Smart & Final

This place is horrible. How in the h. ll can you compare this to Costco or even Sam’s. Totally ghetto. Terrible meat department, limited selection of produce. The place is dirty. God bless you folks that like it. Good luck.

Baby Costco! I really like Smart and final. Surprising deals on foods you love!
This location isn’t my favorite but it’s not bad! It’s well lit, fairly well organized and the staff (some of them) are super nice and the prices are really reasonable!
Smart and Final is exactly what I said before it’s a baby costco. You get large amounts of food, kitchen supplies etc. at a discounted bulk price… You can’t go wrong!

It’s been years since I’ve shopped at a Smart & Final. I happened to be in the area, so I dropped by here to take a peek and see if there was anything worth picking up.
The store is mid-​sized and very clean and organized. They had some great deals on Sodas & Candy, so I picked up a 24 Pack of Coke Zero, a box of Mr Goodbars, and a box of Trident Gum.
There was hardly anyone in the store, so the checkout was fast and easy. Friendly employees here too… a few asked if I needed any assistance. I told them I was browsing and they pretty much left me alone after that.
Return Factor — 75%

I’ve got to hand it to Smart & Final for providing some incredibly economic pricing options for both name brand products and supplies. It’s worth a visit to save some big bucks by shopping here. This is one of my go-​to stops for party supplies like plates, cups, napkins, water, etc. Think of Smart & Final like the Dollar Store meets Costco.

So it smells a little funky when you walk in, kind of like when you cross the border (if ya know what I mean Vern). Don’t think this store is that Smart and don’t think it will be the final store I ever visit. But there are some things here definitely has some things!

Think Costco Light.
The easiest way to describe Smart & Final is a warehouse club store, only half the size and with no membership fees. The store has a huge selection of items (mostly in bulk sizes), and the prices are slightly cheaper than your average grocery store.
Where Smart & Final excels is its big selection of random items you can’t find at your average grocery store. Smart & Final has good selection of restaurant supply and items that would be used by professional chefs/​bakers. If you’re really into cooking like a Food Network star, you can find great stuff here that you can’t find anywhere else.
For the average shopper (like me) Smart & Final is a solid place to get food and supplies for a big event like a party or barbecue. In that case; it’s better than Safeway or Fry’s, and an easier place to shop at than Costco or Sam’s.

Smart & Final is a bit of an odd one. It’s part normal grocery store, part bulk club store, and part restaurant supply store.
Now I’m not a huge fan of Costco or similar club stores… the prospect of having to pay a fee to shop somewhere annoys me on principle. Plus, every time I go I realize they simply don’t carry what I like. «Oooh, great price on toothpaste — if I want to get a different kind than I normally get,» or «Oooh sweet, they have a great price on soap… just not the scent I like.» I don’t know — I can either load up a cart with shit I don’t actually want because it’s cheap or I can pay more to get exactly what I want.
Smart & Final does have bulk items, but the prices are only marginally better than grocery store on most stuff. They do have some great deals, but don’t expect to come here to save money. What they do offer is great quality stuff… in mass quantities. They carry «restaurant-​quality» foods. I love the coffee they sell and some of their ready-​to-​cook stuff is fantastic (like Shrimp Scampi or raviolis)… plus, it’s a great place to pick up household supplies.
If you’re like me and you don’t like to go shopping more than once a month and you also can’t stand the idea of paying a membership fee to shop somewhere, this place is great. If you run a little restaurant or shop, this place is perfect. Also great for if you are planning on catering your own party. Snacks, pasta, fruit, bread, pie, gum, coffee, detergent, tp, serving trays, etc…
About that — if you are having a bunch of people over for a dinner party or a reception or something but you don’t want to hire caterers, you can buy everything you need here for any style or taste.
The wine selection isn’t that good, the prices aren’t going to blow your mind, you do sign up for a card (though they don’t spam you with junk mail), and they do lack in a few areas, but this place is worth checking out sometime and definitely worth checking out if you are hosting a party.
This place is a 3 and a half for me, but I’m going to go ahead and give it a 4 since we can’t do half points.