The Corner
Charlottesville Home
Shopping

Grocers

Food Lion
www.foodlion.com
All open daily 7 am-11 pm, except Pantops, open 24 hours

Willoughby Square
971-5877

Forest Lakes Shopping Center
978-1848

Pantops Shopping Center
971-8451

32 Mill Creek Dr.
295-6679

585 Branchlands Blvd
973-9424

Foods of All Nations
www.foodsofallnations.com
296-6131
Ivy Rd.
Daily 7:30 am-8 pm

Excellent assortment of hard-to-find ingredients. Exotic foods. Good selection of wines. Catering service. In-store computerized locator.

Giant
www.giantfood.com/home
973-7860
Seminole Square
Open 24 hours Mon-Fri, weekends 7 am-12 pm

244-4300
1900 Abbey Road Rivanna Ridge (Pantops near DMV office)

Lots of specialty foods and gourmet meats. Excellent produce selection. Bulk foods available. Known for having one of the best selections of Kosher food in Charlottesville.

Harris Teeter
www.harristeeter.com
Open 24 hours

Barracks Road Shopping Center
984-2900

Hollymead Town Center
872-0009

Good deli, prepared foods (sushi!). Excellent selection of beer, wine, and cheese. First Citizens Bank inside. Five percent discount for students, faculty, and staff with ID.

Kroger
www.kroger.com
Open 24 hrs

Barracks Road Shopping Center (recently remodeled)
293-5176

Rt. 29 North and Hydraulic Rd.
295-8334

Rio Hill Shopping Center
978-1311

Deli, bakery, fresh fish, cheese shop, and cafeteria. Special order, hard-to-find meats and seafood. Five percent discount for students, faculty, and staff with ID—you can sign up so your Kroger card automatically delivers the discount. Extensive stock of Virginia wines at good prices. 10% discount on 6 bottles purchased at a time.

Market Street Market
400 Market St. E.
293-3478
Mon-Sat 9 a.m.-8 p.m.; Sun 10 a.m.- 6 p.m.
The first full service grocery store downtown in over 10 years. Locally-raised meat and produce; deli and groceries. Family-run.

Sam's Club
www.samsclub.com
978-2122
Rt. 29 North
Mon-Sat 10 am-8:30 pm; Sun 10 am-6 pm

Must be member ($40). Bulk food.

Simply Fresh Produce
975-1800
1301 Seminole Trail (Rt. 29 North)

Trader Joe's
974-1466
2010 Hydraulic Road

Whole Foods
www.wholefoods.com
973-4900
1797 Hydraulic Road
Mon-Fri 8 a.m.-10 p.m.; Sun 8 a.m.-9 p.m.

Excellent bakery and deli. Specializes in pesticide-free and organic produce. Usually has many samples throughout store. Bulk food available.

return to top

 

Health Food

C'ville Market
www.cvillemarket.com
984-0545
206 Carlton Rd.
Mon-Fri 8 am-7 pm; Sat 8 am-5 pm

Best prices in Charlottesville on fresh produce. Emphasizes local produce, but also has basics like milk, bread, eggs, and delicacies such as Thai baby coconuts.

General Nutrition Center
www.gnc.com/home/index.jsp?CID=

Fashion Square Mall
973-4433
Mon-Sat 10 am-9 pm; Sun 12:30 pm-5:30 pm

Seminole Square
975-2950
Mon-Thu 9 am-7 pm; Fri 9 am-6 pm; Sat 10 am-5 pm; Sun noon-5 pm

Integral Yoga Natural Foods
293-4111
Preston Plaza (Preston Ave.)
Mon-Sat 9:30 am-8 pm; Sun 11 am-6 pm

Full-scale grocery of natural & organic foods. Best organic produce in town, including local produce. Bulk food. Nice cheeses. Student discount 10 percent.

Rebecca's Natural Food
977-1965
Barracks Road Shopping Center
Mon-Fri 9 am-8 pm; Sat-Sun 10 am-6 pm

Good natural pharmacy. Their local organic eggs are the best eggs in town.

return to top

 

Gourmet & Seafood

Anderson's Carriage Food House
www.andersoncarriagefoodhouse.com
970-2722
2046 Barracks Rd.
Across from Barracks Road Shopping Center
Mon-Sat 9:30 am-7 pm; Sun 11 am-6 pm

Fresh seafood daily, butcher shop with choice meats, specialty deli, specialty bakery, wine and cheese shop.

Boar's Head Inn Store
972-2241
Off Rt. 250 West
Mon-Thu 9 am-5 pm; Fri-Sat 9 am-6 pm; Sun 9 am-4 pm

Gift baskets, fine wines, specialty foods & accessories.

Charlottesville Oriental Food Market
984-4903
206 Carlton Rd.
Mon-Fri 10 am-6 pm; Sat 9 am-5:30 pm

Chinese, Korean, and Japanese foods. Best prices in town. No credit cards.

C'ville Market
www.cvillemarket.com
984-0545
206 Carlton Rd.
Mon-Fri 8 am-7 pm; Sat 8 am-5 pm

Best prices in Charlottesville on fresh produce. Emphasizes local produce, but also has basics like milk, bread, eggs, and delicacies such as Thai baby coconuts.

Foods of All Nations
www.foodsofallnations.com
296-6131
Ivy Rd.
Daily 7:30 am-8 pm

Excellent assortment of hard-to-find ingredients. Exotic foods. Good selection of wines. Catering service. In-store computerized locator.

