Local grocery store options here in rural Ohio:
Aldi is good for some stuff like canned goods, but isn't a full-service grocery store. At least around here it isn't--no bakery, no deli, etc--so it can't be used for all purposes. If we shop at Aldi we have to be sure to get in very early before the Amish have a chance to arrive with their chartered trailers and strip the place practically bare. It's highly annoying. One of the local Aldi stores has made an effort to clamp down on the Amish and limit their bulk purchases because it's hurting their business due to driving off other customers.
I avoid Wal-Mart as much as possible. It's the last-resort option if we need something and noplace else has it. Both of the local Wal-Mart stores have problems with cheaping out on stockers and a consequent tendency to lag behind in keeping shelves stocked. Both locations are also pushing hard toward automated check-out, another feature which I refuse to use on general principle, and as part of that push deliberately under-staff their conventional checkouts and often staff those lines left open with their worst employees. Yuck.
IGA is a traditional unionized locally-owned grocery store and the wife and I accordingly shop there as much as able. There are two of them also much closer to home at ~4 miles instead of ~15-30 miles for other options.
Buehler's seems like it's favored by retirees. It's usually the best choice for produce. The stores are well-kept and the aisles generally wider and less-cluttered than any of the other options. It makes for about as pleasant a grocery shopping trip as practical, but distance means we don't shop there a great deal.
A "Mark's" in Wooster recently opened a full-service grocery store. That alone surprised me--I associate Mark's as effectively a drug store crossed with a dollar store, but this one is more than that. It's too new to give a proper appraisal; given the low-end history of that store chain I have my doubts that it'll retain quality for very long. For now it's alright, about average quality. We'll see how it goes.
That's what we have around here other than dollar stores/etc. "High end" or trendy chains do not exist in this region insofar as I'm aware.
Danth
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