Sprouts is opening a store on Oakand Park Blvd, so I thought I'd take a look at the store they opened last month in Dania Beach.
They took over the space that was going to be a Lucky's; before Lucky's went under and closed all of their FL stores. My first impression upon entering was that this was a bigger store than I expected.
They call this a "farmer's market", so I thought it was going to be mostly produce; but this is a full service Supermarket in every way. Front and center is some very expensive chicken, organic of course. Sausage is to the left.
A lot of brands here that you won't see anywhere else. Maybe a place to get Kielbasa if you don't want the frozen stuff at Wild Forks, but not today.
Meat is pretty expensive; $11/lb for grass fed chuck steak? Yeah, I won't be buying my meat at Sprouts.
The meat counter had ribeyes on sale for $12.99/lb; not bad in today's world.
They DO have generic chicken in the family packs; but they won't be stealing too many customers from Walmart.
Sprouts serves Dietz and Watson cold cuts, which are superior to Boar's head in my opinion. Winn Dixie has this brand also, but there's something about Winn Dixie. You know what I mean.
Nothing special in the seafood dept; the usual suspect types of fish. Nothing to see here.
There are heat and serve meals for the pop tart crowd; if you can't cook a simple meal after 2 years of working from home you never will be able to make your own food.
Yet another brand of fresh pasta; I didn't plan on buying anything as my refrigerator is stuffed, but for 99 cents for fresh angel hair pasta I had to bite. I usually buy the Buitoni fresh linguine with is $2.79 for a package. More on this later.
They have an extensive produce section with some nice looking produce.
Another place to get Rapini for you Italian cooks; $3.99 so in line with Fresh Market ($3.99) and Publix ($4.09).
Nice shiny eggplants and peppers.
They have most of the name brand tomato sauces Del Grosso (good), Mario Batali (terrible), Newman's Own (how would I know?). The store brands are more reasonably priced, but how do we know it's not Ragu?
The wine select is Winn-Dixie-esque; I won't be buying any wine here.
The ubiquitous whole coffee bean section where you can guy coffee worth $5/lb for $11/lb.
I suggest getting your own coffee grinder so you don't get some of whatever the last 3 guys ground in the store grinder in your bag. If you're going to spend $11/lb on coffee a $25 coffee grinder is a reasonable investment for actual fresh ground coffee every morning.
They also have an extensive nuts section.
They also have a self-checkout, which has become a requirement for all supermarkets with today's staffing problems.
Now I'd only purchased 1 item; the angel hair pasta for 99 cents. So I scan the item: $3.99. Argh! So I call over the girl covering the self checkout and here's how it goes:
Me: This item is on sale
Her: Do you want me to take it off?
Me: Yeah.
So she takes the item and disappears for a while. Tick Tock. I see here gathering baskets and she doesn't have the item. I'm still standing at the kiosk.
Her: Hello
Me: Where's the Product?
Her: You said you didn't want it
Me: You're not going to give me the Sale Price on it?
Her: I can check on it
Me: Or you can walk over and see the sign
She walks off talking into her earpiece. I see another girl walking with the item
Her: She's going to check it for you.
Tick Tock. She comes back nodding her head.
Her (confounded look). He flags down another girl. "Do you know how to change a price"
Mind Boggling.
Conclusion
Sprouts is kind of a hybrid of Fresh Market and Publix with a little bit of Lucky's; it's not clear who copied who. It's a lot like Publix without the BOGO; regular prices are too high to consider and some sale prices are a bargain. I've never seen fresh pasts for 99 cents anywhere including Aldi.