case, it took over «Elizabeth Mini-​Market»; gone are the Tastykakes and 10¢ popsicles. In their place are Pepperidge Farm cookies and Frozfruit. I’m not sure that’s an improvement.
They serve Boar’s Head cold cuts now, and I can’t say I’m really impressed. However, they have good hours, they’re a safe place if you want somewhere to duck into at 2 AM, and they’re reasonably clean. They’re just another grocery, people!