Shop & Save Market Niles

They really have the best paczki in town!!! Fresh, great quality, texture, and lots of filling!

A dingy, disorganized ethnic grocery is not my cup of tea.
HOWEVER, I have to say that this store saved my bacon on a workday when I needed something bready for both breakfast and lunch, and Tony’s pulled one of its frequent tricks of having no baked items available within 45 minutes of opening. I like Tony’s, but this habit is really grating.
So I ducked into this little store, and found a nice variety of freshly baked goods. I bought some really nice portugese rolls and a tasty multigrain triangular breakfast roll thingy. Kudos to the Shop N Save bakery for quality, for variety, and especially for early-​morning availability.

This an amazing grocery store! With an Eastern European background, my family & I have been looking for a while to find the perfect kvas and shop & save has it all! They have international products, fresh groceries, and helpful & kind staff. You will certainly come back here!

I usually like to write humorous, but accurate, reviews of businesses. In this review, I am trying to be brutally honest, and there is little humor in what I am going to say …
I have lived in the proximity of this store since 1978. It was originally part of the Butera chain.
I have patronized this grocery frequently, but I had not set foot in it for the last year for reasons that I will impart in the next few paragraphs.
I was asked to pick up some unusual deli products, and I decided to since I knew that their deli department is humongous, and they offer most everything that one could expect to satisfy an Eastern European palate.
A lot of people dump on Shop and Save because the place is horribly disorganized, the employees are rude, and nobody seems to know anything if you attempt to speak in the English language.
Absolutely true, and I will get to that!!! But this place is not a regular supermarket like Jewel or Tony’s — or even Aldi’s: it is a POLISH supermarket, and they do not especially cater to others. The vast majority of their clientele consists of elderly immigrants from Eastern Europe: This is NOT a joke: the US Census reports that 49% of Niles’ population is foreign-​born.
Let’s start with some positives about this store: It has one of the best assortments of ethnic (especially Polish) foods in the Chicago area. Its prices are rather low. Parking is adequate if you part WEST of the store. They have a nice assortment of bakery items that you won’t find at a mainline grocery. Despite what others claim, the store is clean. And despite what others say, I have neither seen rotten fruit nor meat, nor packaged goods beyond their pull dates.
But sadly, this specific store has serious, and potentially fatal, drawbacks. The place is utterly disorganized and the way their wares are stocked make no rhyme nor reason. The aisles are narrow and blocked with all kinds of special displays. The ancient, foreign-​born shoppers don’t have the courtesy of getting to the side to let other shoppers pass: they tend to stand in the middle of the aisles — and I don’t know why they just stand and stand and stand. Some of their workers seem to have a limited or nonexistent knowledge of the English language — which is very annoying. Checkout clerks are as rare as hens’ teeth, and they will pack your purchases in wasteful plastic bags EVEN WHEN you provide your own recyclable bags. A few years ago, they added two sheltered areas next to the store to accommodate shopping carts: now these foyers are jam-​packed with miscellaneous merchandise. Lines at the deli department are long, and you can wait 15 minutes waiting to be served. They refuse to accept computer-​generated manufacturers’ coupons.
I am a very proud cheapskate, but I have to draw the line here. This place needs to somehow rearrange and streamline its organization and operation. It needs to do more to accommodate younger (and US-​born) customers because its established customer base is in its 70s and 80s. It needs to train its workers to speak in good English and be courteous.
In a way, this store reflects the sad demise of the Golf Mill Shopping Center: disorganized, no vision, dependent upon a vanishing demographic, and slowly, slowly dying.
I have visited their Des Plaines location, and it is like a completely different operation. I would award that store four stars; but this store rates only two.
They should try to do better. I will return if they can improve the way they do business.

Not a bad store for Slavic food items at the deli counter like smoked pork and bacon. The bakery has very good dark rye breads traditional from eastern Europe. They have decent yogurts and quality German imported foods in the grocery aisle like honey, cocoa, noodles, ect. You have to watch out for the dates on the food when something is priced low since it is very close to expiring. The big problem with this place is the lack of customer service by the horrible, rude employees. You will rarely get a smile or good customer service here and I have been coming here for years. Friends, family, co-​workers, and neighbors all have horror stories of the rude employees and customers that ruin the shopping experience. They bark on the phone loud, cut in line, bump into you, and almost run you over in the parking lot. I often find little kids wondering off from their parents with their shoes untied about to trip and I tell their parents or return their kids to their parents and they almost never smile or thank me. As if returning their kids was a bad thing to do while they yapped on the phone. I try to shop there right before closing time to avoid these ignorant situations and it works for me.

