Save Mart Supermarkets

I hate this grocery market. 20 people in line but only 1 cashier open… are you kidding me? Try to avoid this place unless you have to get something that is not offered somewhere else.

I recently moved to south San Jose and I was disheartened to find out that Save Mart was the only nearby, decent-​sized grocery store in my neighborhood. The grocery carts are disgusting and the store is just tolerable. The only real good thing about this store… it’s closing June 17^th. I’m not sure if another store will be going in to replace it but this neighborhood needs something decent.

I’ve been shopping at this Save Mart since I moved here to California about two years ago. It is the closest decent-​sized grocery store to my place.
There IS a lot to dislike about this place:
1) Shopping carts & carrying baskets haven’t been cleaned since the Reagan-​era
2) Always a long line. Always.
3) It is in desperate need of a remodeling. It is really starting to look sleazy.
4) Damn mexican at the exit keeps asking for change. ALL THE TIME.
5) Produce selection is weak.
6) Most of the employees seemed to have fallen out of the ugly tree…
But there is also a lot to like, which is why I keep going back:
1) DECENT prices. Makes all other stores seem overpriced.
2) EXCELLENT sales. A gallon of milk for $ 2.69? In this day & age?
3) Meat selection is quite acceptable.
4) Parking is usually easy.
5) Floors are always clean. Almost always.
This is a grocery store to shop at to get the basics, nothing fancy. The store is just clean enough to be healthy (but seriously, folks, WASH THOSE GROCERY CARTS!!). Service is ok… actually the bag boys/​girls are some of the friendliest… like they haven’t learned how to be pissy yet (like some of the cashiers).
Also you’d think that they would have a wider Asian food selection, given that it is located in the heart of Little Saigon, but I guess there are enough Asian markets in the area that Save Mart chose not to compete. Instead, there is a wide selection of Mexican fare, which is probably why so many Hispanics shop there.
Like I said… i have been shopping here for almost 2 years at approx. $ 150-​$ 200 per month. I love the fact that it has a wide selection of hispanic foods, is located in Little Saigon, and just about every employee has a different ethnicity. White people shop there. Black people shop there. Latinos shop there. And Asians shop there. Once in a while an East Indian will shop there. The homeless shop there. High-​Schoolers shop there. It’s everything you’d expect in a California grocery store!
Yeah it has a bakery, a pharmacy (which is almost overlooked) and a small selection of liquor. But is also has three shelves, about 10 feet long, of Virgin Mary candles. Oh, and the Foxbrook wine… you know, $ 2 California wine… is sold by the case. I’ve got about two dozen empty Foxbrook boxes in my storage closet :) And for the icing on the cake: a separate check-​cashing business right up front, where the customer service desk used to be.
Save Mart looks like it hit its peak back in the 1980s. But it still beats being bent-​over at Safeway! Clean it up a bit and hire some better-​looking employees and I’ll remain a loyal customer.

Boring!!!
I expected more out of this place. This is my first Save Mart and nothing about this is appealing at all.
Cashiers are rude and soo low class that they match this store perfectly!
I will never go back to this place!

i HATE this store. and i don’t use that word loosely. This store is so bad that it truly pisses me off.
This is the closest market to where I recently moved. I will admit that I am used to nicer stores, but this place is just so crappy. I would have to say that my top 3 complaints are, in order:
1. In general, their selection sucks. It is very limited. Unless you are cooking hispanic food, you may not be able to find what you’re looking for. I am especially annoyed by their produce selection. It’s a joke.
2. The employees here are terrible. Let me just relate a recent story: Last night i had to pick up a few things and i didn’t want to drive 5 miles to the next decent store so i sucked it up and came here. I get to the counter with my basket and hand the checker a re-​useable bag. She looks at me like i had two heads! Okay, fine. So people around here don’t really recycle their bags (even though they scavenge for cans and bottles like they’re precisous metals or something). Fine. So she scans all of my items and then starts bagging them… in a plastic bag. Again, okay, whatever, she forgot. Big deal. I remind her and she finished bagging, but she leaves out a jar of spices that i just purchsed. Expensive spices. I point it out, which she completely ignores as she goes for my receipt. So she hands me some coupon that the cash register prints out and doesn’t even give me a receipt, I have to ask for it. While all of this is going on, there are 2 more employees arging about having to move stuff around to clean behind it. Now, i know that these are all minor things in and of themselves, but based on my previous expereiences with this store and all of those little things added up together, i was just really pissed off.
3. Every thing about this store just seems, well for lack of a better word, sleazy. I don’t know how else to describe it. Other people might say ghetto, but i think that word is way overused. But it’s almost as though they cater to a specific type of shopper, one who likes meat, not a whole lot of veggies, and stuff for cheap. If that’s you, then by all means, ignore everything i’ve written and enjoy your store. I choose to stay away whenever possible.
Sorry for the rant. But i really friggin hate this store.

long lines, horrible and unfriendly cashiers, ghetto customers, dirty atmosphere.
You can get all of the above at Walmart, which is across the street, but walmart is 10 times cheaper. You decide.

