NY supermarkets!

Hi

This may sound a silly question, but are there any supermarkets in midtown manhattan? I would love to have a look around and buy some treats to take home from my family - not just expensive gift food from expensive shops? We are staying at Wingate Inn.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Tessa

NY supermarkets!

I%26#39;m not that familar with supermarkets over in that part of the west 30s. However, if you hopped on the 34th street crosstown bus and rode it over to Third Avenue, you would find an excellent selection of typical Manhattan supermarkets. On Third between 31st and 32nd are a Food Emporium on one side of the street and a Gristede%26#39;s on the other side. Both of these are below ground stores built into the basement level of high-rise apartment blocks, the more modern trend in Manhattan markets. It permits larger stores. Of these two stores, I think I prefer the Food Emporium.

Above 34th Street are examples of older markets built at ground level. At Third and 35th is a branch of D%26#39;Agostino%26#39;s, which is my personal favorite chain (although this is not my favorite branch). And on the other side of Third, at 36th, is another Gristede%26#39;s (and one of the dingiest, most poorly managed, ones you%26#39;ll find.)

NY supermarkets!

There%26#39;s the Whole Foods Market in Union Square and another at Columbus Circle (in the basement of the Time Warner Centre) which sell loads of goodies and if you want to buy yourself something fresh to eat while you%26#39;re there, there%26#39;s even an eating area after you go through the checkouts (in the Columbus Sq store at least - I%26#39;ve never been to the Union Sq one).

(wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/鈥ndex.html)

(wholefoodsmarket.com/stores/鈥ndex.html)

Further uptown (on 80th %26amp; Broadway in the Upper West Side) is Zabars (www.zabars.com) which is pretty famous for selling delicious (but pricey) gourmet-style foods (even just having a quick look at the website there made my mouth water!) It would be really easy to get to using the 1 train from midtown - probably the most difficult part would be working out how to pack the food to get it safely back to the UK and not succumb to temptation and eat it all!

Whole Foods and Zabars are not typical New York supermarkets. They are both excellent, but they are specialty stores. Saying these are typical New York supermarkets is like saying the food halls at Harrods are a typical English supermarket.

Hi QQ2 - I wasn%26#39;t implying these were typical supermarkets at all and I%26#39;m well aware that they aren%26#39;t! It just happens they were ones I (as a UK tourist) found interesting and that I thought would be useful for family gift buying purposes!

I did not see any supermarkets but there are quite a few large general storesa that you will come across that Manhattan area.

Gristedes has 3 in the west 20s (pronounced ';griss-TEE-deez';)

8th Ave and 21st St.

8th Ave and 26th St

9th Ave and 24th St.

D%26#39;Agostino%26#39;s has one on 23rd and 8th Ave.

We went to a market in NYC and it was an interesting experience for us. It had an escalator you rode down from street level to the store and carrying our groceries back to the hotel was a novel thing for us. (ok....I%26#39;m from Ohio...rural Ohio no less.....)