Grocery Shopping Downtown
Whenever I tell someone that I live downtown one of the first questions I hear is “where do you do your grocery shopping at?” Typically I do my shopping at the Newport Pavilion Kroger. It’s about a 5-8 minute drive so I don’t have to travel too far to do my grocery shopping. However, this Kroger is not my favorite place in the world, and I would love an actual grocery store in the Central Business District. There are some grocery options downtown. I would place the downtown grocery options in three categories: grocery store, deli, and drug store. I decided to take a break from Kroger for a couple of weeks and see what the stores downtown have, what disadvantages there are and if it’s feasible to do my weekly grocery shopping in the city. (Note: this is solely about the Central Business District and does not include options in OTR, such as Findlay Market)
During my time away from Kroger I found some good and some bad with my downtown shopping experience. First the good; meat and produce make up a big portion of my grocery list, and luckily I did find some options downtown. One of the first stores I stopped in was Cianciolo’s Main Street Grocery. The person working described it as an old produce stand. They did have a decent selection of produce, and I picked up some fruit for the week. The quality was decent; cost was about .50-1.00 more than a grocery store. I would say it’s a combination of produce stand and convenience story. Around the corner from Ciancolo’s is Mayberry Foodstuff which labels itself as an “Urban Grocery Store”. While Mayberry might be the smallest of the downtown stores, it actually has the most variety and selection. Mayberry uses their limited space very wisely. All of their homemade food items are very tasty which should be of no surprise with Josh Campbell, one of Cincinnati’s top chefs, being the owner. Some of the items can be pricey, but the quality is top notch. They also have a great rotating craft beer selection. There are also some household items for sale. Another plus for Mayberry is during the week they are open til 9PM.
One gem I did find during this experiment was Avril Bleh Meat Market. Avri Bleh has a wide variety of meats and the staff there is very friendly and helpful. I bought some chicken and steaks there, and they were high quality. The big drawback of Avril Bleh is their hours are limited. During the week they close at 5:30, the work day ends at 5PM for many people, so there is a small window to get your meat if you plan on doing it after work. If you are looking for lunch meat there are a decent number of options. Silverglades, Sunshine Fine Foods Too and Café Barista all have a deli that features Boar Head meats and cheeses. Each of these stores also has a limited grocery selection and close by 7PM.
If you are looking for household, health and beauty items Walgreens is your best bet. There is also CVS but I find the downtown CVS has a lot of clutter and is dingy, while the Walgreens is fairly clean and organized. Since it is mostly a drug store, Walgreens has more household, health and beauty items than the other store. One thing I find surprising is Walgreens on 6th and Race has a decent craft beer selection and there are some food items. Walgreens also has the best hours, staying open til 10 Monday-Saturday and 9 on Sundays. However there is one major drawback: the price. Everything is more expensive at Walgreens, food cost twice as much and the other items are definitely marked up.
Up until now this piece has been fairly positive about downtown grocery. However, I can’t say it was a pleasant enough experience to do all my regular shopping downtown. Yes, if you are in a pinch or just can’t get to the big Kroger, you can do some grocery shopping. Unfortunately there are some major drawbacks that make it difficult to do your regular shopping at these stores. First are the hours. Only Mayberry and Walgreens have decent hours, everything else closes near the end of the regular work day. Second, say what you want about the trend of mega-groceries, they do offer more variety and selection. You might be able to find some of the products you want at the downtown shops, but typically there will only be one brand of each. Also the stores aren’t as fully stocked as a large grocery is. The third and final major obstacle is the price. Every store I visited was more expensive than you would find at a major supermarket. The previous two attributes mentioned, hours and selection, play into this as well. If there were markets with a wide selection and good hours, I could be ok with paying a little more for convenience, but as it is now you are paying more money for an incomplete experience.
There is enough downtown that you couldn’t call it a “food desert”. However, with the downtown population growing, there is definitely a need for better grocery options. A mega grocery isn’t necessary, but there should be something bigger than what we have, whether it be a scaled down Kroger or something along the lines of Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods. I think Mayberry is doing the best job of catering to the downtown resident but are unfortunately limited to their small space. As the downtown population grows, I hope a retailer will realize the community is a ripe market and a worthy investment.
The stores I visited for this article:
Avril-Bleh Meat Market – Court Street (near Walnut St intersection)
Cafe Barista – 4th and Plum
Cianciolo’s Main Street Grocery – Main Street (between 7th and 8th streets)
Mayberry Foodstuffs – 7th (near Main St intersection)
Silverglades – 8th and Sycamore
Sunshine Fine Foods Too – Garfield and Elm
Walgreens – 6th and Race
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Kroger on Vine– not far from CBD, and the only way their stock will improve is if people use it.
