Market Place IGA

WARNING: Major grain moth infestation in bulk food section!!!

I live in the neighbourhood and stopped in early this morning to grab a couple of things. I had such a terrible experience I felt the need to write about it. I asked for a few basic items that I could not find in the deli as I was unfamiliar with the store and was met with the answer that they simply didn’t carry it only to find them somewhere else in the store. Secondly, I heard numerous employees gossiping about clients that have been in the previous day. Also overheard a lot of inappropriate loud personal conversations going on between employees. Considering the store had just opened it was shockingly dirty on the floors and numerous items were out of place. At the checkout my total was around $ 30 and I used the ‘tap’ feature on my visa. After my transaction, the cashier demanded to see my credit card and picture ID treating me like some sort of criminal. I’ve never had this happen to me in all the years I have been using this feature. If I had known that I would have to go out of my way to show that much identification I would have just used my PIN. When I asked why this was necessary she did not answer my question. I could not wait to get out of there and have no intention of ever shopping there again.

I find IGA annoyingly expensive, regardless of what hood it’s in. My best friend and I had no choice but to come here to get some fruit snacks for the kits fair. The lady at the til could’ve been friendlier, however, I understand how she must feel.

When you have free wifi, accept AMEX and action window seating, I’ll take this anytime of the day.
Plus the server’s nice to make own size of fruit salad, esp. if you want a variety of fruits ;)
Sandwiches, legs/​thighs of rotiserrie style sold separately.
Coffee too.

MARKETPLACE IGA WEST 41^st is a TERRIBLE PLACE TO SHOP in my opinion.
This store is very overpriced. In 3 months I saved almost $ 2,000 TWO THOUSAND dollars carefully shopping elsewhere. I have seen mice in the store twice, causing me to think that as they must be eating something, they are possibly climbing up into the produce or deli or bakery or packaged foods at night, chewing and pooping. They’re eating something.
I have seen crows picking at their outside fruit. I have seen people picking at and eating their outside fruit without paying. I have found hair on two separate occasions in their deli food. Their outside garbage dumpster area is often filthy and a magnet for rodents that could slip into the store through openings in the loading dock doors.
CTV did a story on this store location trashing tons of recyclable materials into their dumpsters annually while telling the public to «Remember to take it easy on the earth.» Google search: Vancouver IGA caught trashing recyclables

This store is oh so close to me so it serves as a fantastic emergency grocery getting location. It’s roomy and the service is wonderful, everyone is really friendly and helpful.
They have a lot of vegan substitutes (should that be up your alley), which is lovely to see in a mainstream grocery store. They even carry Daiya! They also have Cyoni juice! The bulk section is pretty disappointing, but they do have one. The deli section seems to have a lot of things, even some veggie options. I am always pleased with their selection of packaged hummus too. HUMMUS. Oooh and they have a lovely Method supplies section that seems to have regular sales. Jackpot.
The organic produce section leaves a lot to be desired though… I don’t know why buuut everything always looks a little worse for wear. They sometimes carry local stuff. Because this makes up the majority of my shopping list, I haven’t made this my regular shopping spot.
⁴⁄₃₀

This is my neighbourhood store. I shop there at least 4 times a week. Today, I had a canning project planned. I arrived shortly after 8 a.m. when the store opened. I bought a lot of stuff. But when I tried to buy mustard seed, there was none on the shelf. An employee advised he had a new order and would look through it while I finished my shopping. Well, he tried for about 10 minutes and returned to tell me he «didn’t have time» to go through the order so I was out of luck. He added «Dear» at the end of his sentence. He offered no raincheck (item was on sale) nor a phone call once he opened the order — he offered nothing. I went to Safeway on 4^th and got the Safeway brand at less than the premium brand sale price at IGA. But it took two stores to finish my shopping. I am very disappointed that a customer who spends the kind of money I spend every week at this store was treated like she simply didn’t matter. The store wasn’t busy — it was 8:30 a.m. at this point. He could have tried to help but chose not to. This isn’t the way to treat a regular customer.

Overall, this IGA is pretty great. It’s pretty, shiny and new. They have all the usual goodies: Produce, fresh bakery items, bulk items, frozen food, etc. There’s a good selection of groceries and the employees are friendly. There’s plenty of underground parking. The one thing that makes this location less than perfect is the unusually short checkout counter which makes it really hard to empty your cart since you can only put a few items on the counter at a time. It’s kind of an annoying way to end an otherwise pleasant trip to the grocery store.