Quality grocery stores in OKC

[Urbanized]

More sketchy than that Homeland?...

Honestly, in my experiences there, yes.

[Thomas Vu]

The WMNM on around Britton and Rockwell is worse than the Homeland in the same area. Felt all the pangs that Pete mentioned. Small aisles, depressing people, so on and so forth.

[White Peacock]

The WMNM on around Britton and Rockwell is worse than the Homeland in the same area. Felt all the pangs that Pete mentioned. Small aisles, depressing people, so on and so forth.

The one at SW 59th and Penn is a total dump, and the parking lot is terrifying.

[David]

I've never had a bad experience in a Walmart Neighborhood Market, but that's probably a question of the ones I've been to. Since I used to live right by the brand new one in NW Norman I went to it a lot, and I've been to the one at 23rd & Penn a few times since my move and it (while not as good as the Norman one) is decent enough.

That's why I would absolutely love to get one of those urban Neighborhood Markets in the downtown area, I think it would serve the city very well.

[zookeeper]

The paradoxical nature of the same chain having 18th & Classen and then May & Britton is beyond my comprehension. The former is bad and apparently getting worse. The latter is like a model grocery store showcase. They are constantly keeping things new and fresh. It's bright and cherry and as aesthetically pleasing as any grocery store anywhere. 18th & Classen sounds like the complete opposite. It was bad last time I was in there, from what Pete says it sounds like its even worse now. I just fail to comprehend the strange paradox of these two stores being the same company.

[stile99]

The paradoxical nature of the same chain having 18th & Classen and then May & Britton is beyond my comprehension. The former is bad and apparently getting worse. The latter is like a model grocery store showcase. They are constantly keeping things new and fresh. It's bright and cherry and as aesthetically pleasing as any grocery store anywhere. 18th & Classen sounds like the complete opposite. It was bad last time I was in there, from what Pete says it sounds like its even worse now. I just fail to comprehend the strange paradox of these two stores being the same company.

FWIW, this can happen to any store, even one of the best.

When I first moved to the Austin area, I paid my first visit to an HEB. I quickly swore that it was my last. Friends convinced me that that particular one was known to be crap and not a good representation of the brand, so I tried another, and it was heaven. Another, heaven. Another, heaven. I honestly believe to the very core of my being HEB needs to knock the crappy one down before it gives anyone else the wrong impression. Now being back in OKC I miss HEB terribly, but not that first one I tried. That store can go straight to the deepest, smelliest bowels of hell. In fact, I think it already did so years ago. When Albertsons left the area, HEB bought several of their stores and converted them to HEB. Even those converted stores are better than the first one I tried.

[soonermike81]

The paradoxical nature of the same chain having 18th & Classen and then May & Britton is beyond my comprehension. The former is bad and apparently getting worse. The latter is like a model grocery store showcase. They are constantly keeping things new and fresh. It's bright and cherry and as aesthetically pleasing as any grocery store anywhere. 18th & Classen sounds like the complete opposite. It was bad last time I was in there, from what Pete says it sounds like its even worse now. I just fail to comprehend the strange paradox of these two stores being the same company.

I used to work in the grocery industry and oversaw multiple stores across a city. This was very common across the company. Stores in nicer areas generally have customers that don't trash the stores, and have employees who care more about the store that is probably a part of their neighborhood. No matter how hard we tried to clean up certain stores, it would always revert back to the "bad" store of the district. Not quite sure how off the Classen Homeland is compared to other stores, so this may be an exception. But in general, stores in a crappy area were never taken care of as much as the stores in nicer neighborhoods.

[Plutonic Panda]

I don't think any of these examples apply to Homeland. I think we have a company who just doesn't care. Even their "nice" stores are still crappy compared to grocery stores in Dallas and Los Angeles. Even Kroger has a few bad stored, but they are nothing compared to the crappy homelands. Get this, I've never been in the 18th and Classen one, and that seems to be the worst one.

[bchris02]

The 18th and Classen Homeland isn't as bad as Whitaker's, which is probably the worst grocery store in OKC. It's still bad and evidence of a grocery chain that doesn't care. 18th and Classen isn't in a bad area. In fact, it's at the doorstep of the nicest neighborhood in the urban core. Homeland knows they have no competition in the urban core and they aren't going to invest in that store until they have to. Or they may just close it like they've done several of the other bad locations over the past few years once a better store opens up.

