Carnicerias Rancho Grande

This is the closest thing that I have found to those small neighborhood grocery stores in the Midwest. If you are used to Frys or Safeway this will be a culture shock. It looks be up on the outside and it’s beat up on the inside. However not in a overly detrimental way. The prices are little high compared to your chain stores like your frys or your Safeway. But shopping here’s all about the experience, not necessarily the prices. Plus they have a lot of unique, definitely Mexican, type of foods and cultural norms that you won’t find in most Americanized stores.

The south side of Phoenix, for no clearly apparent reason, is a completely other world compared to the north side. Until you hit Baseline there is a measly handful of grocery stores in this area, and this is one of them. I’m thankful for its presence, but truthfully it’s a ho-​hum store. Produce is inexpensive, but it’s often aged or bruised in some way. I’ve encountered fruit flies more than once here. Their target customers seem to be harried Mexican mothers on a tight budget. The prices are not great compared to the service of the store. Fortunately there is a small eatery there and it’s possible to get a few freshly baked items.

Pleasantly surprised, went here for the first time and outside looks a little rough but the inside was very very clean. People were very nice and meat counter was impressive

My rule here is not to buy anything that isn’t pre-​packaged. Bag of Doritos — fine. Loose fruit and veggies — um, no. Can of product with a brand name I recognize — sure. Meat — heck no.
Here’s the thing — it’s the closest grocery store to me in many ways (If you don’t count the Super Wal-​Mart, and I don’t) and I really wanted to like it, but it just kinda freaked me out too much the first time to trust it again. After going into Ranch Market I figured this would be about the same. I was SO wrong. The produce section had flies all over it and many of the items were well past their naturally intended expiration date. And once you got half way over — the smell of the Carniceria was SO strong and rancid I almost tossed my cookies right there. This was about… oh… 8 – 9 months ago.
Last week I ran in because «someone» at home wanted a bag of Doritos and some sour cream. It was a block from where I was, and both of those products would be pre-​packaged so I figured I’d give it a shot. I could tell that they had made some improvements, and their produce and meat sections looked much better, but I’m not willing to throw those dice just yet.
Personally — I say just go down the street to Ranch Market. It’s right on Southern and such an amazingly different shopping experience. Besides, you really don’t want to be there if those improvements start to back-​slide again. Blech!