Smart & Final

Overall, great locations, hours, and can almost always find everything…
However, they love to unpack inventory during customer hours… more annoying is the fact they don’t seem to care about customers AT ALL. Sometimes one can’t even grab stuff to buy because they are oblivious and inattentive to customers. This very unlike Trader Joe’s where customer is always first.
If you don’t care about stuff this then this is the place for you.

For some reason I always assumed this place would be a dump or maybe more like a warehouse goods and grocery store. When I moved to the area, I decided to give it a try and it’s actually very doable.
I used to go to the Rock N’ Roll Ralphs when I loved near there but now I can hit up S&F for an easy grocery run. It’s not a huge location, but you could definitely get most everything you need here. They also have some pretty good deals on food and you don’t have to sign up for or remember to bring your stupid club card. The prices are already discounted so no card needed to get their «sale» prices.
One great thing, if you happen to use that «I can’t believe it’s not butter» spray, which is basically like chemicals in a squirt bottle, they have it here at a decent price, just over $ 2 cheaper than you will find at Ralph’s or Target, so that’s a plus. You can also find giant quantities of items here, like a 6-​ton carton of ice cream and 6000 rolls of toilet paper, etc.
The parking lot is not huge, but it’s usually never full as this market seems to deal to mostly locals within walking distance and hey it’s better than a giant under ground parking hell hole or no parking at all.

Now, this is MY type of supermarket. Very quiet, cozy, offering great deals, around the corner from my pad, and there’s a girl working there at night who’s just too f***ing cute… Love it!

I’m a fairly new customer of the West Hollywood Smart & Final. I don’t like using time, money and gas to shop at 3 or 4 grocery stores at a time to get everything that I need. In fact, I avoid it at all costs. Normally, I can find everything I need at my local Ralph’s.
Lately, however, I have been venturing out to buy certain items at the Weho S&F that I can get in a larger size for less money. Love that.
What I don’t love is that I made a conscience decision to shop at S&F today INSTEAD of my local Ralph’s because I thought I could get everything I wanted and needed at a better price if I went to S&F. Which I did. Except for one thing… a roll of quarters.
Not only did it take a manager 5 minutes to come out of the in-​store trailer they have set up at the front of the registers where it takes up all the room for shoppers to navigate their carts, when she did, she told me they only give a maximum of $ 2 dollars in quarters and that would be stretching it. What?! I can’t get a roll of quarters at Smart & Final? So, I had to get in my car and drive to Ralph’s to get a roll of quarters.
All the time, money and hassle I thought I would save by going to S&F only turned out to cost me more time and hassle just to get a roll of quarters. I was pissed.
Unfortunately for S&F, I don’t need them. I will stick with my local Ralph’s where I can get quarters, if I need them, without having to get into my car and drive someplace else for them. Thanks, Ralph’s!
You suck, Smart & Final.

Smaller than the typical Smart & Final, what this location lacks for in size is made up for with its convenient mid Hollywood location, free parking and new remodel.
Typically stocked well, they unfortunately have shorter hours than most locations, closing at 9p during the week.

I’ve shopped here for years and I can pretty much bank on getting what I came for as well as making some new discoveries.
I love not having to schlep it across town to go to Costco to get paper products in bulk, cheese, spices, baking accoutrements, cleaning items for my housekeeper, and the list goes on and on. They also have pretty good prices and regular discounts.
I usually prefer the larger locations as this is something of a smaller store, but I still love it. The staff is helpful and friendly. The aisles are always clean and fairly wide. Parking is free, which in WEHO, is a huge plus!

I aged thirty years and retired waiting to buy ketchup. This is the slowest store in the world.

You can buy everything here without the need of a membership. =) Love S&F
This location is clean, lots of parking and friendly staff.

While not a sexy place or review, I’ve got to give it up to this S&F. The staff is pleasant enough and the only thing I’ve ever needed that they didn’t stock was a popcorn machine which is totally understandable given that the item is not listed as available in store on their website. I always walk out of there with exactly what I’m in the market for and they make shopping for event particulars a real breeze. Also a fan of their dedicated parking lot that is easy to get in and out of.

Between Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s on Santa Monica Blvd., there’s Smart and Final.
How does Smart and Final compare to the other two?
Celebrity sightings:
WF: Jane Lynch, Lafayette from True Blood, Sam Watterson, etc.
Smart and Final: Ruth’s grumpy Russian boyfriend from Six Feet Under
My favorite things to buy:
WF/​TJ: Fresh foods, prepared foods
Smart and Final: Baking supplies — Good prices on Pleugra butter, Ghirardelli chocolate, good-​quality flour (unbleached, whole wheat, white whole wheat), sweetened flaked coconut, cage-​free eggs, etc.
Be careful of their house generic First Street brand — pretty bad quality even for really basic things.

Never crowded. Easy lines. Good location overall.

Always head about these places, but never went until my friend dragged me along today on his morning shopping. I think it’s funny everyone’s reviews either say it’s like Costco or NOT like Costco, but today with my friend I said «Wow, it’s like a little Costco!»
Small enough to be manageable, good prices on MOST items (a few weren’t that low). Cool place, I’ll be back soon with a list.