The store at 122nd and Rockwell was awful until rumors of Sprouts started going around. That's when they decided to upgrade it and now it's decent. I think even now, if Homeland wants to survive longterm they need to rebrand their better stores, to shed the stigma that the Homeland name carries with it.

What OKC needs is either Crest and/or Uptown Market to become more aggressive in their expansion, and target Homeland the way OnCue is targeting 7/11. Homeland will either need to up their game or fold. My guess is that in almost any other city, a grocer couldn't operate like Homeland and be successful at all. The competition would just be too stiff.

A couple of years ago, Homeland completely pulled out of Tulsa.

[Questor]

It is interesting how different the Homeland's can be. The Britton store and far south OKC stores are great. Pretty much all the others are questionable at best. I feel like even the good stores have issues with quality control though.

The thing most surprising to me was how quickly a former Albertson's store I used to go to slid back when they became Homeland. I'm convinced the entire company must have management issues.

[bchris02]

Albertson's pulling out of OKC was a pretty big blow to OKC's grocery market, mostly because they were the last of the national chains aside from Wal-Mart to operate here.

Of course, at the time Albertson's didn't operate their OKC stores to the same standard as they did their stores in other markets. However, I have a feeling the increased competition from Whole Foods, Sprouts, and locals like Uptown Market and Sprouts would have propelled Albertson's to up their game and bring their stores here on the level with their other stores, had they remained in the market. It also wouldn't surprise me if they would have opened up a Tom Thumb or two here in response to Whole Foods entering the market. If anybody has been to Tom Thumb in Dallas, they are beautiful stores and they are the flagship brand of Albertson's. They certainly wouldn't have let once-nice stores like NW Expressway and MacArthur deteriorate the way Homeland did.

They are a corporation with deep pockets and would have been a lot more likely to do invest in their stores than Homeland. Homeland, from the way its run, seems like a company that is teetering on the edge. I am not sure of their financial health, but it doesn't seem run like a prosperous business.

That blow however was minuscule compared to Safeway spinning off their stores, which is what Homeland is. Safeway in other markets are great stores.

Bottom line is OKC has had bad luck. There's no other way to explain why grocery stores are so bad here.

-Safeway spun off into Homeland, which has since become one of the worst run grocery operations in the country
-Every regional grocer who has attempted to enter the market has had financial problems soon after and subsequently pulled out
-Albertson's pulled out due to corporate financial problems in the mid 2000s, giving their stores to Homeland
-OKC is Wal-Mart's test market for their saturation strategy. Sprawl and lots of open space makes it easy for them to do this and it makes it more difficult for competing grocers to choose a location
-National mainline grocers in 2015 aren't expanding into new markets
-OK liquor laws result in very thin profit margins for grocers, making it difficult for a local operation like Uptown Market or Crest to expand aggressively

[corwin1968]

This may have been covered already but the Crest at NW 164th & Santa Fe has done a slight remodel and installed a cheese counter and an olive bar. The cheese counter has been there a few weeks but I haven't taken a close look at it. My impression was that it is substantially smaller than Uptown Grocer's cheese counter. We saw the olive bar for the first time yesterday but for some reason, the deli/bakery were closed (the day after Christmas and the weekend of a coming ice/snow event....go figure) so it was empty.

[TheTravellers]

This may have been covered already but the Crest at NW 164th & Santa Fe has done a slight remodel and installed a cheese counter and an olive bar. The cheese counter has been there a few weeks but I haven't taken a close look at it. My impression was that it is substantially smaller than Uptown Grocer's cheese counter. We saw the olive bar for the first time yesterday but for some reason, the deli/bakery were closed (the day after Christmas and the weekend of a coming ice/snow event....go figure) so it was empty.

Cheese counter is nice, nowhere near the selection of Whole Foods (haven't been to Uptown yet, so can't compare), but still nice - picked up some Manchego and some ultra sharp cheddar (Tillamook, I believe, which is nice to see easily available here now). They also have a new deli meat case, but since the brand they carry is low-end (Dietz and something), we only get one thing there when they have it (Wilson pit ham). Olive counter is also nice to see, but small, about 1/2 the size of Whole Foods' olive counter.

