Hellobee Boards

@blackbird: the only thing I ever find worth it there is bread from our local bakery. And maybe their hot bar if you need lunch. I hate how $$ Whole Foods is.

I love their salad bar. DH loves their meat and seafood. Otherwise we don't shop there. Too expensive.

cheese and brownies and 365 brand organic strawberry jam and bread. Yum!

Yes, their cheese bar is great! I like how they have small little portions available so I can try out new things.

I also like their mango pineapple fresh salsa. It's $$, but probably around what I would spend to try to make it on my own. I buy their olive oil, and supposedly their Three Wishes wine is good (never tried it).

Definitely their meat! Their chicken is so much better than what you can buy at an average grocery store.

The selection varies rather considerably by store, in my experience. Like others, I am usually a fan of their salad bar (I tend to treat WF as a pricier deli rather than a grocery store), and I really like their cheese selection too. The broccoli salad with raisins and cashews and the garlicky kale at the salad bar are worth the price-per-pound.

For stuff to take home/not eat immediately, their house brand stuff is generally reasonably priced and very good. I'm so-so on their bakery breads; quality seems to vary a lot by store and it's really expensive. The other baked goods tend to be a little too sweet for my tastes, but they had a really good thing going with their croissants. Unfortunately, I got an exceptionally greasy and doughy one the last time we went for them, and now I'm not so keen on shelling out $2.50 for a spinach and feta croissant as a special treat. (Some problem, right?) I like their fish and meat counters even though they're expensive because they are very up-front about where their stuff came from (this matters a lot to me, especially with fish) and the people who work there are super helpful. I think their frozen fish is generally better than at other chains, and it's somewhat less likely to be farmed/from a place I don't buy fish from, but you've still got to read the labels if that matters to you. Oh yeah, and their house brand chocolate bars are reasonably priced, really good, and fair trade.

I like a lot of their 365 brand (their store brand) products. The fat-free spaghetti sauce is a great base to doctor up with ground beef or veggies or whatever (it's fine on it's own, too, but I rarely use it that way). Very few ingredients and no added sugars or anything. I also love their tomato paste in a tube because I never use a whole can.

They have tetra-paks of beans (black, garbanzo, and kidney) that are salt-free and organic. I prefer these to canned beans. I also like their low-sodium chicken broth for making soups.

Their cereals are hit or miss but I like the frosted shredded wheat a lot; the last time I got raisin bran it tasted a little stale, though.

Their meats are great and I especially like some of the house-made sausages (chicken with spinach and feta, lamb mergeza, andouille).