This is located in the Golf Mill Shopping Center, so there is plenty if parking. The store is small and there are a lot of people. However, the food, fresh or processed, are cheap. Also, I think the store owner is Polish because there are so many great Polish-​brand candies. I pick up one near the cash register every time I go there.

This is a great store with many many food items and pastry options you wouldn’t find anywhere else, so don’t listen to the snotty uppity Americans who just because they get mistaken for a polish person, they take it as an offense. European people speak their language to co-​patriots as a courtesy, and most speak at least 3 languages by the way. Bön apetit!

If you’re polish or Ukrainian you will love this place. Simply the best deli in the Midwest

Good prices but a bit crowded.

I only like this store because they carry my favourite brand of hummus (Oasis). While you’re at the store, make sure to check the expiration date on every single product that you buy. Last week I tried to buy a big bottle of Russian birch sap, but stopped myself when I looked at the expiration date; The sap expired two years ago!

Bottom Line: crowded, pain to get to, pain to park, and if you are not Polish, you are a 2^nd class citizen. Go to TONY’s down the block and claim VICTORY.

First time here — reactions to prior reviews — the store being «disorganized» is more a reflection they didn’t hire a consultant to fill up the aisles with high markup convenience foods.
There is no mistaking the target audience for the store is people from Poland. The deli is extremely large and half of the products I have no idea what they are.
Prices seem good for the area — more important they carry all kinds of small company products that the huge guys don’t want to stock — lots of imports from Europe, also not a surprise.
The employees were pleasant and helpful and all spoke English. The store was very clean for its age. Putting end of aisle displays intruding into the aisle probably is why they get «the aisles are narrow» complaint. I did see some evidence of thawed and refrozen items — it wasn’t obvious if the cases were the reason or the items sitting too long before being put away.
Fresh meat looked decent and good prices. Until I cook it up, I won’t have an opinion.

So i’ve been shopping here and the one in Des Plaines for a couple of years… But today put a STOP to it. I always knew they don’t have quality food and that’s why it’s so cheap. Today tho, i went to buy «ROM cel dublu», chicken, fruits, and something to drink.
First of all… Gatorade was being promoted outside, in direct sunlight, 75 °F temp. Great!!!
The chicken, the packet was on «special» offer today only. It said it was packed yesterday. I got home, the bottom part was rotting. Even more great!
«ROM cel dublu» (romanian chocolate bars) were expired since Feb 2013!!!
The fruits, the organic ones, are from Trader’s Joe!!! I actually called a friend who works there, and i found out that they sell their fruits and veggies to stores like Shop-​n-​Save after not being sold in their stores!!!
What a joke of a market…
On another occasion, i went for some okey-​dokey puffs, there was a tiny mouse inside the bag:-|
I promise i’m not making up any of this. I never make a big fuss about others failures but today i was just blown away!
I told the managers everything and told them i’ll report it.
This review is for you ppl out there who cares about quality.
I’m sorry i dont have much good to say about this place… I like the bread, choices of alcohol, and the gypsy ham. That’s it!

The eclectic selection of groceries drew me in. But there’s like NO organic anything, the meat and fish are rated USDA G, which I had to actually look up, it’s stuff one would feed prisoners in a Federal penitentiary. Store reeks of rotting chicken and meat, and I would not be surprised if they have a substantial rodent infestation. I understand Polish but don’t speak it and was gratuitously and grossly insulted by one of the cashiers when I was checking my order out. I, the customer who enables the store to continue its existence, no less! I’ll never go back. But I think that Immigrations and Customs Enforcement needs to visit, and also to audit the employment and tax records of this market. How many of these crass refugees from communism, already gone 20 years or more, are people here illegally?

Let’s first start off by saying that this is a store that you only want to go to in the evening when the mall isn’t crowded or first thing in the morning before the mall opens because parking will be a nightmare. I will only shop here when I see a really good sale on items such as meat and deli items. Usuallly, on these items you can get a fair price. On other items, if its a good sale I will take the sales paper and have it price matched at Walmart down the street because this Shop n Save do not accept internet coupons. I’m not sure if its for all of the Shop N Saves but definately the one in Niles.
Overall, it’s a decent store, really cramped with a staff that’s not all that friendly or pleasant.

Where do I begin?
Well for starters, I HATE Shop N Save with a passion!!! The parking is ridiculous, the people are rude and on more than one occasion I almost got ran over by one of the little old ladies, that don’t care there are people walking in the crosswalk.
The store is so small, only one person can fit down an aisle with a cart-​literally it will take a miracle to get two people down that aisle. Everything is all topsy turvey. The staff only speak spanish or polish, and if they speak English its broken English. You’ll be lucky to find someone in that store that speaks English. The employees act like they hate their job and they hate you for bothering them.
The food is somewhat cheap, but there are other places that offer the same discounts but with better employees! I can not tell you how many times I have seen the frozen food defrosted and then refrozen again. YUCK!
I dread shopping here, but since the economy is so bad, I have no where else to go. HELP ME!
All I have to say is do not go there on a Sunday. You won’t come out alive.