We wish they'd upgrade the quality of their produce instead of adding fancy new things - they have some of the crappiest produce we've seen in a grocery store...

[Pete]

The Sprouts at 63rd & May recently expanded their deli and although I didn't look closely, seemed to have a good cheese selection.

That is really a great store and I would love to get one downtown.

[zookeeper]

Jiminy Christmas! How much more can be said about our grocery stores? And Bchris, you really need to go back and look at the book you have written in this thread. It is all a repetition of the last, over and over. You don't need to constantly repeat your analysis of the Oklahoma City grocery store scene. I'm sorry, but...what else can be said? 18th & Classen is a horrible Homeland, but this city isn't lacking for grocery options! See Pete's last post as an example. Sprouts is a great store! It just seems we are constantly in need of everything that isn't here.

[bchris02]

Jiminy Christmas! How much more can be said about our grocery stores? And Bchris, you really need to go back and look at the book you have written in this thread. It is all a repetition of the last, over and over. You don't need to constantly repeat your analysis of the Oklahoma City grocery store scene. I'm sorry, but...what else can be said? 18th & Classen is a horrible Homeland, but this city isn't lacking for grocery options! See Pete's last post as an example. Sprouts is a great store! It just seems we are constantly in need of everything that isn't here.

I maybe don't need to keep repeating it but everything in my analysis is true. Sure, there are a few decent grocery stores in the metro, but none of the current ones are convenient to those living in the urban core. I don't consider anything on NW 63rd or farther north to be convenient from downtown. This is a deficiency in OKC that is more evident to someone who has lived in other cities where quality options are everywhere.

Bring a Sprouts and something like an Uptown Market somewhere in the urban core and the complaints about the grocery stores here will stop, at least from me.

[LocoAko]

I'm glad to see I'm not alone in truly despising shopping at Homeland. I live near the Lindsey location in Norman and I feel miserable every time I'm in there. The employees, store, and entire experience are just dreadful, and expensive to boot.

I know this is a total pipedream, but I'd love to see Wegman's in OKC. I went once in NJ and was blown away by the store. Maybe one day...

[Thomas Vu]

I'm glad to see I'm not alone in truly despising shopping at Homeland. I live near the Lindsey location in Norman and I feel miserable every time I'm in there. The employees, store, and entire experience are just dreadful, and expensive to boot.

I know this is a total pipedream, but I'd love to see Wegman's in OKC. I went once in NJ and was blown away by the store. Maybe one day...

HOLY S*)# I want that!

[Urbanized]

^^^^^
Reminds me a bit of the food halls at Harrod's. What an experience...

[Urbanized]

Check THIS out: https://www.google.com/search?q=harr...UIBigB#imgrc=_

[BrettM2]

Homeland in Edmond at 33rd and Broadway is no different on the customer service front. I was there yesterday to get groceries since we have been out of town all week and you'd think I was holding the cashier's dog hostage with all the friendliness he showed.

[bchris02]

I think the best scenario OKC could ever hope for is for Homeland to be bought out by somebody like Kroger. Imagine all the Homelands becoming Krogers. Not only would it provide a much more pleasant shopping experience, but if they invested in their older locations, it would breathe life into aging shopping centers and also improve the desirability of their surrounding neighborhoods.

Now the possibility of that ever happening is probably nothing more than a pipe dream, but it would be the best case. I would not want to see Homeland fold and leave a bunch of empty storefronts around the metro that would sit vacant for years or become Goodwill donation centers.

[Pete]

Homeland in Edmond at 33rd and Broadway is no different on the customer service front. I was there yesterday to get groceries since we have been out of town all week and you'd think I was holding the cashier's dog hostage with all the friendliness he showed.

It's hard to find unfriendly people in Oklahoma and Homeland seems to have the market cornered.

[5alive]

Wow..that new Jersey store pictured above makes Oklahoma look like a third world supermarket country!

[Pete]

Uptown Market in Edmond isn't too shabby: