Harris Teeter — Restaurant in Baltimore

Harris Teeter is by far the supermarket we use the most.

It is mostly well-stocked, clean, mostly fair prices and the employees are incredibly helpful.

That said, it is not perfect.

Here are a few things I would fix if Harris Teeter wanted to earn that 5th star.

1. RECEIPTS - Harris Teeter's receipts are incredibly hard to read.

By contrast, Safeway has incredibly easy-to-read receipts.

See attached comparison photos.

2. PRODUCE BAGS -

Harris Teeter has 2 different sized produce bags: A "regular" size for most things and a "jumbo" size for larger things like Kale, Collard Greens, Swiss Chard, etc.

Jumbo bags are almost never in stock - and when they are, they are over by the onions or some nonsense.

Keep them stocked by the long/tall greens. This is an easy one to fix!

3. CART CLEANING - In the age of coronavirus, all supermarkets became super hygienic.

We were really impressed with Harris Teeter in the first few weeks of the pandemic:

Someone was always stationed right at the entrance, offering to wipe down our cart as we came in with it.

But things have changed.

Although coronavirus is still an issue, it seems like Harris Teeter has given up on this. There is no one stationed near the entrance anymore.

Sometimes there will be a cart with some paper towels and spray, but more often than not, it's run out of spray or it's not there at all.

4. HOSTESS AND SIMILAR ITEMS ARE SCATTERED EVERYWHERE - Hostess, Entenmann's, Little Debbies.. you know what I mean.

Those pre-packaged baked goods are never all in a single area.

So if you can't find what you are looking for, you have to go hunting all over the store - and sometimes (like when I'm looking for Drake's "Funny Bones"), you're not sure if you missed a spot or if they just don't carry them.

Sometimes they are in the cookie aisle, sometimes they are not. Sometimes they're on a random end cap.

It makes it unreasonably hard to figure out how to plan your route to get in and out as quickly as possible.

5. CHECKOUT MAKES NO SENSE - We usually do self-checkout, but on the rare occasion when we get in a line, it is the most bizarre thing you've ever experienced.

You, see, at Harris Teeter, you don't stand in line at the aisle you want to check out at. You have to slide one aisle over and then shift to the other aisle after you enter.

If that sounds confusing, you should try it. There's no easy way to explain it — and it just makes no sense at all.

6. ONIONS vs PEELED ONIONS - Maybe some people appreciate this, but I find it weird.

They sell regular red onions at one price and peeled red onions at a higher price.

But non-peeled aren't always in stock, so you have to pay more for peeled onions that you don't want.

7. NO PORTUGUESE ROLLS - I guess this is a specialty item here in Maryland, but I'm originally from NJ, where Portuguese rolls are in every supermarket and even corner stores.

8. CERTAIN ITEMS ARE IN MULTIPLE SPOTS - Similar to the Hostess, etc that I mentioned above:

Beans, cinnamon/sticks and cold cuts just to name a few... They could be in one area... or another area, or maybe a third area.

I understand that the store might want to put certain kinds of products in multiple places in the store so they get more visibility.

But every variation of that item should be available in every spot.

I shouldn't have to travel to 2 or 3 different spots to see what all my options are.

. . .

So there you have it... this is a long and super detailed list, but that's just my take on what Harris Teeter can do to become the perfect...

As a grocery store, they're definitely one of the best I've seen. Their lines can be pretty long and annoying, but that's the same for a lot of places. As far as prices go, they have a lot of sales that are really cheap, while their normal prices are about the same as other places in the area. The main reason I go to Harris Teeter, even though it's like a mile and a half away from my house, is because they have really good sushi and pizza. On Fridays, they have a 5 dollar sushi special where you can get things like spicy tuna roll, california roll, vegetable roll and spicy salmon roll for 5 dollars(10 pieces). It's still 50 cents per piece, but that's about half the normal price for sushi practically anywhere in Maryland. Of course, they also have other kinds of sushi. One of my favorites is this heart-shaped sushi box with about 20-ish pieces, maybe more, three of which are massive ones in the middle. Costs about 16.50 I think, but it's worth it. They also have Poke Salad, which is about 13.50 if I remember correctly, been a while since I got it. The fact that you don't have to tip(aren't expected to tip) at grocery stores compared to restaurants leads to a huge price difference as well. Even if the sushi at Akira Ramen across the parking lot might be a bit better quality overall, it's much more expensive in comparison. There is an area where you can eat in the Harris Teeter store as well, so you don't need to leave.

If you want pizza instead of sushi, I suggest the Chicken Taco Pizza. You can get a slice for 3 dollars. If it's a monday, you can get any kinda large pizza for 9 dollars(6 slices), which is a good deal. At least I think that's something they do every monday, or it might have just been a special that ended. Not sure. The 5 dollar sushi fridays has been going on all 2024 thus far though, so that's reliable.

They also have a very large ice cream section, that often has sales. They have bread cheaper than the Markets at Highland Town and Safeway from what I've seen. They have these little containers of shrimp that my father likes, already steamed and seasoned, though they have unseasoned as well. You can get baked or fried chicken. They have a huge selection of vegetables, fruits and even premade salads.

Speaking of salads, there's a salad bar, an asian bar and a hot bar... I think a few other things as well. I've never used them, because it's kinda sketchy like a buffet. I'm a germaphobe so it's hard enough for me to just eat food out like that in the first place. Idk how I used to eat at buffets when I was younger lol. My sister in law got some stuff from the asian bar though and she said it was decent. It looked good and smelled good at least. Nobody got sick as far as I know lmao.

Anyway, it's really weird to bring this up randomly, but they do sell parrot food. Which is surprisingly difficult to find. Safeway and Harris Teeter both sell it, but I'm not sure which is cheaper.

Now I feel like getting some sushi or pizza again, but it's almost 3 am lol. Maybe I'll walk down...

Do you LOVE waiting in line to check out at a grocery store! Then this Harris Teeter is for you! As you can see by the 21 other reviews begging for more checkout lanes, Harris Teeter knows what you want and you want to wait in line. There is never anyone, not one human being, staffed to check out in the normal lanes. Everything is self check out here. But don’t you worry! They have a generous 4 (yes 4!!!) self check out machines available for your use. I know what you’re thinking, most stores have at least three times that amount. Well fear not! Two of the self checkout machines are permanently broken and closed. The other two barely work, and the poor assistant has to come over almost every other item you scan. The assistant in the self check out area is a young 87 year-old man, who stormed the beaches of Normandy and is now forced by socioeconomic conditions to sleepily assist the 300 people trying to check out using two machines. Sure it only may take you 10 minutes to grocery shop, but you can easily wait in line up to a half an hour here to check out. This is the last time I’m going to this store, The ridiculously high prices, and no checkout options really make it a frustrating...