Valli Produce

I love the wide variety of produce, gourmet meats and cheeses, and seafood available at Valli. It’s a great place to get some of those unusual ingredients needed for different ethnic dishes. But what really prompted me to write this review is that I wanted to give a special shout out to a young man by the name of Christian who was our cashier a couple of weeks ago (11/​22/​2015), when we made our trek to the East State Street location to purchase provisions for our Thanksgiving meal. Even though the store was crowded, he greeted each customer with a warm smile. He was efficient in cashiering, but he was also extra meticulous with bagging our groceries. We had a pretty large order, and as he was scanning items, he looked over other items on the conveyer belt, and picked out things to bag together — all the dairy together in one bag, produce in another, etc. He did this quickly and efficiently, and never lost his smile. Seems like a small thing, but it definitely made unpacking our groceries at home easier. We appreciated his efforts. I don’t believe I’ve ever had a cashier be so courteous, pleasant, and careful in processing my grocery order.

Well… I have now found myself in Valli Produce twice in the last week after a very long hiatus. I still have mixed feelings about this merchant, but I am happy to report that I have not had spoiled and decomposing meat.
I was in need of beef shanks for an amazing Osso Bucco that I love to make and Valli is the most convenient place to get those in this area. I found them and will admit that I chose 2 packages (2 shanks per package) and split open the package to smell them before placing them in my cart. I took the packages that I had broken the plastic as they were acceptable. I also purchased chicken and ground beef.
The customer service was fantastic… I had to ask a couple of people for help, as some of the more common items are difficult to find because of the layout, and everyone was friendly and helpful.
I have to say that I was so disappointed in the small café that is in the front of the store. In the past, that was always a great place to run into for a quick bite while shopping. I went in and asked for an Americano sandwich which is on their menu board and the lady behind the counter told me that she could not make it because they had no turkey. Huh? OK, I will get a ham sandwich… no ham. So I finally asked her to tell me what they did have and she said Mexican platters only. While I am a huge fan of Mexican food, I was not interested in paying $ 8 to $ 15 for a platter of Mexican food at a grocery store for a quick snack. I passed all together. Not really sure what is up with that.
I will start shopping here again occasionally… very carefully.

I tried many times to get the ad delivered to me like many did in the area. Just couldn’t because we were just outside their mailing zone. We were only 5min. away. Still, just went online every Tuesday night to their site to check out the specials. We’d write down what we wanted to be sure to get.
The big positives we loved about this grocery store is the wide variety of fruits and vegetables and a very wide variety of meats and cheeses. All at ridiculously low prices compared to where we are now.
Goods were imported from all over the world, and they were fresh, good quality. Through the seasons the varieties would change and something in season would bring the prices down. Getting kiwi 8 for $ 1, grapes for .99\lb, lg basket strawberries for $ 3, limes and lemons 4 for $ 1, box of mango (9−12ct) for $ 10, etc.
Heading over the smoked and cured meats was a specialty of ours. Getting to know the people who worked behind the counter taking and putting your order together was always so much fun. At first, we were a little shy but once we got the hang of it we were calling out as if we were auctioneers. Our specialty was getting the meat ends and cheese ends. Whatever they had was $ 1.50\lb (heard they moved the price up recently). You don’t get to choose but we liked it all. It gave us a chance to eat what may have been out of our budget or maybe we never thought of trying. And that’s how I became a cheese lover. Now, I regret not having the wide selection here.
Parking might get a little tricky but always seem to get a spot not having to drive around a lot.

This is a pretty decent grocery store. They probably have the largest selection of ethnic food in the Rockford area. They especially stock up on the Indian and Hispanic groceries that are hard to find. They have very fresh vegetables that you wouldn’t otherwise find at Woodmans/​Schnucks/​or Walmart. They even have a huge selection of frozen ethnic food which is also hard to find in this area.
The wine and beer selection is HUGE. Basically one side of the store is for wine/​liquor. There is also a mexican/​pizza place up front. I personally haven’t tried the food, but it looks «interesting»

If you have any observable flaws, you should not shop here. The staff will talk to each other, across the checkout lanes like you don’t even exist, about how much your flaw bothers them. They will laugh, they will treat you like you are scum on their shoes. Not that they are perfect by any means, but they sure think they’re better than everyone else. The staff of Valli Produce do not recognize humanity in others, have no compassion, no insight. No amount of value can make up for being treated the way they treat people.

