Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

I love finding new places! That's how I discovered Wegman's in upstate NY, Sainsbury's and Waitrose in London (I wonder if we passed each other on Gloucester Road!), and I passed a Food Lion in South Carolina. I didn't get to go in.... and now I'm obsessed with one day getting to go into one. I actually named my Guitar Hero band after it, and I haven't even been in one. My grandparents have a very local place called Cops way up there in Wisconsin/border of Michigan's UP that has some really good childhood memories. Makes me hiss at the thought of my overpriced Food Emporium across the street...

Always. Even if it's a corporate-style supermarket, there's always regional favorites that can't be found where I live.

Super fun to bring items home from foreign places and experiment later.

I've only recently begun this. After a road trip to a rented chalet in the eastern townships of Quebec yielded a wee grocery with more delicious raw milk cheeses than I could shake a stick at--I've considered grocery stores great tourist attractions. You want to know what locals eat or suss out local specialties? Take a gander at the hot food section and quick prepare section of a grocery store. That's how I discovered that Quebecois will fondue thin slices of horse. Not for me, but glad to know!

I think that my in-laws, over the winter holidays, thought I was nuts when I was so excited to go to Trader Joe's. I live in Texas, they Illinois, and I was not going to miss out on seeing what the fuss was all about. :)

Whenever we're on the West Coast, inevitably, my family ends up at Ranch 99 at least once. Some of the produce is cheaper than in NY. Or we'll pick up snacks or lunch-ish foods for the road.

I really find that it depends on the trip. We were staying with friends on our last one, so visiting the grocery store was a must. In other places of the world we went to certain places just to be able to say we were there (I'm looking at you Piggly Wiggly) even if we didn't *really* need anything. Then there were the times when I travelled with people who wouldn't go to restaurants, so we had to get to a store or else forget about eating. It's one way to lose weight...

My sister, who does not cook & runs her dishwasher about twice a month, laughs at our mom and me! We love spending time shopping & just strolling in grocery stores. She is one for in and out, QUICK! After relocating to Houston from AL. I thought I had died and gone to Grocery Store Heaven! Loved doing it for years!! Still do!

On a road trip that took us through Seattle last year, I made a point of dragging my boyfriend to Whole Foods which we sadly still don't have. I think that's when he realized the depths of my food lust.

Long story short, he loved it as much as I did. We wandered around like kids at a toy fair, had not one, but two lunches there, took home souvenirs and have unsuccessfully lobbied WF to come here since.

Same story at Trader Joe's in Cali - by then even he was hooked on supermarket tourism. Same lobbying. These may all seem mundane to anyone who lives in the States, but trust me, it's a big deal.

Me too. I love stopping in markets that I have not been in (I skip the big chains that really do have the same things everywhere.)
The small regional places or neighborhood markets are goldmines. Love browsing and buying interesting things.
I am also considered weird by those who are with me. :)

Also in St. Louis--Straub's. The butchers really know their meats. Sadly I haven't been there much since I moved away from one of them. Pricey, but good.

On the Hill, DiGregorio (another Italian grocer) is also a fun place to go.

We don't have Wegmans here but I made sure I got to visit when I was on the East coast :-)

Supermarkets -- WAY! DH and I travel with a large cooler in the car when we drive and a pop-up cooler in packed luggage when we fly (and always with extra ziploc bags and neopreme wine totes) in case we come across something that we just have to have.

That can be tasso and frozen crawfish tails in New Orleans (better and cheaper than at home), half-baked and flash frozen Giordano's pizzas in Chicago (not to mention the caramels and other necessities from Fox & Obel and wine from Sam's and Binnie's), whitefish salad and caviar from Zabar's (did you know that they will pack to travel with a cooler pack and everything if you call ahead?), bagels from Tal Bagels, knishes from Yonah Schimmel's, the full line of Old Bay products and stone ground grits from Charleston, assorted pastries from LaBrea Bakery or from Bouchon Bakery, live Dungeness crabs from Seattle and lobsters from Maine, wing sauces from Buffalo, hot sauces from assorted Caribbean islands, and creme de mur and tapenade from Provence.

We especially love Stew Leonard's in Connecticut and want to visit Jungle Jim's in Ohio some day.

@hmw, agreement on Straub's. I get my Thanksgiving crown roast there every year and it is well worth the $100 to be able to bring a roast to the table that it looks like a magazine cover photo and tastes amazing!

@knitter and hwv - Viviano's rocks! I especially like the free bag of pasta that comes with all purchases over $40 and the sample available while waiting in the deli line.

My husband didn't get it at all - I remember buying all my friends and family a small bottle of Balsamic vinegar EACH, from a supermarket in Modena, Italy - it was a fraction of the cost I usually paid - unfortunately, it was at the beginning of our trip and we had to lug it around for three weeks to non stop grumbling - I got back at him last year when we visited single malt distilleries in Scotland and he just had to have a bottle and then in Porto, Portugal, he had to buy some Port after a tour. They were much heavier and more costly to pay duty than my vinegar.

Yes! The GF and I visit Wegman's at least once a day (if not more) when we go up to Ithaca to see her sister. It is a MAGIC store. I also was asked to leave a grocery store in Amsterdam after taking a picture of some frozen pizza there. :(

I love visiting supermarkets and "plazas del mercado"/kind of like farmer's markets everywhere I visit. My dad taught us to do that in every country we travelled - that's how you learn about the customs and eating habits of that place.

And when I used to work for a large packaged goods multinational it was always fun to see your products with foreign packaging or languages...

Guilty! I like to look for items or brands I can't find at home. I always check out varieties of flour and canned tomatoes as first priority. Coffee is next in line.

Oh and I've been to supermarkets when I travel. When I went to europe my parents would buy different breads/cheese/jams and have little picnics in our hotel room for breakfast. I nearly died and went to heaven when I saw the number of cheeses in the italian market!

