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REID'S QUICK TAKE
Layout: Easy. Parking is free for 90 minutes.
Produce: Good selection.
Fish Department: Small.
Meat Department: Excellent. Not much is displayed, but the butcher will get you whatever you want.
Bakery: Good. Desserts by Tizzerts, fresh chocolates.
Prepared Foods: Large.
Specialty Items: Superb.
International: Small.
Finds: Good Wives frozen crab puff pastries, extensive hot sauce collection, hand-dipped ice cream cones.
Hours: Monday through Saturday 7 a.m. until 8 p.m.; Sunday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
Reid's Fine Foods, 225 East 7th St. Free 90-minute parking. Baggers will help you to the parking deck.
EARTH FARE
Last year, a second Earth Fare, with its earth-toned interior, opened in SouthPark. This store is 25,000 square feet; much of this is devoted to prepared food. This may be one grocery interior that Michael Pollan would agree customers need not bypass since the effort here is to be trans-fat and high-fructose corn syrup free.
Earth Fare is a regional grocer based in Asheville and founded 1975. Currently Earth Fare has more than a dozen stores in the Southeast. They carry Homestead (a dairy farm in the Virginia Blue Ridge) glass bottled chocolate milk, a good cheese selection, shade grown coffees, and organic wines. The staff behind the meat counter is informed and will order what they don't carry.
EARTH FARE QUICK TAKE
Layout: Moderate. Overall the store is dark and makes you feel nocturnal.
Produce: Small, but lots of organics.
Fish Department: Average.
Meat Department: Above average. Australian grass-fed beef, whole organic and domestic legs of lamb, helpful meat cutters.
Bakery: Cookies, breads, lots of samples.
Prepared Foods: Expanded with a buffet, soup counter, and an eat-in café.
Specialty Items: Abundance of products for people (and animals) with dietary restrictions.
International: Not the focus here.
Finds: Local Grateful Growers organic Italian sausage; high-quality dry-bin bulgur; good cheese selection; organic wines; and cooking classes.
Hours: Monday through Saturday 8 a.m. until 10 p.m.; Sunday 9 a.m. until 9 p.m.
Earth Fare, 721 Governor Morrison St.
BI-LO
The Dilworth store of the Mauldin, S.C.-based BI-LO on Park Road is the store that time forgot. Located in what had once been a Kroger, the ambiance is retro without urbane kitsch. From the floors to the lack of color, the whole store seems like a throwback. But, BI-LO is charting another course in the area with the opening of the 24/7, 58,000-square-foot Super BI-LO at the corner of Weddington and McKee Roads in Matthews. This store features an expanded organic produce section, a coffee shop with a Wi-Fi café, and a drive-through pharmacy. For now, the BI-LO in Dilworth doesn't have much to recommend.
BI-LO QUICK TAKE
Layout: Large and quite old.
Produce: Below average.
Fish Department: Packaged
Meat Department: All packaged.
Bakery: Only on shelves.
Prepared Foods: Small.
Specialty Items: Below average.
International: Small.
Hours: 7 a.m. until 11 p.m. daily.
BI-LO, 2226 Park Road