This Savemart isn’t half bad! I blame the management for treating the employees harshly — I had this wonderful bagger who noticed my shredded cheese was looking a little stale so he went back and got me another one. Once he retrieved the better cheese, his manager chewed him out for taking so long, when it really only took him about 2 or 3 minutes.
Also this place has WAY BETTER prices on their meats than Safeway, they also mark down the price of meats that are close to expiration, whichis perfect if you need something quick to cook right away.
Their produce is okay, but it’s priced to move — 2 big huge bags of celery for $ 1. What a deal! I was eating celery for weeks! I definitely come here when I don’t want to drive to the Midtown Safeway or Trader Joe’s — Coleman and need to pick up a few things for a party.

No one should hate about your local GHETTO FAB grocery store. They have expanded their meat dept and has definitely improved. Their produce is still shitty btw…

I try to avoid this store. The lines are long and agonizingly slow. I usually have two items (I don’t ever plan to shop here) and it takes forever. The employees are relatively nice though.

their prices are NOT the greatest. for their probably low grade meat, price is ok, but as for other stuff like spread and break, better off at walmart or at safeway
the place looks ghetto from the outside and not bad on the inside. customer service is good though

Oi. What can I say that’s good about this particular Save Mart. It’s close — distance-​wise, anyway. With all the 280, 101, WalMart, etc. traffic on the ever-​jammed Story Road, it really is a wonder why I think it’s actually close.
Unfortunately, although the staff are generally pretty nice, they are pretty clueless about the products they sell. My first experience pretty much sums up all following experiences. I was craving some hummus, so I stopped in on a jaunt around town. I look around in the deli section, as many refrigerated sections I could find, and finally ran into a staff person. Here’s how the conversation went:
«Hi, where can I find hummus?»
«Pumus?»
“No no, hummus, with an «h».”
“Hummus… mmmm… … is that a meat?”
«Oh, um, no, it’s a garbanzo bean spread. You know, Mediterranean, yellow…»
«I don’t think we have that.»
«Oh, okay, thanks.»
A large grocery store without hummus? What is the world coming to?
I took his word for it, not venturing here for a little while again. Afraid of the rip in space-​time that is a decent sized grocery store without hummus.
But on a trip nearly a year later, there it was. One lonely type of hummus. But it was there. Space wasn’t unraveling after all.
Oh, I forgot the worst part — the LINES! I expect to wait for 35 minutes in a line at Costco. It’s just how these things go. But at a grocery store? At 2pm? I mean, really. Seriously, *every* time I go, the lines are insane. Please hire more cashiers!

This market is ok, if you can ever get to it. Its location makes it hard to get to as the traffic can get really bad on this part of Story Road with Walmart and the Grand Century complex are so close to this Save Mart, so be aware.
The store itself is decent. The produce is ok. The meat section is pretty good and they’ll often have pretty good specials on various meat products.
Not bad, but not great.

!!! Definitely NOT a PLACE FOR BALLOONS!!!
The occasion was to celebrate my daughter’s 2^nd Birthday with her toddler class.
I came in for the Bakery (for Cake, cupcakes, etc) but ended up with other miscellaneous items like assorted type of fruits and other items such as BALLOONS which is where my main review following is for.
I just wanted 10 balloons of various colors which cost $ 10. The balloons are just the 12 inches latex, no special imprints. Where to get the Balloons is not obvious, I needed to ask around and finally got directed to talk to someone at the Produces department. It took like about 20 mins to get them.
As I walked out to the parking lot, 2 of my 10 balloons popped!
I thought to myself «Great! Perhaps it’s the summer’s heat»…Once I got in the car and started driving out, 2 more loud pop that startled me… I just couldn’t believe it. I pulled my car back into the parking space and went back to the store and talked to the Cashier who checked me out, hoping that they could compensate me. She asked the next lane Cashier, named Rick who told me that they’re not responsible as soon as the Balloons leave the store.
I just couldn’t believe it. It has got to be either the quality of the balloon they sell or the Balloons are over inflated. Who responsible is that? It’s just hard to believe that 4 out of 10 are gone within 10 minutes after purchased. I felt like being ripped off even though it’s not a lots of money. The point is: I wasted too much time for the Balloons and still ended up missing Balloons to bring in for my daughter’s class. I just couldn’t spend another 20 mins to purchase more Balloons and who know how many will make to the class. So, it’s definitely not a place for Balloons.
And By the way, the bakery isn’t very good either. They are just TOO Sweet.

I don’t understand why the shopping carts here are always so sticky and covered with dirt. I don’t think I want to know! Then they have the nerve to place a tub of dried out wipes at the entrance! GROSS! When I have to go here, I put my son in his stroller and put my items at the bottom of his stroller so I never have to touch one of those skanky carts. The store itself is really old and is in need of rennovation, but the employees are all friendly and helpful.