Bargain Grocery Troy — Local services in Troy

In today's climate of high grocery prices, how do you stretch your dollar, save money and know that the proceeds of your sales are going back to the community? Bargin Grocery in Troy, NY offers all of that. I had read about them in the Times Union and thought to check them out because there is such a need for a grocery store in that area of Troy and while Capital Roots, another non-profit grocery, is down the street this gives residents near by options.

I was delighted with my experience! This was my first time going there it won't be my last!

There pros and cons to the place.

Pros: The grocery store is clean, everyone is so friendly and helpful, and you can get some incredible deals there. For instance I got 99 cents pint of Ben & Jerry's Ice Cream (I stocked up and there were other brands for 99 cents too), 99 cents per bottle of Tipo Chico mineral water, the largest head of cabbage and orange cauliflower for $3.50 each, fresh flowers for half price, 6 red roses for $2.99, small mix bouquet for $1.99 each, and a giant box of organic Earthbound spinach and kale for 99 cents, 2 large salmon fillet for under $20 and a giant bag of the fancy Terra Chip bags for $1.99! I definitely saved a lot of money! And they gave me a free box of girl scout cookies at the check out.

Cons: They are only open from 9am - 6pm Monday - Saturday. For a working girl like me I would only be able to make it after work or on Saturday.

There are items that are priced pretty competitively to regular supermarkets. You still save money but it's more like the same as the sale price of the supermarket item like grapes were $1.49 a lbs, apples were $1.49 a lbs. comes to around 50cents to a $1 off.

Also, as a close out grocery store you're not always going to have the same things in there every week, but it'll be fun discovering new things!

Outside of some of the incredible deals you can get here what will keep me coming back is that as a non-profit grocery store I learned that the proceeds go back to the community through Compassion Coalition which serves the local community in Troy and the Capital Region. The proceeds from their other store location in Utica does the same for their community. So, if part of my 99 cents pint of Ben & Jerry's ice cream, my half a dozen roses for $2.99 and my $10.99 2 lbs of Colossal Shrimp goes back to the community I feel pretty good about shopping there and...

I think some of the people leaving super negative reviews need to calm down a little and think about who this kind of place is servicing.

Before Bargain Grocery, you had to either cross the bridge for groceries, head up Hoosick, or make it to one of the Market 32. Sometimes, if you need only eggs or milk, Stewarts will be fine. But if you realize you're missing fresh veg for dinner? Or you run out of cereal? You're out of luck. Troy was a total food desert.

This place will not have EVERYTHING, and it won't have the same stock all the time. But, a smart shopper who has the time to plan a few meals can make the stock work. Plus, the staff is SUPER friendly and nice, had a chat with us, and talked about the store.

It saves food waste as well, which is a huge problem in this country. About 133 billion pounds of food is wasted each year. The produce we got here was still fresh, totally usable, and we ate it the same day we bought it. I wouldn't 100% recommend buying something that you want to last until the end of the week, but for the next day or two? It'll be fine.

TL;DR: I am glad Troy has a place like this were I can walk and grab a head of cabbage for dinner without having to Doordash or Instacart something, or without having to make the annoying trek up...

The store is really nice and clean. The staff is very friendly.. but for sure, it's not a non for profit grocery.. they get most of the items for free and some of the items they'll pay 5 cents on the dollar I've been in the Closeout business for many years, and the short dated products no dollar store even wants that The prices on produce are the same as aldi, and you can't compare the quality. This store is a perfect example of rich wealthy developers that are making good money with tax breaks and other incentives to build in poorer communities trying to look good by opening a store for low income and making it look like they are the angels. I feel terrible for the people coming in here using up there SNAP or cash when they can go elsewhere

Again it's a shame how people take advantage of less fortunate ones

Update... gimme a break See the pears 1.99 a pound 🤔? Check out aldi cheaper and fresh Same with the strawberries old stale stuff

And what a shame for a neighborhood that has so much obesity to put out at the front when you walk in pallets of jumbo bottles...