Mariano’s

Still my favorite place to shop. The people here are super friendly and the food is always high quality and fresh. The prices are about the same as Walmart for the most part. I do a major shopping run every two weeks for packaged and cleaning items at Walmart. I buy my produce and the rest of my fresh food items here. They have an excellent deli counter, soup bar, salad bar, smoothie shop and coffee shop. They also have a well stocked pharmacy.

Mariano’s is my favorite grocery store. There food is always fresh and the staff is always looking to help. They have hot bars, sushi, salads, and more, it’s a great place to stop for lunch and get some delicious food. Once in a while my mom and I will go here for grocery shopping and it’s really great because they have awesome organic selections which my mom loves. The only thing that bites are the prices. Item’s can get pretty expensive here and it’s not really ideal if you live on a budget like me.
If you love food, organics, and grocery store aesthetics, stop by Mariano’s to satisfy all your grocery needs.

Pretty disappointed in their fresh popped popcorn. I decided to give their $ 3 kettle corn a try. It looks delicious but boy was I wrong. There was a lot where it was super salty. Yuck! And some were burnt. Totally ruined my desire to munch on these. Now it’s just sitting on the kitchen counter hoping someone else will eat it… Aka BF… (Doc’s Popcorn in Gurnee Mills isnt bad!)
Besides their waaay too salted popcorn, I still frequent marianos because of the good variety of foods they carry. I would use to buy their muffins /​pastry at the vernon hills location since they make it fresh there. But I have a feeling the gurnee location gets theirs delivered from vernon hills so sometimes even tho the sell by date is still good, the pasty in it isn’t… So be careful when getting those! Its always a bummer bringing home delicious looking pastry only to know that after the first bite, its been sitting in the store for awhile… blah!
Their hot foods selection is great too if you want something quick to eat. They also have OK sushi.
Two things always get when I’m there is their fresh squeezed orange juice and their ROUNDYS brand organic milk! Tastes so much better than the brands you find at jewel or Walmart.
The employees are pretty friendly and helpful. Makes shopping there so much more pleasant! =)

LUNCH BREAK
We decided to swing in here for a lunch break while riding roller coasters at 6 Flags. There is plenty of parking in the lot and a ton of food samples inside.
Walking through the door we were hit with tiny cups of fresh squeezed OJ. Don’t mind if I do! Dear Bob Mariano I’ve got a great cross marketing idea. Why not add a little Tito’s Vodka in there too. I think it’s a great idea. A tipsy shopper always buys more.
We grabbed a bowl of soup for the little one. There were a ton of hot soups to choose from. We finally decided on the creamy chicken wild rice soup. I must admit it was very good besides it being overly salty. Unfortunately all processed soups are giant buckets of salt but what are you going to do when you’re on the road.
After grabbing a bowl of soup which is incredibly hot. I didn’t grab a cart and had to adjust the bowl several times to avoid my fingers from burning off. While heading to the deli counter we were offered some cheese chunks and some duck liver pâté on crackers. Sure Mariano’s you’re twisting my arm now but I’m game.
We grabbed a number at the deli counter. There were about 20 people in front of us. It seemed like all of Gurnee was shopping today. Mariano’s had a large crew behind the counter, so it moved fast. We were lucky enough to get Keisha. She was incredible and treated us with amazing 5 star service. I am a big sucker for great customer service and Keisha delivered. Thank you so much. I can only hope on my next trip to the deli counter that I have you wait on us.
We grabbed some low sodium turkey breast and low sodium Swiss cheese along with three buns. Our intentions were to make sandwiches. We also grabbed some bananas for dessert.
After checking out, we sat at one of the tables to build our lunch. Mariano’s provides a small area with a few tables. I decided to use the toaster to toast my bread. There are plenty of condiments to choose from like spicy mustard and ketchup. We built our sandwiches and had a great lunch all for under $ 8. What a great deal.
My little one couldn’t finish all her soup and luckily she passed it over to me. I was able to have a few spoons. Mariano’s offers free cucumber water and I was able to quench my thirst.
So next time your looking to grab a quick and affordable lunch, why not build your own. I highly recommend you visit a Mariano’s anywhere because it’s like the Disneyland of grocery stores.

A couple of things have changed since the remodel of this favored Dominick’s to the popular and growing Mariano’s. First, they hired a lot more friendly people and made them wear white shirt uniforms with narrow black ties. Alas! some of my favored old supermarket friends are no longer there. Second, they added a lot more on-​premises take out options for customers like a grilled meat station, smoothie station, hot and cold salad bar stations, a gelato bar, and the Starbucks shop is now their own house brand of coffee. Third, their prices have risen. This isn’t Whole Foods territory, but it ain’t Aldi either. In fact, it’s more than the major competitors within a two block radius.
It’s still dark inside which somehow translates to fancier while saving on lighting energy bills: how clever! The customer service is absolutely top notch as is the staffing, which probably explains the premium. Then there’s more sampling options for food, too. The salad bar is less expensive by $ 2 per pound than Whole Foods, so that’s a better deal. I really like the prepared salads in the deli as well; they are a cut above the local choices. At these rates, it won’t replace my other haunts for staples, but I guess that’s the price you pay for having a live pianist serenade you while you fondle the tomatoes.

It definitely can be pricey so look for deals. You can find things here you can’t get at a regular store like Brads Raw Kale Chips, various types of teas and flavored, etc. The Roundys brand is great so I usually will get that when I can.