I shop at Smart and Final a couple of times a week at least. With a family of 6 and frequent entertaining, I need to buy in bulk! Some of the prices are so-​so, but many are good. You just have to check and not assume. I buy paper goods, foil pans, laundry detergent, cleaning supplies, iced tea mix, pasta, rice, snacks, produce (great prices on potatoes, apples, onions, carrots, big trays of eggs, giant bags of lettuce, and other staples). Many of their name-​brand products are very good — I only buy my garbage bags here, and olive oil, cream cheese, juices, butter, popsicles. Lots of stuff.
They even have novelty items that sometimes come in handy — drink umbrellas, colorful straws, chinese food cartons and chopsticks, things like that. I like that the story near me on Wilshire Blvd has plenty of parking and carries a lot of kosher items. They don’t use a discount card anymore — they just give the discount automatically.
It’s a great place to shop for small businesses and large families!

You Know to Go into a Business and and see the same thing 100 times so it’s in your mind that they have it. So On Tues Night ⁶⁄₁₅ I when into the this local S/​F in West Hollwood looking for a Sign for my front door which states the open of operation. It was 8:30 pm and no one who I asked could find them… if your doing a store move and putting things in different parts of the store don“t you think you could think of the customer who may need something your moving so you mark the box or something. I just do like the idea that know one tried to look for the item I needed…5 people said I don’t know… and I saw or count 17 people who working in the store with S/​F shirts and know wanted to help… really Bad Customer Service this Night I will Not Going Back to this location again… I even ask cashier to help but he didn’t or said I don’t Know… I just wanted a item That you see every time you go into S/​F and see these Items in display and know one could or would help me find the Item. A lot of shoulder shakes I DON’T KNOW

Smart and Final not like Costco. It doesn’t have many varieties or have those wonder people that provide you with samples.
However, it is a store that provides to you what you need if you know what you are looking for.
I normally shop here when the store opens at 7am to avoid the crowds. I always know what I want so it is a fast entry and exit process.
I find the staff to be very nice. They are smiling in the morning so I makes me want to shop here more.
I like to buy the baked goods here and take them into my office as my coworkers enjoy eating them. It is my guilty pleasure of watching my coworkers gain a few pounds. Hahahahaha.
They also have good household cleaning products which I like. Killing two birds with one stone is always a good thing for me.
Yeah Smart & Final.

Ok I came here tonite to buy all the ingredients that I needed for thanksgiving as I was the official cook fo my crew.
The shopping experience is always nice to there, and the courtesy I had from the cashier was more than what I expected. Of course the facts that he was cute made it more pleasant to shope there.

This is pretty much Weho’s answer to a huge Costco. While it doesn’t have the massive aisles of food and everything else. it still is pretty impressive and if you are having a party it is a good place to head to versus tracking all the way to Glendale’s Costco. anyhow being single I rarely come here unless I am having a party but will come back. deals are good!

Everything there is REALLY expensive, except this one item which I buy there religiously: Jenny O ground turkey. It’s literally HALF the price of all the surrounding grocery stores. So if you eat ground turkey, or if you ABSOLUTELY need paper toilet seat covers or «to go» containers for your food, then this is the only place in the neighborhood to be.

LOL, I love Smart and Final, and I love Judy’s review of it. Visiting these LA-​based stores is reminiscent of the days in the 80s when Big Lots was a lot more of a carnival crapshoot than it is now. The first time I walked into one in Bloomington, Indiana, there was a whole wall of instant Campbell’s Cream of Asparagus soup. Not chicken. Not tomato. That’s it.
If I lived in LA, I would have entire Smart & Final themed parties. Huge containers of Goldfish crackers… excess 50^th-​birthday themed paper plates… imagine the fun.

If you’re ever in the neighborhood, and have a hankering for… oh… let’s just say… a 5lb bag of gummy bears — this is where you gotta go.
Gummy bears aren’t your fancy you say? (Yes, I heard you.) Then why not a 5lb bag of Peanut M&Ms? Not into sweets are you… Okay then a 5lb jar of mayonaise? Pickles?
This is where a lot of restaurants or business owners go to stock up on massive amounts of condiments, candy, and any other type of massively produced, over-​processed, bad-​for-​you food. No membership needed, although they do have those discount membership cards much like all the other supermarkets so you can save .50 here and there on things… like 5lb bags of gummy bears.
Did I mention I like gummy bears? Actually, no — I LOVE me some gummies! I prefer cola bottles, but hey, you do whatcha gotta do when you get those glutinous cravings ya know? Even after going through TWO (count’em TWO) 5lb bags of gummy bears in the last few days, our obsession is still going strong.
Co-​worker: *groaning* «Oooh so sick of gummy bears… where you goin’?»
Me: *groaning* «Me too… Smart & Final»
Co-​worker: «Get that massive bag of Peanut M&M’s will you?»
Me: «Hmmm… maybe I’ll get both.»
Co-​worker: *groaning*… «Okay!»
Hooray for equally glutinous (literally) co-​workers! ;D
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