Grocery Stores

[Georgedn]

We'll be visiting Antigua for 2 weeks in February 2011 and staying at Jolly Harbour. I know there is an Epicurean market there but I am looking for grocery stores in St. Johns or between Jolly Harbour and St. Johns. We're not renting a car so we hope to take a bus and shop. The expense of taking a taxi to and from nullifies any savings realized with shopping in town versus JH. So, we hope to load up and bus back to JH.

Thanks

[mizgeorge]

In honesty, apart from buying fruit and veg at the market (which is just by the bus station where you get the bus back to JH) there's not really anything you can get in town that you can't get at Jolly. There's the Bargain Centre supermarket, but whilst a little bit cheaper, it's not nearly as well stocked as the Epicurean, which is one of the biggest stores on the island (not a little market) and has pretty much anything you could need - in fact people travel from all over the island to shop there.

[dgeorge]

As MizGeorge said the best bet would be the market, which is right next to the bus station that would take you to Jolly Harbour. Especially on Saturday morning, they have a wide range of fresh produce on offer. There are one or two stores nearby, but none that would stock a large amount of fresh produce.

[jhmax]

Buying fresh fruit and vegetables at the market is good for two reasons - the Epicurean doesn't really have a good selection of those, and both that and the other supermarkets (some of which have a better choice) can be unbelievably expensive - because much of their fresh produce isn't produced locally - it comes on the weekly Tropical Lines boat from Florida. You may find that at busy times there is a better selection of anything fresh in supermarkets on (if I remember correctly), Tuesday and Wednesday - the Jolly Harbour Epicurean can get thin on fresh fruit juices and fruit & veg on Sunday/Monday. I believe the government of Antigua is keen to support more local grown produce, but that isn't yet evident in the bigger supermarkets.

By the way, check all your prices when shopping - prices of simple basics like pasta and bottled pasta sauce, pesto, etc, can vary by 300% or more, depending on whether the product is US produced or imported from Eurpoe. I'm vegetarian, but I've read here that meat and fish can be good value if you know where to get it.

Max

[DougYWG]

I was always curious why the bananas at The Epicurean were so dreadful. They were either out of stock or they were badly bruised and damaged and not worth buying. Seems all wrong since we can get lovely bananas in the dead of a Canadian winter and I can assure you, we don't grow them, they do.