Pavilions

ANA helped me today the first time I wasn’t too impressed because the other girl was pretty rude. But ANA welcomed me. She was friendly upbeat and a pleasure to speak with so early in the AM. She was great and so was my breakfast sandwich

This is our go-​to grocery store, but that doesn’t mean that we’re necessarily all that in love with it.
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— The shifts at this grocery are consistently understaffed. There’s no self-​checkout available, so you’re pretty much forced to wait in line in spite of how few/​many groceries you may have. It also doesn’t help that there are only 3 checkout aisles available at most, no matter what time of day it is. I wouldn’t recommend going to this grocery if you’re in a hurry, as you’ll find yourself trapped in a grocery store equivalent of the 405 Freeway.
— Grocery shopping is always a bit of a weird, awkward experience — but this place takes it to a whole new level.
Case in point: I once went grocery shopping here and had a check-​out in complete silence. No «hello» from the clerk — nothing. It was one of my more painfully awkward experiences in recent memory.
What I’m getting at is that the interactions with staff here are really hit-​or-​miss. Sometimes they’ll be upbeat and friendly — but more often than not, you can expect some unwarranted grouchiness. Be forewarned!
(- I guess I’ll give Pavilions an extra star for being a dog-​friendly grocery store. Always a plus when a business caters to the four-​legged homies!)

I come to this store a lot, it’s my neighborhood grocery store – have been coming here for about five years. In the last three months I’ve seen the quality go down. On three occasions I’ve purchased yogurt with a broken foil seal on the top; the ice cream freezer is on the fritz and sometimes the ice cream is melting/​soft/​not frozen, and it pretty much always is freezer burned.
This morning I witnessed a man having trouble in choosing an ice cream because the ice on the container prevented him from finding the sugar free brands (he was a diabetic). He explained this to an employee and they jokingly said «oh, you just scratch the ice off, like a scratch off ticket». I don’t know, maybe that’s not horrible but I thought the man deserved a a more thoughtful reply.
Also, I couldn’t make my way into the dairy case because there was a large group of kids there, one with a bike, in the store. Employees were walking past, not saying anything. Are bikes allowed in the store now?
It feels like no one is in charge.

If you live in the neighborhood and you need to do some grocery shopping or a beer run, this is a perfect spot. I only have fond memories of this Pavilions because I was usually in and out of here in a jiffy. Not too particular. My major shops were usually at farmers’ markets or TJ’s.
Overall, this is an easy and convenient grocery store in the heart of Santa Monica on the famous street of Montana Avenue. Again, I’m not too picky when it comes to grocery stores nor do I tend to hang out in them for very long. And I really can’t complain since this one is only blocks from the Pacific Ocean. Can’t say that about many other markets.

For the area a fair pricing. Lanes a little narrow but if you come in the morning you can shop without having to avoid other shoppers doing the same thing!

This is my local market, I live 200 yards away and go EVERY day; mainly because it’s close and I walk from my place.
Like others have said, it’s not the best market: it’s small, the meat and seafood counters are usually disappointing, the deli area is kinda sketchy/​messy and the staff is pretty much apathetic — I feel like I am bothering them to ask for anything.
I have had luck with the produce department which is about 25% the size of the entire store. I am a discerning produce shopper and don’t always buy here but I give it a shot for fresh ingredients daily. I also use this as my go-​to market for those «shit I forgot that» items; mainly because it’s close.
Since I don’t drive there I don’t deal wtih the parking lot much, but the spaces seem small and ill-​laid out. The never ending stream of trucks to this store makes the parking entrance on 9^th street challenging, not to mention the noise of big rigs at almost all hours (almost used to that).
All in all I’d like to see an upgrade in the services and the staff (attitude) and while there is a Starbucks counter in there, I’ve only gotten drip coffee on occasion… I brew my own at home anyhoo.