[JC and John]

Originally Posted by shcisamax

I notice the closest market to get really good food is in Orlando ..Whole Foods. There is one in Tampa as well. Trader Joe's will open sometime in Sarasota and Naples in the fall? How is it possible there is nothing here? Not even a selection of good cheese here? Brie in a log? Cheddar in 8 varieties? You can get a very nice selection of wine, and some very very fine ones, but what do you pair it with? potato chips?

Since moving to TV in April, I do find organic/gourmet food, and other merchandise a bit lacking in selection. I came from a major metro area, Washington, DC, and was used to having a larger selection of items. For example, went to Home Depot on 441 for a workbench and tool chest. What did they have? Just one size and model of tool chest. Could go online and fined more and pay huge shipping fees. Back home there would have been about 5 or 6 to choose from. So had to travel around to Lowes and finally found something suitable at Sam's Club. My point is, it is really time consuming and frustrating driving to serveral places trying to find things for my new house. I do like Fresh Market. However I would like to see a bigger store with more selection. Whole Foods and Wegmans (my fav) are full scale grocery stores with tons of selection plus they have small bistro areas for coffee, sushi, italian meals, food bars, salad bars. They provide a shopping experience. I have yet to find a grocery store in the TV area with a salad bar where you can buy by weight the fixins for a salad for one or two. What's up with Publix, only prepackaged potato salad etc. Please, nice store but I would think for a store of their corporate size they could at least offer a full deli. At least I can buy deli potato salad etc at Sweet Bay or Fresh Foods or Walmart. But there again shop in one place, travel to another to get other stuff. Frustrating! Given what I have said, NO I don't want to move back home and I will adjust. As other posters have said there isn't the population base to support these stores. Yes, TV has alot of folks and is growing but IMHO and experience as some folks age, they become more thrifty for a lot of reasons and spending $20 a lb or more for gourmet anything is not in their nature and/or budget. My new mantra is adjust and enjoy the journey!

[asianthree]

Originally Posted by Schaumburger

I will be back in TV mid-October. I will have to check it out. Looks like it is very close to the villa I will be renting in the Village of Summerhill. I willl see how it compares to Whole Foods.

nothing compares to Whole Foods even some Whole Foods are not in the same league. I can pick up an entire meal for us under $15.00 ready to go in food safe containers, and have up to 20 choices for dinner

[jimbo2012]

A few in Ocala here

[dkrhardy]

Hmmmm .... posted here earlier and it is gone .... OR I didn't hit the right "button"!

shcisamax - glad you found it. FM is about the best game in town. I think we will spend more time going from one place to another buying what is good at each place. Trader's coming? Now that is a great rumor that I hope becomes reality. We shall see. We live in a small town 10+ miles from Montgomery AL. Montgomery is the biggest little town you'll ever find. There is FM, Publix, etc ... but you will drive all over to get to them. When we become full time next week, we will gladly drive around TV area to shop. For US, it will be closer and more easily done than here. Ocala is going to be an easy drive also, as long as we find what we want! More time to do these things since we are now 100% and forever retired.
Don & Kaz