Annother fun supermarket to visit is the asian markets. Sometimes I start acting like an ugly american when I gawk at the some of the odder foods I see there but there are great deals to be had on soy sauce, siracha, wanton wrappers, plus a bunch of stuff that you can't get so easily at a regular market.

Thank you for posting this! Supermarkets and markets, especially open air ones, are usually the first thing on my to-do list when I travel. I always do it even though my traveling companions usually just sigh at me.

My suitcase on the return trip is usually half full of spoils from those market visits. Most of the time I can't read the directions on the goods, so it's an adventure using the stuff. Fun! And a few times, I've brought back contraband without even knowing it...ie. Szechuan peppercorns.

Mine are the asian markets of thailand and floating markets of Vietnam. actually just posted on this topic of favorite markets...but more on scale of night markets or floating markets of Asia and farmers markets...

Where's your favorite market?

Hong
RavenousCouple:Cooking up Life

only twice. I have gone to a grocery store for a simple salad bar lunch with my mother. She also had groceries she wanted to buy. And with my sister... she lived in the area and we cooked dinner. its not something i do otherwise. when i travel food is not a main interest of mine.

Anyway, I always visit supermarkets when I travel anywhere - in fact, it's one of my "musts" when traveling, whether to another town in my own state to another country. I even have my "local" supermarkets in places I visit often - Montreal (the IGA in Westmount); London (the Sainsbury's on Gloucester Road). I can't be alone in this, can I?

Love them! I was at the famous Galleries Lafayette food hall in Paris and guess what I saw prominently displayed at the front entrance? Old El Paso pre-made tortillas in a box, cans of refried beans, and salsa. Amazing!

I think my favorite time to visit is around the holidays. I've had the pleasure of visiting a number of places just before Christmas, and my friend from Cardiff, Wales, who thinks I am a little nuts when it comes to food anyway, took me to her local---sorry, brain freeze here, the big British chain supermarket---and it took her nearly an hour to drag me out.

I've been doing this when traveling on business for thirty years now, and I have noticed a long decline in the "local-ness" of most supermarkets -- now it's strawberries in February and Frito-Lay chips just about everywhere. The last place I can remember being really distinctive was a supermarket in Hawaii. It's gotten to the point where it's hard to find small-label stone ground grits even in North Carolina! I have hopes that the local food movement will work against this homogenization, and the local supermarket (in the US) will once again be distinctive and characteristic of location.

Have you ever been to Jungle Jim's International Market in the Cincinnati Ohio area of Fairfield? The food network has. I work there and think it's the most unusual (but useful)grocery store in the country. And yea; the owner goes by either Jungle Jim or just plain Jungle. Check it out. It;s worth it.

Oh, yes, I visit markets, supermarkets, food courts, cheese mongers, etc. etc. Paris is, of course, heaven for this kind of tourism. In addition to all the open air places and specialty shops, there's MONOPRIX! The food part is often in the basement and has everything, including the best sardines in the entire world. I try to always stay someplace with a rudimentary kitchen, so I don't have to hang purchases out the window to keep them refrigerated.

I just got back from 2 weeks in Europe and one of my favourite experiences was visiting the Albert Heijn grocery store near my hotel in Amsterdam. I looked it up online before hand for directions and they have a crazy website!

I love seeing the price of produce, beer, snacks compared to home and love looking at the unusual snacks and treats, like Wokkels (curly potato crisps). Every snackfood comes in paprika flavour there, and you can get great beers for a tiny fraction of the cost in Canada (not to mention you can't buy beer at any grocery store in my province).

The Amsterdam store we went to is right near the Vondelpark and they must do a lot of picnic business because they had lots of small portions of cheese, meats and buns for under 1 euro. We got out of there with a huge picnic for 2 with beer for about 7 euros. Loved it!

There is absolutely nothing better, it's one of my favorite things to do, browse around. It's a must. I bake alot, and love checking out the different regional flours. LOVE White Lily, can't find it here up north, southern markets are a lot of fun. I don't travel much abroad anymore - :-(, so can't attest to the goodies to be found there, I'm pretty much limited to down South and Canada! Still fun, though.

What a great "thread". I have a thing for grocery stores and pharmacies when travelling. We even got clean underwear at a Grocery store in Prague because it was nearing the end of our trip and we were tired of washing our underwear over and over in the sinks of Youth Hostels and just wanted a fresh pair or two. We also got great beer, some bread and cheese, and the equivalent (except a million times better) to a hostess type cake for dessert.

In France I like Carrefour because that's where we shopped when we lived in Grenoble. In London, it is always Sainsbury's and Marks and Spencer's (for some items), the farmer's markets, and Boots (for my pharmacy fetish).

Leah
http://iminthekitchen.wordpress.com/

For size alone, Woodman's in Madison, WI is worth a visit. Biggest beer and cheese selections anywhere. To go up and down each aisle would take a couple of days.
Jerry

I sure check out as many stores as I can when traveling, it gives you the flavor of local life. If you ever get to Helsinki, Finland, check out a Stockmann. They carry everything from clothing, toys and sporting goods. As crazy as this sounds, they have gourmet food sections and a huge liquor department. All seem to be run 100% separately, so it doesent come off as the jack of all trades-master of none like Wal-Mart or Costco. All kinds of bulk foods and TONS of cool stuff I never saw before....

Just read your post. Arrived in Pensacola, Florida and within two hours I went grocery shopping. Tomorrow is day two and at least one more grocery store. Just fun to check out the shelves for local goodies and things I have not tried. Scored some White Lilly flour on my trip today.

oh! farmer's markets are different. those are awesome to visit. my fav is the setup in ottawa, with streets and streets of things.