Shop & Save Market — Attraction in Jefferson Township

I really like shopping at Shop & Save Market. They have an enormous selection of house-made soups, green salads, deli salads, sandwiches, and a pretty good salad bar. 🥗 There is an attended steam table serving complete meals priced from $5.99 including a protein, potatoes or rice, and salads or hot vegetable. The proteins are a combination of Polish dishes, American dishes, and some Italian items, but while tasty, they are not very Italian. These items can also be purchased by weight.

There is also a self-serve hot bar which includes an assortment of peirogi and toppings. The hot bar also includes a large selection of meat and side dishes. All of these items look very good, some of them are quite tasty, however, the self-service hot bar is completely neglected by store staff, and at no time, does it appear fresh or appetizing. It always looks dried out, greasy, and unappealing. I want to purchase dinner there, but why buy old, dried out food?

The bakery is terrific, and the bakery staff very helpful and accommodating. The breads and pastries seem very fresh, and the items I have tried were quite good.

The deli has a great selection of local and imported hams, and charcuterie. They even have excellent roasted in-house rare roast beef.

Good produce section; generally fresh, decent prices, good selection. Often, there are good produce specials. There were beautiful tomatoes at .69 per pound. And beefsteak tomatoes were .99 per pound. Some items can be higher priced than other stores, but not outrageously so.

The rest of the store has a full selection of domestic and imported grocery items. The best selection of imported jams and preserves in the area, even better than stores four times bigger.

The front end staff are all very nice. One of the cashiers, a young woman with long red hair, most often worn in a pony tail is so nice, really charming and always remembers me, and is so good at making all the customers feel welcome and is so very kind.

I really enjoy shopping at Shop & Save Market and the only thing I'd change would be that the self-service hot bar would be maintained...

FYI: I am giving this city location of Shop & Save 4 stars, but I gave the Des Plaines location 5 stars. At this location, I feel that there are fewer items overall, and the store layout is a bit odd (getting to the checkout from certain departments).

I was looking at the homemade soups to go, near the deli. Every single soup (out of 20 or so kinds?) had meat or meat stock -- so no luck if you're vegetarian like I am.

The homemade salads were very good and fresh. I bought the mozzarella/tomato, and the veggie/fruit one.

I then went to the hot meal counter. They have lunch and dinner specials where you can get 1 meat with 2 or 3 side items. I asked if I could just get a few sides since I don't eat meat. The woman at the counter said I could get the lunch special without meat, and just get a double size of 1 item and regular of 2. That was very nice! I got the roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, and veggie rice. All 3 items were delicious and I highly recommend them!

They also have a homemade pierogi bar where you can mix and match and pay by the pound. I chose to just get 3 packages of the homemade pierogi from the refrigerated rack. When I got looked at them later at home, I noticed 1 of the packages had expired 2 days earlier. I'd already thrown out the receipt and didn't want to go all the way back, so that was a loss of money. So definitely check the "sell by" dates at this location. At the Des Plaines location I've never had...

I was in the neighborhood to drive my mother-in-law to a doctor's appointment. I stopped in to pickup a few things. The east entrance is closed and you must walk to the west entrance (not a huge walk) which explains why all of the parking on the west side of the lot is taken. Since everyone is going through the one entrance you will be greeted by a huge hot bar. There is a soup station with 6 - 8 different soups or stews. There is a pizza oven too. The hot foods are 30 feet long, it is absolutely HUGE. Large variety of items from Polish and Mexican favorites to American staples. There is a seating area with ten tables if you choose to eat there and additional outdoor seating. Right next to that is the equally huge deli. This includes European specialties like kishka, Ukrainian ham, veal sausage, rib bacon, imported and domestic cheese, just to name a few. They have an extensive produce section and their florist had very reasonably priced options. The bakery is also of note with European cookies by the pound. My brother came back with me and made note "they have a wide variety of products but not a lot of any one product." If you are looking to stock up on one particular product you might need to speak to someone. I saw a couple of reviews that the staff were rude; that was not my experience at all. All of the staff was helpful and willing to be of assistance. There was no lines at the checkouts as they had five...