Marketplace IGA

Used to come here a lot. But over the years I have stopped. Well there are couple reason one is it’s pretty out of the way. Second of all the things there don’t have good sales. It’s quite empty at night time. Best part is that they have free parking.
They layout is pretty much the same 25 years ago

This is hands down the worst quality, corner-​cutting IGA in the city. I have literally thrown more of their meat away than I can count (hint: 85% of meat marked «manager’s special» is already spoiled). Produce is fine, but their meat department is in the business of offloading suspect meat on an ongoing basis, in the hopes that their customers will be too lazy (and grossed out) to bring it back. And in my case, they’ve been right — until now. Because right now, I’m staring at a container of cottage cheese with the weirdest mold I’ve ever seen, and I just bought it. String of bad luck? I don’t think so. Given the sheer volume of spoilage I’ve been through with this place, management is clearly following an aggressive strategy to minimize losses by passing suspect groceries off as sale items and «specials,» so you can pay for the privilege of throwing them out the minute you get home. It’s time for management to answer for this, because it’s clearly deliberate.

This store is ridiculously expensive but is on my block so I inevitably end up there out Of convenience. If there was another option in the same vicinity I would go there because selection is just OK.

Closest grocery store to our Aunts place. It is not very large, but they carried everything we needed. It’s clean. Prices are reasonable. Service is okay. Parking is fine. I’d be a regular here if we lived in the area.

Great selection of items!
Produce is generally very fresh. The butcher is a really nice guy he is willing to go above and beyond to help you get the right meat!
I find it’s a little bit more expensive than most grocery stores.

Glad to have had a full sized/​full service grocery store in the area I’m staying. The store offered many choices/​brands, everyone was very helpful as I did have to ask many questions as they group their products in totally different way than back home. Example: canned evaporated milk is always in the baking aisle, at any other store I’ve been to in the US. Guess where it is here… come on, guess… BY THE COFFEE! haha People pour that in their coffee? And the other non-​dairy creamers right next to them were called «coffee whiteners» haha! I had the time of my life learning all these things, believe me. You aren’t supposed to DRINK evaporated milk, you cook/​bake with it. I also love how they call their natural chicken «non-medicalized».No, I really do love it!
So they earn some stars for these interesting things. And for being helpful to the confused woman who paced back and forth, round and round, and round again loooking for things that would have taken me 15 minutes to fulfill in a familiar store. And the french all over? It sticks out to me MUCH more than the bilingual labeling in the US. So, I spent even more time there trying to read French over and over again until I realized it wasn’t English.

One of my fav IGA’s b/​c once you park in its free lot (compared to the ones in DT), you’re right there at the front.
Quite spacious, specials clearly marked.
Cashiers are pretty prompt.
An opening inside to the mini-​mall access, esp. to the pet store.

I just got accused of theft at the IGA on Main Street!
I went thru the cashier and when I opened my bag I realised there were two items I hadn’t put on the belt. Luckily the cashier hadn’t finished ringing all my items in, so I handed them to her and apologised. She added them to my bill and I paid. Just as I got outside security came up behind me, touched my arm and demanded to see the contents of my bag, saying he believed there were items in there I hadn’t paid for. We went back inside and he went through my bag and reconciled them with the bill. Nothing missing. Once he realised his mistake, there was a grudging apology and a lot of backchat about how many people are thieves. Well guess what buddy, hate to burst your balloon but I’m not one of them and I don’t enjoy being treated like one.
I was stunned by the unprofessional way the accusation was made and the lack of evidence to back it up.
At this point the GM was now involved in the conversation. I was pretty upset and wanted to return my items and receive a refund. Once I got my cash I left empty bag in hand.
When I got home I called the store and spoke to the GM. He mentioned that two of the cashiers had spoken to him about what had happened and how out of line security had been. So thanks ladies for going to bat for me, but in future I’ll seriously try to avoid ever being in the store again.

Love this place, cheap as a large grocery store gets!

Love hate relationship with this specific branch ’cause for what they charge, their produce is hit and miss. Their customer service is hit and miss and rarely are things decently priced. We go here if it is late and we need something healthier but avoid when we can.

Way more expensive than any other grocery store nearby. Line-​ups are nearly always long, especially at peak times. The one benefit is that the produce is better than nearby Buy-​Lo Foods. Other than that, give it a miss.

Great staff. Convenient location.
They have everything to need and the store is clean.

I would give this place a 3.5 stars if I could. It is in a strip mall with NOT good signage — we drove past a number of times, having been directed to go here by a local resident. Although it has an address on Main street, you cannot see the store from there.
On the upside, and the reason I really DO like this store is that although this chain may not have the best prices in town, they do offer great incentives: we spent just over $ 100 in our first visit here, and the cashier rewarded us with $ 20.00 in coupons towards our next purchase! This worked; we came back! It was well worth it.

Why must I always live closest to the most expensive grocery stores!
Unlike Marketplace IGA on Richards, this grocery store actually has room for more than one person to walk down an aisle at the same time. IGA has some decent sales, but the cost of food at regular price is fairly atrocious.
That being said, I live five minutes away, so I’ll remain bitterly compliant with your high prices because I can easily carry my groceries home.
The exit is in the side parking lot, so it can be uncomfortable if its dark and empty.

