Needler's Fresh Market — Local services in Carmel

Wonderful neighborhood grocery store! Needlers replaces the Omalia's that used to be here and was beloved by many, with a slightly smaller store that is an excellent place to shop for the essentials. And that is the point, in that this is a store meant for a smaller neighborhood market. It's not meant for a 100+ shoppers depending upon after work on Friday before Memorial Day to stock up on cookout parties. It's really for local people to pop in, grab some essentials without going on an extended hike just to get to one side of the store. And at that, it is excellent. I generally prefer to shop here over any other grocery solely because how easy it is to get into the store, zip through the aisles, and get out, in a fairly reasonable amount of time without feeling like just go 10k steps in.

There is no pharmacy and little in the way of medical items, but CVS is next door. Household supplies (like giant things of TP or paper towels) is a lot more limited here, and they have fewer brands of everything, but they don't need to sell 20 different types of paper towels.

The frozen section is significantly smaller than the old Omalias, but it generally has what I want. The ice cream portion is perhaps a bit small, but there are still plenty of options.

The meat counter and prepared foods areas always seem to have some interesting options. I never lacked for fresh fruits and veggies.

Probably the only area I feel they could have made smaller and used the space for something else was the alcohol aisle, as their is a beverage store at the other end of the strip, but its okay.

When my daughter was in high school, it was so easy for her to stop here on the way home, grab a few items quickly, and get going, as opposed to the local Kroger which is probably three times bigger and far more time consuming to get through.

I hope they'll be around for many...

This is really a great neighborhood grocery store. It's really nice and upscale on the inside, and has everything that you probably need on any given day. Prices are in line with other stores in my opinion, except perhaps for ALDI. Customer service is very high - the other night, I complained to the store manager that they were out of the bacon that they had on their coupon. He apologized and let me know that he would honor the coupon when they had more of the bacon in stock. I went ahead and did the rest of my shopping, and about ten minutes later he tracks me down with a box in his hand. It was the bacon that I was looking for. I don't know of another grocery store that would have the store manager track down a customer to bring them an item that had been thought to be out of stock. That is GOOD customer service! My only quibble, and it's a minor one, are with the teens working the registers. They are universally friendly, but Needler's needs to spend more time training them on how to bag things. They put heavy stuff on top of lighter stuff, etc. Otherwise this store...

First time at this store and I was so excited to see it.

Unfortunately not everything was marked with pricing and when I asked the person in the deli, he quoted me differently than the actual price I paid. No one likes to be surprised how much they are going to pay at the check stand.

Which brings me to us checking out, I was in the process of filling out a grocery rewards card when the twenty year old at the check stand said, “Don’t worry about it, I’ll use the store number”. Then I asked her if she gave me the five dollar coupon that was on the application and she said, “No, that doesn’t happen until you’re in the system fully, it’ll take about two weeks”. I pointed to the coupon that said “fill this out and get $5 back today”. She then proceeded to tell me that was wrong. I spoke with the manager who said the same thing.

I would think if it says “today”, I’d be able to use it today. I’ve been to other store where they have activated my account immediately at the check stand.

Unfortunately this put a sour taste in my mouth since it was my first experience. I...