Farm Country of Astoria — Local services in New York

Tl;dr - they sell expired foods and lie about pricing. Unscrupulous business practices here.

I have passed this grocery store for a few years and decided to heck it out today. I went in with a moderate list and took sometime to peruse the shop. At first things seemed great, overall clean and seems orderly. Although clusters of employees could be found at the corners of the store, maybe on break, on their phones. I discovered an vegan item in the frozen foods case - Ming’s Bings. They are uncommon to come By and i was excited to see a full shelf! Unfortunately a few boxes were expired (February 2023 and we’re shopping in June) but my luck turned around and i secured 4 boxes that were in good order. I’m on the phone and mention how they’re $6.49, a good price at roughly $7/box = $7/meal (maybe stretched to 2 meals). I grab a few more things and head to checkout. Not another customer in view, no lines, and she seems upset that i come to her counter. As she begins to ring me up she’s speaking to what I’m assuming is a Manager. They’re speaking another language so i cant tell you what was being said, no big deal, I’m on the phone anyway, but the Bings ring up for $2 more a box then signed. I inform them and the guys she was just speaking with goes to check. My instincts said I should go with him but I didnt. He insists they’re priced correctly and after I’m done checking out I go to inspect the cold case, thinking i must have been mistaken and the signs are GONE! The only product not with a price. It was so shady I wont to back and I’d advise others to do the same. Also, it’s a Key Foods but they don’t advertise that - I used my key foods card...

I’m saying this only to better this supermarket. I hope the manager reads this. I’ve had several incidents where products were expired. I should have checked, but I didn’t. This happened with yogurt, feta cheese and something else that I can’t remember. After that, I started checking the dates when I’d shop there, and I found more expired stuff. So I’d bring it to the cashier and she’d thank me. I noticed they were purposely putting the expired stuff in the front, and the new stuff in the back, so it was deliberate. Makes me think about the elderly who don’t or can’t check the dates. Another thing I want to bring to their attention is the tomatoes, specifically cherry and grape tomatoes. They are never good quality. Some of them in the store actually look very wilted, but I obviously don’t buy those. But even the ones that look good aren’t juicy or fresh at all. Mind you, I’ve tried many different brands from here. The Nature Sweet cherubs are pricey for a reason, yet from here, they’re terrible. Also the ice cream is way too frozen. You can tell by how the containers are covered in frost. I refuse to buy freezer burnt ice cream. Oh and they tried to get away with not giving me the sales price on stuff. It didn’t come up on the register but luckily I noticed it, and she had to call someone to go check. Now I always take pictures of the sales price in case they try something. I’m not sure what’s up with this place but I hope it changes.

Pic was taken on Jan 27th, the day I bought it. That’s over TWO weeks past expiration date. It STUNK like...

Damn, some of you are really harsh with the one stars considering the nasty Associated that was here previously. I’ve been in Astoria over a decade and have frequented grocery stores all over the neighborhood. This is a solid 3.5-4 star grocery store. It is CLEAN, bright, open, and pretty wide. Everything is well stocked, they have a lot of brands and things I regularly seek out. The people working there seem friendly. Let me clarify on the pricing complaints here (some of which are valid). Ctown-34th is my regular store. I shopped there yesterday then returned here so that I could really compare pricing. Generally speaking, most things are about the same in price. HOWEVER, there are def some randomly overpriced things here. To give one example, the eggs. I will never buy eggs here unless they do some serious self reflection lol. I saw the SAME brands in ctown, exact same eggs, and they were literally 2-4 dollars more expensive here. So while most things are priced OK I do get the complaints that the things that are overpriced are wildly overpriced. I hope they can sort that. I will continue to stop by here when I pass though some things I will def be...