I come here because it’s in my neighbourhood. I wish there was a No Frills close by for my grocery needs. It’s pretty expensive for what you get here and just don’t expect much when it comes to variety either. The barbeque chicken is actually really good especially when they put lots of spices on the skin!

Meh. Shrug. It’s alright, I guess. This grocery store is kind of like that one boyfriend or girlfriend you held onto for convenience, for a little too long in a sort of miserly existence, reasonably sure there was something better out there, but too lazy to do anything much about it.
Maybe it’s just me, and maybe the rest of Vancouver is just as expensive, but I find IGA to be really pricey. I routinely walk out of there spending $ 60-​$ 70 without seeming to buy much of anything. Considering its small size, the selection is half decent, but they are routinely out of certain kinds of produce, brands of bread I like, good cereal, and other staples like quinoa.
This store would greatly benefit from a bulk section, which they are currently lacking. The layout is also terribly awkward, with a demo counter blocking off an end of one of the aisles, a discount cracker bin making navigation in the last aisle nearly impossible, and more discount bins blocking direct access to the ice cream. The aisles are narrow enough as it is, with barely room for two carts to pass without a collision. Not to mention that due to its small size, staff are constantly having to restock shelves. I know they’re just doing their job, but they aren’t always conscious of shoppers trying to access the area of the aisle they are working on.
The quality of their pre-​made meal options at the deli counter is pretty lacklustre, too. I have tried a couple legume/​grain-​based salads, and they were unappetizing.
The one saving grace of this IGA, aside from its location a few blocks from my door, is the checkout staff. They are almost always friendly, or at least courteous and polite. The head cashier (her name escapes me), is especially wonderful.
Word on street from the Mount Pleasant Community Plan is that there may be plans for a future expansion of the grocery store, and while that won’t alleviate the price issue, it would probably go a long way toward expanding the stock, selection and general accessibility of the store.

i have stopped coming here for a while due to the rather low selection of gluten-​free, organic and specialty food items they had for the whole foods off cambie st…
but found myself here just yesterday because my friend had to get a bottle of wine to celebrate and since this was just next store, we came here to buy some groceries.
i must say, i am a bit impressed with the growing selection they have now! their produce is pretty much the same… you can only get the ‘usual’ (apples, pears, peppers, cauliflower, carrots… some leafy greens, a few root veggies and fresh herbs) but since i have been so accustomed to whole food prices, i will admit, they’re prices are a tad-​bit better.
as my friend ventured off to find some gluten+wheat packed breads and juicy red meat… i steered towards the frozen section and found a rather modest yet adequate portion dedicated to glutenfree breads and other various frozen items (pizza, frozen meals…)! i hummed and hawed about getting a loaf since a friend had mentioned they are just a bit better tasting than cardboard. but i decided to anyway. (it ended up be VERY yummy when toasted!)
they have 2 aisles full of organic and gluten friendly items like nut spreads, rice/​nut milks, cereals, pastas, cookies. snacks… i even saw a bunch of indian styled ‘quick-meals’…i eyed those for a while and wondered how good those can really be. (mental note– give it a try another time…)
i found a bag of gluten free potato puff chips… that was my treat since she forbade me to linger in front of the ice-​cream section and basically chased me away from the bakery aisle. =P
it looks like i will be coming back here for some basic grocery shopping, but i will stick to whole foods for the excellent wild fish and specialty vitamins/​proteins/​supplements since theyre selection is amazing (plus their service is top notch compared to iga)

Is it just me or is this the most expensive grocery store ever!!! I have stopped in a few times in the past week just to pick up some staple items for the kitchen. you know.mayo, Peanut Butter etc. and every time it costs me like $ 50…not matter what I buy or how few items. it’s like they have a minimum fee…
I will give you an example. we wanted to try out the new bbq the other night so I ran to IGA to grab a few things… burgers, ketchup, buns, pickles, and some cupcakes for dessert… it cost me $ 57.34…what…the…eff??? I just about asked if she ran something in wrong and go forget it. and walk out. I didn’t ’cause I was hungry. but come on!
Also.finding someone to help you is next to impossible… they didn’t have any hamburger buns that I could find so I wanted to ask if there were some more… but who do I ask? It was the most annoying thing. like all the staff were just cashiers… ggrrrrr…I did finally flag someone down but I had to practically huck a can of tuna at them to make them stop and notice me… save your self the grief and some cash and shop some where else…

I don’t particularly like shopping at this IGA. There are always plenty of employees around, but they are often so focused on talking to each other or to whatever task is at hand that they you feel like you are in their way as the customer. On several occasions, in and around the produce section, I’ve been nearly run over by some employee who is wheeling fruits or vegetables through the area. The Buy Low down the street on Broadway feels like less of an obstacle course and has a much better bulk section.

«Grocery store? Huh? Where?» This is what friends visiting from other ‘hoods often say when trying to pick up pre-​potluck supplies from Main Street’s IGA. And the answer is, yes, there’s a grocery store! It’s just tucked in behind the mini-​mall at Main and 14^th. A typical IGA, it’s got all the usual grocery store things. Worth mentioning, however, is the brand-​new quality meat selection — this IGA now stocks organic and free-​range cuts, as well as some interesting choices like bison. They’ve also improved their cheese selection, adding some higher-​end varieties of the stinky stuff. The produce is good, too. And if you’re a regular shopper, you can save up stamps on your IGA card to get super-​exciting prizes like knife sets or tableware.