Gristedes

Can a grocery store get any worse?
No concept of customer service. Went there the other day to buy a cake from bakery — had to run around to back to find an employee who could help me. (This while a manager was looking on listlessly.) Employee had no real interest in helping me, either. Same goes with just about every Gristede’s I go to. How does this chain stay in business?

This garbage establishment should be closed. You’d think with the ridiculous prices they charge they would have the money for a cash register system that doesn’t always ring the wrong prices. They also seem to think it’s okay to sell expired food.

By far the worst grocery store I have ever been to. I go to FIT which is literally right across the street from this grocery store. It is ridiculously overpriced. It’s twice and even 3 times the price at whole foods. $ 8 for a small box of oatmeal? Not even organic oatmeal. They should be cheaper considering they are right next to a college! Also the employees are incredibly rude! I went to the check out and I placed my hand basket on the counter. She looks at me like she expects me to take out my 5 items and place them on the counter (which I did anyways). Then she starts moving the counter closer to her as I’m taking my items out the baskets (that’s still on the counter). Like really? I’m trying to help you out. So I dropped my stuff and let her finish since she practically snatched the basket out of my hand. Then another employee was helping my friend check out. She was getting mad because my friend corrected her on a overcharge. My friend ended up taking the overcharge because the employee couldn’t find the manager. She didn’t even apologize. She was just smacking her gum and handed the receipt to my friend with an attitude. No smile, have a nice day or sorry for the wait because that’s too mainstream. I won’t be recommending this place to anybody at FIT. This place is a joke. Everybody hates it. They pretty much lost 50% of their customers just from FIT alone. Also they need better employees. I know a lot of students at FIT who would love to work at Gristedes and would do a better job than the employees currently there.

I just wanted to chime in and balance out the scale a bit here with this particular Gristede’s. I’m from Albany and I’m used to big, clean, reasonably priced grocery stores. After living in NYC for a year and being dissatisfied with cramped grocery stores with questionable cleanliness and a limited selection of expensive premium products, this Gristede’s has by far been my favorite grocery store experience in NYC so far. I see people complaining about the prices in reviews but at least they offer products that aren’t ‘organic’ or ‘all-​natural’, which by default are expensive. Clean, big, and again, contrary to some reviews, the staff was friendly.

Apparently, someone in charge took heed of my previous review, because there suddenly has been a drastic change. The deli stays fully open until 9 p.m. and the registers are manned when the lights are on. But the jury is still out on whether items are still being sold past their sell-​by dates.

I’ve opened my last moldy item from this store. Gristedes and I are officially parting ways.
This place is a mess. Definitely check the «Sell By» date on everything you buy. On several occasions I have accidentally purchased items that are already expired, opened, or in some cases, moldy. They are also constantly trying to sell milk that expires in a day (check the back of the shelf and you may be lucky enough to find milk that will last 4 or 5 days.
The store is always dirty and dingy, the produce is questionable at best, and the automatic door (the only entrance) is broken 50% of the time.
Many of the cashiers are very pleasant. (I felt I should say something nice).
In summary… Gristedes is the Penn Station of NYC grocers. Do yourself a favor and go to the Whole Foods on 7^th. It’s cheaper, cleaner, and has a great selection.

Expensive grocery store that tend to sell products that past «sell before date».
Keep shopping here because they are located basically 40 feet from my apartment but I really wish I wasn’t that lacy cause I keep coming home with bad grocery.
Employes are ok and helpful and you can get your stuff delivered home for free. But really… Try to walk to whole foods on 24 and 7 instead…

Update — they did right by us. We got the cakes for free, written on, and an apology from the manager. We are again shopping at Gristedes, and while it’s not our favorite, we do appreciate the efforts of the management and go there when we need to. PS. The cakes were as good as they always are. I meant to update earlier — better late than never!

Eww! Crazy expensive, gross produce, poor selection. I’ll stick with Whole Foods.

Pretty solid neighborhood chain grocery store. Decent variety of all types of food. Fresh produce/​frozen/​canned/​fresh meats. The prices are also pretty fair relative to the other smaller grocery stores around the Chelsea area and Manhattan in general.
Make sure to also sign up for their in store card which is free and also saves you money on certain items on sale.

when one is willing to shop at whole foods instead of the local grocery store not for superior product quality, but rather just to save money, something is wrong.
i refuse to pay top dollar for perishable items that don’t even look/​taste fresh in the first place (which probably has something to do with the fact that sane people wont pay two dollars for a bell pepper or whatever so it just sits there for years growing old). On occasion i am willing to pay an extra dollar for canned goods or a dusty box of pasta but that’s only because whole foods is always busy. i chalk it up as a convenience charge.
i’m no fan boy but that previously mentioned grocery store is right down the street and (save the crowds) superior in every way.

The place is kinda filthy, much like all the other Gristedes outposts I’ve been to. How they maintain the rent @ this location is beyond me, but I suppose they serve a clientele I couldn’t possibly understand. Eh, I ain’t mad @ ‘em – they did carry PB&Co items at a fairly average price.

$ 3 for ONE roll of paper towel! I only come here when I’m desperate and I regret it everytime. Selection is not that special. Prices completely rape my wallet. «the city» is not an excuse to rip people off. Whole foods is cheaper than Gristedes! Who would’ve thought?!

I was here today. It seems a bit small like Jay N. said. The «fresh» bread was a bit hard and seemed stale, not just nice crusty bread.

While I’d love to give more support to a local-​based chain, I simply can’t. Cramped store, (though which store in Manhattan isn’t cramped), not the cleanest, a dozen eggs can run you over $ 3 and they aren’t even organic. OUCH. In this case, buying «local» isn’t necessarily better. Whole Foods Chelsea is near by and why I attempt to avoid the price and pretension there, I often find myself using WF before Gristedes even though I’d much rather shop at a basic grocery store.
Come on Gristedes! Step it up a bit, a lot of us REALLY want to shop with you but the unfriendly staff, the state of your store and the stratospheric prices make it near impossible.

Nah.
I would much rather go to Whole Foods to do my grocery shopping, because
1. They have a much bigger selection
2. The prices are better
3. The atmosphere is less depressing
However, they do have a place at the front door to recycle plastic bags. Gristedes is my plastic bag deposit box.

just stopped by to buy a loaf of bread here.
interesting… they have a recycle machine here!
so this is where new yorkers go to recycle.
pepperridge farm whole 15 grain bread for $ 3.99
plus, they had a 55 cents coupon right on the bag to use!

I need to stand up for this Gristedes, in that it’s pretty big and the lines are about 95% shorter than Whole Foods.

hm… i wouldn’t be quite as harsh as billy, but this is definitely not where you want to do most of your grocery shopping. the produce is sparse and they carry what i call funeral fruit (it’s passed it’s expiration date).
i generally only get my frozen lunches and nabisco hundred calorie snack packs in here for work. …other than that, i second whole foods :)

If Whole Foods would just carry Skippy peanut butter I’d never set foot in here again. Filthy.