Lunardi's Markets

Holy guacamole! What a great store! This is my friends favorite store and I was helping her out with the grocery shopping. I've only been to Lunardi's a few times but I have never been disappointed with an item. Let's start with the fresh fruits - they are actually fresh! My whole life I've avoided red delicious apples because they have always disappointed. These were so good it was like a different fruit. Crunchy the way a good apple should be. Sweet and flavorful and juicy, juicy, juicy. The red delicious has redeemed itself in my book and deserves to survive instead of burned to the last tree down to the ground. I always thought I hated apples but it turns out I hate bad apples. Of course, the grapes and the blueberries are equally good, but they are not the eye opening experience as with the red delicious, mostly because I've gone grape/berry picking. Then let us not forget the made to order sandwiches! I was awed by the selection of toppings. They actually had cucumber available. Not the most common veggie for sandwiches. Also they had low sodium ham. So for those of you on restricted diets, check out the sandwich bar. Since my friend shops here regularly, I knew Lunardis would have some of the more difficult items on the grocery list. I was impressed by how the selection was so well balanced. It ranged from popular supermarket staples to some fairly exotic choices. Sugar free, gluten free, low carb, low sodium. You can find it here. Prices ranged from reasonable for the supermarket regulars to some exotic prices for the exotic items. I was pretty stunned by the final price for one bag of groceries. Service goes the extra mile. For heaven's sake you just hand your basket to the staff and they take from there at the checkout. No need to pull the items out for the convenience of the staff. I had a tough time finding items since I've been in this store maybe three times. Always polite no matter how basic the question. Extremely helpful, one staffer walked me over to the correct selection. I might not have the budget to shop here as my go to supermarket but it's certainly worth a pilgramage to pick some some special items (the apples...) As you would expect for a high end store, it was damned near perfect. I never saw an item that was shopped empty on the shelves. Bottles and boxes were neatly lined up in orderly rows. It was almost shocking to see someone had plucked an item from the perfectly stocked shelf. Of course it was spotlessly clean; the floor was almost mirrorlike with a sheet of smooth polish. There was no odor, not from the butchers, the fish, the sandwich bar, not even the bakery! Some complete perfectionist clearly manages and loves this chain of stores. I noticed even the customers were either very polite or the store had deftly trained them. Covid rules were still in effect. A large percentage of customers still wore their masks. I felt very safe and wished I had brought along my N95 respirator or at least a mask.

Yes, the prices are a little higher, but every employee I’ve seen there has always seemed genuinely happy and always goes above and beyond with help. The produce section is always immaculate and they always have the best meat selection and quality. And this has been my experience at every lunardis, the one at meridian is just the closest one to me now. They also have a better spice selection and gluten free options than other stores.