Yeah, I decided just to concentrate on CBD since Jen Kessler already did a very good job covering the Kroger on Vine in her article for Urban Cincy: http://www.urbancincy.com/2011/06/cincinnatis-urban-kroger-stores-face-a-unique-design-opportunity/
Thanks so much for describing your experience, although I’m surprised that your study didn’t allow comments on the options in OTR. Since the whole basin is flat, it seems like, no matter where you live downtown, you could walk beyond the CBD for your groceries. The OTR Kroger and Park+Vine are both open way beyond the business day on weekdays and, on weekends, Findlay is definitely a doable option if you can’t make it during the week.
I’ve noticed that Mayberry Foodstuffs’ markup is a bit inconsistent. For instance, the last time I checked, their bulk arborio rice was cheaper than other walkable options. In general, I would say that you should be prepared to pay a premium, but that may not always be the case.
Avril Bleh is open on Saturdays, which is convenient if you can’t make it during the week.
The one place you didn’t mention is Garfield Market. It’s not amazing, but I believe it’s open until 9pm on weeknights, and also on Saturdays and Sundays. Sunday, in my opinion, is the one day when it’s fair to call the CBD a “food desert,” as almost everything is closed.
I mainly didn’t cover OTR cause that angle has been covered recently (e.g. see link I posted in previous comment). I never really considered Garfield to be much of a grocer, isnt a majority of their stock alcohol, drinks and snacks? But if I’m off on that my apologies. And yes, Sundays are rough with only Mayberry and Walgreens open, and mayberry recently reduced their Sunday hours (10am-2pm).
Garfield has some assorted food stuff beyond snacks, and sometimes a bit of passable produce. It isn’t much of a grocery store but, if you run out of toilet paper or are in the mood for ice cream, it can serve you well.
I’m really disappointed that Mayberry Foodstuffs has shortened their Sunday hours, but I’m not surprised. Part of the problem is that [I'm guessing] a lot of the people who live in the Basin have acclimated themselves to nothing being open on Sundays, so they probably don’t even try to shop in their neighborhood then.
I had no idea that Caffe Barista is anything more than a coffeeshop/lunch place. It’s good to know!
Good to know about Garfield. I have been in there plenty of times, but it was usually to pick up tailgating supplies (i.e. beer and chips) so I must have just completely missed the other items. Should have included them, my fault.
Yeah overall Mayberry has cut back their hours (by an hour Mon-Saturday as well). I knew it wasn’t a good sign for Sundays when I stopped there a couple of months ago on a Sunday and the person working said something to the effect of “another dead Sunday.” Shortly after that was the big cut in Sunday hours (I believe from 6PM to 2PM?)
Yeah, Cafe Barista doesn’t have a lot grocery wise, but some basics if you are in a pinch. It is very similar to the Silverglades on 8th. I believe they are open til 7pm during the week and maybe 3 or 4 on Saturdays and are open on Sundays when the Bengals have a home game.
Nice write up! Walgreens does have a great beer selection. David and I have a motto that if a restaurant’s beer selection can’t beat our local Walgreens, they need some serious help. 2 things that bear mentioning–Avril Bleh butcher is closed on Mondays ( just like Findlay Market), and on Tuesdays at Fountain Square around noon there is a market that has a produce stand on it with a pretty decent selection.
Thanks!
Completely forgot about Avril being closed monday, thanks for mentioning that.
Yeah I’m a big fan of the tuesday market on fountain square, might have to stop by tomorrow since the weather has been so nice lately.
FYI: we will be doing a series on Findlay Market and the individual businesses there in a few weeks. In the meantime please check out our fellow Queen City bloggers over on Urban Cincy where they have recently done a great job covering the subject.
Nice article! I tend to avoid Walgreens & other drugstore chains like the plague, only going to them when my insurance use mandates it. I had no idea the one downtown had any kind if craft beer selection. I exclude their beer Big Flats 1901 from any kind of consideration as a craft beer, have never noticed any beyond that. I typically gravitate more to the local independent business owner.
One place downtown I like is City Cellars. They are known much more for their wine selection, but carry a couple of other misc things, including craft beer. I have been able to find some really good stuff there. It’s also a nice place to locate a limited availability craft beer when it’s already sold out at other locations.
The amount of quality beer at that particular walgreens is surprising. I’m not much of a wine drinker (i like it but know very little about it) but I agree about city cellars. Picked up the dogfish head indian brown ale the other day. City cellars makes a good pizza too. I recommend their tuesday night wine tasting and pizza events.
What if there were a 10,000 sf market that catered to local growers and producers and delivered to your front door?