Market Street Wine Shop
www.marketstreetwine.com

311 East Market St.
979-WINE
Mon-Thurs and Sat 9:30 am-8 pm; Fri 9:30 am-9 pm; Sun noon-6 pm

230 Shopper's World Court, Rt. 29 North
964-WINE
Mon-Sat 10 am-8 pm; Sun noon-6 pm

Good selection of wines, varied price range. Weekly wine tastings, gourmet foods, huge selection of beer and ales.

Tiffany's Seafood Shoppe
293-5000
University Shopping Center, Ivy Rd.
Mon-Thu 11:30 am-10 pm; Fri-Sat 11:30 am-10:30 pm; Sun 5 pm-10 pm

World Market
www.worldmarket.com
295-6232
1615-A Emmett Street (next to Best Buy)
Mon-Sat 9 am-9 pm; Sun 10 am-7 pm

Has large assortment of wines and beers of the world.

Local

Find local food suppliers, including Farmers' Markets and CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) in Charlottesville and surrounding areas at Buy Fresh Buy Local, sponsored by the Piedmont Environmental Council.

logo

return to top

Shopping Centers

Auto Repair & Service

For Baby

Bakeries

Barbers & Salons

Bicycles

Books

Computers & Copy Shops

Drug Stores

Dry Cleaning & Laundry

Fabric/Knitting

Florists

Food & Groceries

Framing

Furniture

Nurseries

Post Offices

Records/Music

Sporting Goods

Travel Agents

Video/DVD Rentals

Tip

"The Grocer's Tale:
A Shopper's Guide to C'Ville"

"Harris Teeter, located closest to the Law School in Barracks Road Shopping Center, is a big, clean store with a lot of produce. Some of that stuff actually looks edible! I might try some next week. The seafood and meat selection are adequate and the deli is above par. Other highlights include a large wine selection, a five percent discount for UVA students, and the privilege of carrying around a ‘VIC' card, which can make you feel very important."

"Giant, in Seminole Square, advertises ‘Fresh ideas, great values.' The banner also proclaims ‘Open 24 hours,' then proceeds to list the hours of operation by day. (?) The deli is particularly commendable. My friend who eats produce gave this store high marks in that area as well. The floral department is also nice."

"Whole Foods, located on Route 29, offers some wonderful whole grain breads, exotic foreign foods (e.g. couscous), and many fat free items."

—Virginia Law Weekly

Tip

Virginia Law Families Tip:

Food Lion-Claims to be lowest priced with some items posted with competitors' prices. But most items are comparably priced. House-brand quality is only adequate. We use Food Lion only for “crisis” needs because it is the closest to our home.

Giant-Generally clean, well stocked. Good deli and bakery. Produce quality fair, but some seems overpriced. Seafood Department will steam purchases free while you wait. La Brea fresh-baked breads are superb. Excellent savings with Giant Bonus Card. Salad bar pretty good. Good selection of sale goods advertised in weekly flyer, generally can plan a number of weekly meals to take advantage of sale items. Stock up on pasta, spaghetti sauce, favorite cereals during periodic 50 percent off specials (no reason to ever pay full price for these). Buy meat in larger packs when on sale, freeze extra for later use. Judicious card use and menu planning can realistically save 25-30 percent off regular prices.

Harris-Teeter-Clean and well stocked. Salad bar is good, and produce generally very good. Better sushi than Giant, and it's made fresh later in the day than other supermarkets. Watch for frequent sales on rotisserie and fried chicken. Particularly watch for sales on entire meals—they have translucent shopping bags hanging on a rack next to the chicken. You get your choice of a rotisserie chicken or 8 pieces of fried chicken, a package of Hawaiian rolls or biscuits, and two 16-oz. sides (cole slaw, potato salad, or macaroni salad) which you bag yourself for one price. (There's a bar code on the shopping bag you can scan yourself in the self-service check out). The meal easily feeds a couple of adults and kids. It is normally $8.99 but is frequently on sale with the discount card for $2-3 less than that. Excellent baked goods, usually have free samples. Very good seafood counter, will steam purchases for free. (Typically have great sale on shrimp every two or three weeks and crab clusters several times a year.) House brands products generally first-rate, especially those identified as organic. Best house brand guarantee of any chain—if you're not satisfied they'll give you your money back plus a free comparable national-brand item. Often have unadvertised specials on house brands. Usually have at least one brand of orange juice on sale (and house brand is affordable even when not on sale). Weekly flyer generally has fewer sale items than Giant (and many savings are only in the 10-20 percent range). Good store, but does not support advance menu planning/shopping list development based on sale items as well as Giant. HT does give 5 percent discount with student ID. Once you figure out how to use them, self-serve checkout lanes are time savers. Convenient location to pick up something needed on the way home from school or to specifically purchase advertised sale items.

Kroger-several convenient locations. Overall quality is better than Food Lion, but not as high as Giant or Harris Teeter. Baked goods are definitely not up to the standards of the latter. Sale flyers are included weekly in local paper, but not in Washington Post. House-brand items are of reasonable quality. Offers a 5 percent discount with any UVA ID card (student, faculty, or staff).

Whole Foods-definitely the place to shop if you've got a six-figure income. Great, healthy food, but you pay for the quality. Some good buys, however, on bulk foods including large selection of rice, grains, granola, etc. Many “exotic” items can be found here. Salad bar is small and expensive but excellent gourmet items not found at other stores. For a special treat on a warm night, we get kids dollar menu items at McDonald's next door and splurge on salad bar for parents. Seating areas available in front of store (outside if weather is decent, nicely air conditioned inside otherwise) and no one has ever said a word about the McDonald's bag. Best supermarket sushi in town if it's still fresh when you get there.

What's your opinion? Add to the C'ville guide, report new information and let us know what you think. We reserve the right to edit or reject submissions.