Great vegetable and herb selection. They have many unique food items and a large Hispanic, Polish, and German food section. They also prepackaged all of their candy with super low prices. You can get a pound of gummy bears for under $ 3.
When I purchase lunch meat, I will only buy it from here. They have a much bigger selection than schnucks and MUCH cheaper prices. If you purchase the brands on sale that week, you can get a pound of cheese for under $ 3 and meat for $ 4.
I am also a huge fan of their bakery. They have wonderful Italian cookies and great selections of cake slices, stuffed cookies, cannolis, and other stuff. You can’t go wrong at Valli!

Valli produce sushi review.
I frequently visit Schnucks on East State street just for their sushi bar. however, a few days ago I decided to try out valli’s. when I got there, they had a «half off after now PM» sign hanging over the sushi cooler. what a deal! I picked up a crunchy shrimp tempura roll and a spicy shrimp roll. for $ 3.50 a piece that’s a deal. when I got home, I noticed a majority of the rolls were stuffed with browning avocado and thought maybe that was why they were trying to get rid of them. I ate two shrimp tempura rolls and wanted to spit them out. they are nothing like the fresh ones over at Schnucks. you truly do get what you pay for.

this is a very affordable grocer in our town. could be cause their workers are not union? not sure. Anyway they have a lot of international foods here. European, Middle Eastern, Latino, African and American. Extensive liquor department also. Some organic options too. Fresh breads! They have the best Bolillos in Rockford… those are French style Mexican rolls great for sandwiches. Lots of nuts, seeds, trail mixes, and of course lots of produce. The staff is predominately latin. They are all very friendly and helpful. What can I say it’s in our blood to hospitable. They also have a restaurant that is run by San Jose’s — a local Mexican restaurant. Their food is pretty tasty too. And of course since Valli is Italian owned they do offer Italian foods also in their café. Once again I would rather shop here then Walmart, Target or Schnucks. Next door is Sahara Mediterranean Restaurant. Try them out!

The bakery here is maybe the best I have found in Rockford. And the cake is phenomenal. Stop buying the Walmart/​Schnucks cake and give this bakery a chance! Loooooove the cakes!

Will never shop here ever again!
So I bought some clementines. I opened the clementines and they were either almost rotten or covered with white mold. The man who sold them to me was now at the returns desk. Returns are not a simple process. He had to call a produce manager over to see if he would authorize the return. WTF! You have absolutely no problem selling me rotten produce but give me a hard time when I wish to make a return? You tell the produce manager I am returning the clementines because the are soft when even you can see that they are rotten!
The other thing that completely pissed me off is that you refused to accept the return of a set of 3 disposable pans just because the plastic was removed from the side even though I bought it the day before and I have the receipt. You tell me you can’t sell it. Really?
I’d rather go to Walmart any day and not deal with this poor customer service!

Yes, I am giving this place five stars and they have earned every one of hem! I live in California, and I can tell you we don’t have anything quit like this place, which is a shame because this grocery store is freakin’ amazing!
The produce department is to die for. It is so large you could easily get lost in it. The produce is big beautifully colored and shiny. They have a great selection of regular and ethnic fruits and vegetables, including some I’ve never heard of. We filled the cart, even though we’d just come from Sam’s Club.
I love to cook ethnic foods and am a frequent visitor to the ethnic aisle in my local supermarket back home. Valli Produce has all my staples covered: Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Hispanic, and Indian. They also have a few other ethnic aisles to cover a few more groups: Greek, Middle Eastern, German, Polish, Swedish, Bulgarian… What kind of food is Bulgarian. I am not sure, but if you DO know you can buy everything you need here!
All of their special departments are clearly performing up to snuff: bakery, fresh butcher shop, fresh fish market, ones, beers and spirits. Their selection of craft beers and specialty liqueurs (pumpkin pie liqueur?) is out of this world and there are aisle after aisle full of them.
I was fascinated by the wine chiller which was filled with ice cold water. You could purchase any wine in the store and by holding the bottle in the ice cold water you could chill it ICE COLD in 5 minutes. WE NEED THESE IN CALIFORNIA!
I love love this grocery store. The aisles are pretty spacious. Do you think they’d notice if I pitched a tent?

A truly beautiful store… 100k sqft of grocery!!!

My fiancé brought me here purely to show me the selections. His mom insisted. I should mention I have an obsession with spices and specialty items so I was definitely in my element. Also, the wine that we love (Cellar No. 8) is cheaper here than at the wine and liquor store in Woodman’s. I was kinda pissed because we had just bought 5 bottles of it! I ended up buying some sesame candy from here and we also had lunch (eggplant parm, yum). It’s places like this that make me long for suburban (rural?) living. Oh well, back to NYC I go with my 5 (over-​priced) bottles of wine in tow.