Ideal Food Basket of Dania Beach — Local services in Dania Beach

Ideal Food Basket is a Latin grocery chain of stores mostly based out of the New York area that is now trying to make inroads in the lucrative but very overcrowded South Florida grocery scene. Publix is still the biggest, follow by Walmart, Walmart Neighborhood Stores, Winn-Dixie, Costco, BJ's, Whole Foods, Fresh Market, Target, Trader Joe, Aldi’s, Save A lot, even Family Dollar and General Dollar, along with CVS and Walgreens also sell milk, bread, eggs and many other items. Plus there is also direct competition from the other well established latino stores, like Sedanos, Bravo, Fresco and other smaller ones. So we are pretty lucky to have these many choices to buy food. La Ideal Food Basket took over, what used to be yet another empty Winn Dixie store and to my surprise did a great job and put a lot of money and effort in completely remodeling what used to be a dirty, dingy and sad empty store front. Some of the positives, it's a clean, well stocked store, with a lot more variety of latino and ethnic foods than a regular grocery store, a great veggie and fruit section and some really interesting meats and fish to choose from but unfortunately it's a ghost town. Not only lacking shoppers but also lacking customer service. Which in many respects, is really the MOST important factor unless of course your talking about Walmart were it does not exist at all but the prices are so low that people are more than willing to compromise until they actually need help and can’t get it or they have to deal with those checkout lines that are 50 people deep!! After a late night trip were I purchased some ice cream, yogurt and other stuff worth about $50 bucks or so. The next day I realized I had left the bag with the ice cream and yogurt inside the car. Nothing intentional here, it was late, I had a long day and accidently left the bag inside the car. When I went back to the store to exchange the items NOT asking for a refund, I was told by the night supervisor lady that there was nothing they could do. I also tried to exchange some stale bread and was told that since I had opened the bag I could not returned it?? But if I didn’t open the bag then how would I know it was stale in the first place? Anywhere else like Publix, Target, Costco, Walmart, etc they would have taken ALL the items back! At Publix their NO questions asked policy is the best in the business. And they always apologize back to you, “Sorry about what happened” Which is ironic but nice and they always give you the option of a refund or store credit. And to be fair the other “Latino” stores like Bravo, Sedano’s, and El Presidente also have strict and sketchy return policies that make it difficult to return items purchased at their stores. In a super crowded South Florida grocery scene, Ideal Food Basket has a steep hill to climb with little margin for error, so I sincerely wish them the...

I use to come here a lot because I lived in the area... it was great for basic produce as an alternative to publix. The most recent time I shopped here I purchased a $75 whole filet tenderloin from the meat section in the back. They were all pre-packaged, and there were at least 40 to 50 of them, which led me to believe they just received a fresh delivery.

As I got home I placed it into the refrigerator and 4 hours later I prepared to trim the filet and cut to portions. As I opened the bag I immediately noticed an unusual smell.... I quickly pulled the whole filet out and ran it under cold water to rince it when all of a sudden BAM, the smell of death overwhelmoed my whole kitchen and I was gagging...I quickly put the filet into a bag and tied the bag shut, then put that bag into another bag and tied it shut and put the back outside of my front door.

The smell of death quickly took over my entire apartment and i ran out to the balcony to tell my wife not to come inside. She asked what is that smell...I reaked of rancid spoiled meat.

I have never smelled meat like this before in over 30 years of cooking or grilling. I could not believe it. After running the fans in the house with all the doors and windows open for several hours I contacted the supermarket to let them know they are selling people bad meat and to notify the butcher!!!

I told them I purchased it the same day and they told me the only way to get a refund was to bring the meat back to the store. AllI could think about is having this smell in my car for the ride there. I was furious....but $75 is $75, so I threw it in the trunk and had the wrapper in a seperate bag. I warned them that the meat would stink up the entire supermarket if i brought it back and that they could simply go to the back and cut open another piece to verify they all were rotten. But nope they insisted to return the meat, So I drove it back with windows open and proudly carried it into the store and placed it on the counter for a return.

The guy insisted on scanning the barcode and once the bag was opened the poor kid closed it up and called for a manager. Then the manager carried it over to one of the check out lines and opened it up and BAM, the whole front of the supermaket smelled like death.

I got my refund, but had to go thru a lot to get it. It's no fault of the employees, so I gave 2 stars instead of 1. I could only assume they received a bad shipment of very expensive beef and they either know about it and are trying to sell it to people thinking they won't bother going thru the return process, or they are just finding out and going thru the same thing I just went thru with the supplier.

Either way, the stench was so bad, I can't possibly consider buying any type of meat...

I buy all my fruit and veggies here! good, tasty. Already peeled and cut at decent prices. I used to see the same in other supermarkets but at outrageous prices; never purchased those. At Ideal, prices are good, reasonable, so I can indulge myself. So much easier, faster and enjoyable to cook at home, without the hassle of peeling and cutting... loooove iiiitttt! Plus very good quality. Please keep it that way, good products and good prices. Seems that other supermarkets don't understand that we are struggling these times and they prefer to throw away spoiled food because due to the high prices didn't sell; than to lower their prices and sell more. I don't think it takes a great marketing degree. So Ideal, keep your prices affordable, you're...