Supermarket Riba Smith — Local services in San Francisco

The aisles of this Riba Smith are narrow and very disorganized. They do not have room for two carts to easily pass by each other. The aisle next to the cash registers is so narrow that on busy days there is foot traffic coming in that conflicts with the lines that are at the registers, making it difficult to even access the aisles from the front. I went with two children--you will want to keep them close because finding things in the store is hard. The bread aisle is next to the soda, not the bakery. The fruits and vegetables seem all mixed up. The meats area,unlike the other Ribas, is quite smelly. The fact that it is in a mall also creates frustration because it is hard to find the parking because waze isn't clear you have to climb two ramps to get there. Also, you have to remember to validate parking inside the Riba and again in the outside machine, which also has long lines on a weekend. Ugh. During the week, your shopping expedition may be better here. This was just my annoying trip...

This is a 5 star supermarket that gets 4 stars from me because of their prices. I split my time between NYC and PTY. Food is CHEAPER in Manhattan than here. Granted, I understand the markup for imported groceries as it should be, but even local items are priced at ridiculous prices. All Produce and fresh meats are top notch, which is why I still shop here for select items. It's not my "go to market" as it once was. Without going off on a rant, Riba Smith is indicative of all that's wrong with Panama City currently. They charge outlandish prices for everyday items because they can. People with endless funds line up to fill their shopping carts. But when you spend 1/2 your time living in NYC, one of the most expensive cities in the world and it costs less to food shop there, something ain't right. My local friends here in Panama have long standing joke when discussing the cost of living here... Riba must be...

If you are tourist don't even get close to here. At the exit, the security started to search our backpack and they put an expensive bag of coffee in it claiming that we stole it. We spent 1 hour underneath some stairs with the security guards asking for a bribe not to call the police. He wanted twice the value of the coffee (i.e. 54 dollars). I gave 20 dollars and he left with the money, came back and claimed that he gave it back to me before leaving, in fact he pocketed it. So in total they wanted 54 dollars plus the pocketed 20 and what they did is that they took almost everything we had in our shopping bag to pay for the 54 dollars and more. We ended up losing 80 dollars and more thanks to some corrupted security guards. Tourists...