Harvest Market — Local services in Champaign

2023 review: As much as I love some of the employees here, we have moved on to a different grocery store. My final straw was purchasing a deli item (a salad labeled “Potato Salad” that turned out to be pasta salad.) I brought it back and the “customer service” employee rolled her eyes, said “Yeah okay,” when I showed her the salad was wrongly labeled, and then she put it back on the shelf. 🤢 If you have dietary restrictions, ESPECIALLY food allergies, you can’t trust that the labels are accurate. And when you buy something from the deli, you can’t trust that it’s been handled safely. Indeed, HM has had its farmhouse restaurant flagged and even closed by the health department for failing inspections.

The meat and fish are unpredictable — sometimes the quality is amazing, sometimes the meat or fish smells terrible once you get it home.

HM looks beautiful. The concept is great. I want to love this place so much. And like I said, some of the employees are outstanding — for one, I LOVE how HM supports one of their associates who paints beautiful signs around the store! But they really need to bring in someone who is skilled at developing employees to have consistent habits in food safety, food labeling, and hygiene.

2017 review: This store should be great, but every visit is frustrating. Tonight I opened a package of chicken that hadn't yet reached its sell by date, and the chicken was RANK. I've had this issue at County Market on Kirby & Duncan, which is why I stopped shopping there. The variety of produce available is always very high, but they are almost always out of the most common types of produce, like broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, and cabbage. I can't count how many times I ran in just to grab something basic, like broccoli, and I've had to leave and go elsewhere. I want to love Harvest Market, because some things are great -- like the fish and meat department, barring the chicken, which has more than once smelled terrible days before the expiration date. Instead of having such a huge variety of so many things, I wish they would just focus on doing a few things really well. Even the Farmhouse Restaurant disappoints more often than not -- we've stopped going there for breakfast because the food is rarely prepared correctly (i.e. pancakes come out raw in the middle, even after asking them to be prepared again.) The grocery prices are significantly higher than other grocery stores nearby. I know Harvest Market is trying to model after some of the major all-in-one grocery "experiences" like in the suburbs of Chicago, and perhaps they still need more time to work the kinks out. But I'd rather grocery stop where the prices reflect the quality and where I feel more confident that I'm not going to get food poisoning from...

Great Customer Service! I live in Chicago and shop Whole Foods. While on an extended stay in Champaign I happened to be in the hotel right next to Harvest Market and found their selections and service to be comparable to what I am used to.

Reason for one star less than perfect is that I found one of my purchases to be over ten days expired, so I am not fully confident in their culling. I discovered this the next day when I went to consume the product and was shocked! I immediately went over to the store and politely showed the product at their customer service counter.

I had thrown away my receipt the prior day as wont to do for groceries, but John at customer service was very friendly about the matter and refunded my money while also adding that he would notify the right people to ensure the problem is rooted well. John immediately restored my faith in the store's promise to their customers and I will not hesitate to make Harvest Market my first grocery stop again as I tend to stay in Champaign frequently.

Thanks John. You're a true asset to the store and much appreciated. I've had product issues (elsewhere) before which were resolved on a much larger scale than a $6 purchase, but never before have a written a review on a transaction such as this one until now, and John is the reason why. This just goes to show how valued John's service is.

Alright, I'll stop being a fanboy now. No one probably read past the first three...

Harvest Market's meat department saves the day and the regatta!! I had to serve about 85 burgers at a sailing regatta. Working on a pretty bare bones budget I called a couple places for prices. Never could I have guessed that Harvest would have such an amazing deal, actually, the best deal! Previously, I had been purchasing the 1/4lb, frozen patties from a big box store. The quality was pretty "meh" at best. For almost the same price from Harvest, I got 1/3lb patties of HIGH quality beef and they didn't shrink and turn into hockey pucks like the boxed ones I used to get. They were thick, juicy and absolutely fabulous. Our sailors loved them and they were devoured. I got a lot of compliments on getting better burgers this year. Even better, when I called to make the order they packaged them in smaller bundles for me so I didn't have to open any more packages than what we were grilling. Also, since they had to be in coolers from Friday till Sunday, they froze them solid for me so they were cold until I needed them. They loaded them into my cart and I was good to go. The service on the phone (Jesus) and in store (Michelle and another guy I forgot his name-sorry) was really awesome and amazing. I can honestly say, that every year for the regatta I will be going back for those burgers! The rest of the store was great, too. I needed a few, last minute supplies and they had everything I needed. Thanks...