Thoughts of a Middle Aged Man

Sprouts, a farmer’ market style grocery store moved in to the old Whole Foods location in Tustin and over the last month I visited the store twice, hoping the produce and other grocery items would meet my expectations and it would save me time and money as Whole Foods is now far away and has always been expensive.  My other knock against the Whole Food store is that it is more restaurant than grocery store with half the store dedicated to prepared foods for a quick dinner or snack.  So I had high hopes for Sprouts.

On the first Sprouts visit, I lingered.  I strolled through the isles checking on selection, variety and general quality.  First impression was a nicely layed out store, wide isles with low shelves allowing you to see the whole store.  Its pantry section was similar to Whole Foods with a good selection of organic items.  The cheese selection was disappointing as it contained many regular brands.  Its bread area was also disappointing as I had a hard time finding a good Italian bread with a thick crust.  Its meat and fish counter were good, but nothing caught my eye, and the variety was minimal (Whole Foods does give you a choice on your beef prime, select, grass fed, organic, etc.).  My biggest disappointment was the produce.  I was expecting lots of organic or locally grown produce (by local I mean in the OC, IE or northern San Diego county, not Mexico and South America).  What I found was a very small organic section, surrounded by a large conventional produce section with inconsistent quality.

On my second visit on Labor Day, I went because I was pressed for time.  Looking for milk for the family, I found many of the items were past their sell by date.  I had a hard time finding milk that would last 7 days.  The produce was still inconsistent.  Mangoes were green, small flies circled the papaya and the roma tomatoes that were on sale were under ripe and tasteless.

So sorry Sprouts, there is very little reason to make your store a stop on my regular route for quality grocery items.  Its off to Whole Foods for groceries, produce and cheese, Claros for deli meats and italian goodies and CostCo for meats and seafood.