This place smells… really, REALLY bad. Leave a salami sandwich in your car for a few summer days, and it, too, can smell just like Shop-​N-​Save. They have an excellent selection of Kinder and Milka chocolates, but every single time I’ve stopped by to get a bar, I leave there with that distinct odor and have to wipe my chocolate wrappers down to get rid of the stench.
Lined up in front of the deli cases are old, dirty-​looking, five-​gallon buckets (yep, the same type contractors use or cat litter comes in) filled with pickled cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. I mean, seriously… they can’t find some barrels to stick them in, or at least cover the top with plastic? I’m scared of the little black things floating in the brine!
Visit Fresh Farms in Niles for an awesome selection of produce and ethnic groceries.

Still a decent place to get cheap groceries and Polish, Greek, Italian, Russian or other imported products, but it’s poorly set up in comparison to the bigger Des Plaines store. What used to be an easy way into the store is now cluttered with sacks of potatoes, crates of watermelons and apples. The people buying them block the entrance and hold up the rows of available shopping carts.
The produce section is a navigable maze of islands and rows ending in the meat section. Now the meat section is in a constant state of flux it seems. The pork, beef and chicken seem to trade locations on a weekly basis, which means I often have to wander down the aisle looking for an item.
The food aisles are crowded and narrow, especially since there’s restocking going on at all hours, blocking aisles with pallet trucks. To further complicate things, piles of shrink-​wrapped groceries are just left unattended for people to squeeze around.
The deli is still pretty respectable, and it’s actually been upgraded, but I find the service slow and understaffed lately. Finally, the checkouts can be abysmally slow. Since they eliminated baggers a couple years ago, things got slower. Industrious people like me bag their own during the checkout process. I get added help from my older son and the Stunt Boy perched on the sliding ledge beside the bagging area, grasping at items coming off the conveyor. On the other hand, there’s the old ladies who wait to see the total, then write their checks slowly and watch helplessly as the cashier scrambles to put the groceries in the bags after the transaction while the line grows impatient.
All these things turn a short shopping trip into a needlessly longer one. I’ve gotten used to some of these as routine expectations, but now I am switching to the Des Plaines location, just for its neater store arrangement and efficient checkouts with the bags right next to the cashier for simply stuffing after scanning each item.

I continue to shop here mainly because the store carries Boar’s Head deli meats, is close by, and has relatively low prices on meat, fish, and produce.
But as a few people have already mentioned, the meat is not always fresh. On numerous occasions I have purchased meat that has gone bad before the expiration date. On one particular occasion, I set out to return some meat that reeked (this was two days prior to its sell-​by date). I no longer had the receipt because I hadn’t planned to return any of the food I had purchased. Shop ‘n Save absolutely refused to take it back because I did not have my receipt, even though it was obvious that the meat came from their store, and there was no question that, 2 days prior to its sell-​by date, the meat should still be fresh.
As far as produce goes, I prefer to shop at Jerry’s Fruit Market. Their produce is fresher and cheaper.

This used to be my favorite stores for produce, deli and imported foods.
Recently, it has really been a disappointment.
I agree with «Giselle» about the expiration dates. must check!
My real complaint is that many of the workers predominately speak ONLY Polish or Spanish, and the last couple of times, when I asked where something was, they were NOT helpful at all,
not even showing an attempt to assist (attitude=like they could care less).
The second complaint is… they used to have the best prices on FRESH produce, no longer.
Prices are just regular and the produce freshness is «iffy».
On a positive note… they still have a fabulous Deli, good prices, fresh meats and they carry «Boar’s Head» deli-​meats at a good price.
REVISED February 2008:
Went back to the only thing that was keeping me coming back to Shop-N-Save…THE DELI… ordered a pound of Krakus Polish Ham… and the girl handed me my package and then I ordered some cheese… I looked at my sliced ham in the plastic wrap and notice a «green sheen» oh no… whoa…I show the girl and she takes the ham, and was not going to cut me a fresh batch until I insisted that I wanted a fresh pound… SHE ACTUALLY HAD TO SAY SOMETHING (in Polish-where’s my friend Charlotte when I need her?) to what I am assuming was the deli manager and then reluctantly cut me some more.
Farewell SHOP-N-SAVE…down to only one star for the memory of the store you used to be.