Apna Bazar Farmers Market — Attraction in Bensalem Township

Short version: Check Dates! Check Dates! Check Dates! After my experience over 2 visits, I won't be back. See this place for yourself, try a couple things you're curious about, and decide for yourself if you would overlook the negatives I encountered.

Update: Felt compelled to drop from 3 stars to 2 stars on a repeat visit. The out of date rice I mention later was still there, but instead of having reasonable dates, the dates had been removed from the old bags. That's pretty messed up.

Long version: The percentage of things I found with bad dates or stickers over the date was quite high here. Brown rice has a shelf life of about 6 months, and all but one bag of one brand was best by 2021. The outlier said 2022. That's kind of shameful, but I still bought another brand, of the same kind of hard to find rice, with a good date. It wasn't a bust.

Quality, in general, was my main concern shopping here. I thought for most of my time exploring this place was getting one star. A few flies drifting around things is never nice to see in a grocery store, and there was a small bird hanging out on the rice bags. That's not ideal either. As you can see, though, it didn't shake out that way. Most of the dates were fine, it was fairly well organized, mostly clean looking, and this store has things I've never seen anywhere else.

I talked to a nice customer who says the quality of some of the things I was concerned about was good. A lot of items, like beans, nuts, dried fruit, and spices are packaged in a questionable way. At least, for our American sensibilities, I think. Just a plastic bag with a printed label, but the label doesn't have any truly useful information on it.

Clearly, these are shipped in massive quantities and parceled out here. That introduces more concerns with the quality. With spices in particular, I noticed that different bags of the exact same spice varied greatly in color, indicating another problem with quality and consistency.

I try to eat as healthy as I can manage, so I noticed the large variety of frozen prepackaged items and drinks, but had no interest in exploring them very much. Despite that, and to be thorough, I checked the dates on several of these items, too. People in reviews have made complaints, but again, most of the dates were good. The prices on frozen veggies were certainly higher than local name brand veggies, but they also have unique frozen veggies that are hard to find anywhere else.

I noticed Goya products were badly overpriced. My personal bias tells me that a local farmer's market with unknown and unbranded items should generally be offering these common, easily accessible items at a value price. That's certainly not the case here. I wouldn't shop here with the expectation that you'll save money on staple, common items. But the prices aren't criminally overinflated in the same way ACME stores are. No Ben & Jerry's "on sale" for $1 more than everyone else's non-sale price.

The produce was quite impressive. Mostly stuff you can find other places at similar prices, and a few unique items. But the impressive thing was the freshness and quantity of items in stock. Other large chain stores have downright grossed me out with their inventory at times, but everything here seemed fresh.

That's a long review, I know. I wanted to cover as much as possible. A five star review of this market is an absurd embellishment, and doesn't remotely reflect the experience you'll have here. A one star review, whether that's one submitted twice by the same person complaining about annoying girls (who, admittedly, seem rude and disinterested in proper customer service), or any other one star complaint also isn't a fair reflection of your experience here.

This store has room for improvement, and I don't see them meeting my expectations in the future. I said I'd hate to come back and still see a stack of 3 year old rice bags, but came back to 3 year old rice bags with the dates removed. Didn't see...

Thank you for fixing the pricing problem. I did not have a pricing problem when I came today.

Pros: you can find some great prices and selection. Many more types of legumes, grains, flours, oils than most markets. AWESOME SELECION OF ORGANIC AND ORGANIC GLUTEN FREE FLOUR😍 Good prices on these flours, better than online or Amazon. Dates, tamerind, persimmons, jaggery good prices and quality, even organics I didnt expect. Kitchen supplies are good, Ayuvedic remedies and hair products, turmeric is well stocked. Nice clean bathroom. Helpful staff sometimes. Worth a stop. There are 3 Indian stores on same street.

Cons: If you like typical American junk food, this store isn't for you. It is actual.food with less.addotoves amd more spices. Theu dint take returns. I bought a spice blend and the seal was broken. I should.habe checked all seals.nefore I left. Most.American markets have good return policies so if.i brought it back I get...

3 rude girls who run the night show as cashiers no manners, nothing, very within dark skin girl and another short girl simply talking ignore customers, behave in very rude manner. They put away all baskets intentionally anticipating customers who come from nearby stores which closes at 8 pm. They insult in most rude manner talking even while ringing for customers. They don't even answer any questions and keep saying very important discussions are taken place. Already the store is in ruins with stuff lying everywhere possible with poor restroom facilities like in India. Very horrible store for shopping. So, I totally stopped going seeing the attitude of 3 girls. The dark one is the biggest troublemaker who spoils others in...