Food City — Attraction in Tempe

Update 2023-05-18 I want to give a shout out to Sergio Palacios ay the meat counter. Thanks to his customer friendly attitude, I was encouraged to try the marinated adobo chicken, the American cheese, and the salchichon (bologna Mexican style,) and since I liked all three, I have a reason to come back to food City on a regular basis again.

If you like Kraft American cheese slices I think you'll probably love the Food City version of American cheese. It's super creamy, tasty, but the slices are not individually wrapped. I love this because I hate unwrapping the Kraft slices.

The salchichon (Mexican Bologna) tastes more like summer sausage to me than bologna. I don't like American bologna, but I really like the salchichon.

As for the adobo marinated chicken, you will have to try it yourself. It's really good!

Now that Sergio has got me hooked on the American cheese and salchichon, I come in every other week to replenish my supply. Good job Sergio!

To the Food City management team if you are reading this, you need more employees like Sergio! .... On a more sour note, the bakery and fresh bolillos are gone again. I don't understand this thinking. When you had fresh baked bolillos I would come in 1 to 2 times a week because the bolillos are so good but only remain fresh for a few days. (No, the bolillos you sell now are no where near as good.)

Think of it this way, you might drive an extra two or three miles to buy freshly made donuts, but you would never do that to buy factory made Sara Lee Donuts.

Without the fresh baked bolillos, I've only been coming into Food City about once every two months. That's typically when I run out of Dos Equis minis.

Yes, I do prefer Food City's ugly but tastier vegetables and fruit, and I really like the fresh pico de gallo, but it's not enough to make it worth the longer drive. I have at least five supermarkets within a mile of where I live and three miles closer than Food City.

I understand that a bakery department might not be profitable in itself, but I can't be the only one who's willing to travel a little distance to get fresh bolillos and other Mexican breads and pastries.

I think the point is to get me through the door. Every time I'm there I spend somewhere between $60 and $100 most of it on other items than the ones that brought me in the door.

Original review.

We love their store brand cinnamon instant coffee mixed with vanilla soy milk.

They now offer freshly baked bolillos again!

You can also buy freshly made Pico de gallo and fresh tomatillo sauce.

On the weekends they often have a pollo asada whole chicken which is split and grilled over a large outdoor grill.

The produce section is excellent and inexpensive. It's very common to see 4 small advocados for a buck or 5 cucumbers or 3 green peppers for the same price.

They also have a good Mexican beer section. Best of all they carry Dos Equis in 7 oz pony bottles in a 20...

Good atmosphere. The last time I shopped at this location there were several samples being given out throughout the store. Employees seemed nice and approachable. I cannot say the same for the people that shop here. In the 15 minutes that I was there I was bumped into, and ran over with a cart (separate incidents. different people) neither of which said "excuse me" "pardon me" or "I'm sorry". One of them actually looked at me in disgust as if I shouldn't even be there, as if it was my fault that she ran me over, and as if I should have moved out of her way even though she came around the corner violently behind me crashing into me and completely running over my foot. I reacted the same every time with a smile and a "it's okay" even though there was no apology. I also witnessed an argument escalating in the produce section about someone else doing the same thing to another shopper. All of the people that were doing the hitting and running over were elderly folk though which was surprising also. I am not used to this. I usually shop in the west and have never seen this before. This is not the store's fault, the store alone gets an A from me. Just beware when you shop here,...

I like the store as far as having a variety of ranch market produces, but the new store director, Chris leaves a bad taste in my mouth. He lacks the management skills to me in customer service. They had flour full price yet, expires in 2 months. When I asked him about this and see what discounts he could offer, I was applaud at his first reaction and that was to give a couple of shrugs. I'm not sure what's his deal, maybe military,but this is clearly not his area or industry. Someone better to serve the community around and to make people feel welcomed is not what this store director is doing. I actually left all my groceries behind and drove up the street to a competitor, sure, they wouldn't mind. This guy is a a-hole, not because of no discount either but because of his unpleasant character. Not going back because he just works here, not really part of the community and im not supporting him financially....