John Brooks Supermart

First the good: great location for North Valley dwellers who don’t shop at the Co-​op. Interesting mix of items on the shelves — if you look there are some pretty cool specialty goodies. Pretty decent wine/​beer selection. Very friendly employees and nice neighborhood feel. It’s local.
The room for improvement part: Please update this store! It’s run-​down. When a building and fixtures get this old, there is no way to get them clean or get rid of that stale smell. Go take a look at the Lowe’s on Lomas. That place used to be nasty as they get. The store was closed for some time for renovations. What a transformation! And guess what? They didn’t lose any of their old customers, and sure seems like they gained a whole lot of new ones.
I’d be sooo happy if John Brooks followed suit, as would many other people in the neighborhood.
The near North Valley needs a decent, clean store that doesn’t charge $ 9/​lb for garlic. Admittedly, perhaps the powers that be are reluctant to sink money into a store located in a pretty derelict strip mall. But… what if they lead the way? Maybe other more desirable businesses would move in, thus improving the whole block. Just a thought.
In the meantime, I will still go there for a few things here and there, but go somewhere else for the bulk of my grocery shopping.

Johnny. Johnny, sit down.
Let’s talk about who you are today and what your future holds, can we?
Let me ask you, are you happy? Are you satisfied with what you’ve accomplished, are you where you want to be? Where do you see yourself ten years from today?
Go on, be honest.
Really? You mean that. You think you’re doing «just fine». Well. Okay.
Well, since you asked, I’ll be honest: I think we all expected a lot more from you. You’ve always had potential. And I can imagine there was a time, not so long ago, when you provided some valuable meat and produce to the neighborhood. Back then, the Valley was a community of Old School New Mexican families, families who had matanzas, and baked scores of biscochitos each Christmas, and made the best enchiladas in the world. And to some extent, that’s still true. You still serve that demographic. You do this very well. You know what? You deserve a sticker for your hard work. There, there you go. Do you like your unicorn sticker?
So anyway. A new generation of people now reside in the Valley, and to be honest, you haven’t been paying attention. You’ve refused to adapt, to change, and for a business, that can spell death. When I wander your aisles, I can feel the Grim Reaper breathing on the suspect meat section, the cardboard-​skinned tomatoes, and the discount greens which will go bad tomorrow in that refrigerator.
I suppose I’m being a little harsh, here. You did update the freezer section and you renovated the liquor department big time, and you now feature an acceptable variety of micro brews. But a man cannot live on pot pies and porter alone. This new generation of Valley residents actually cares about eating produce that wasn’t picked in Argentina and will drop a lot more cash on a bite to eat if they know it’s nutritious.
I think you need to re-​evaluate your life, Johnny. I think it’s time. You’re not competing with anybody here, and dammit, I’m sick of driving across town for groceries. Get with the program.

Nicest place to shop the people are real friendly couldn’t find an item ask for help they took me right to it. The produce was nice and fresh the produce guy was cleaning it up. lettuce looked a little wilted he said he was putting new stuff out now said he was sorry and went to back got me some new lettuce. That’s what I call customer service.

This is the grossest grocery store I’ve ever been to. It’s right by my house, and sometimes I’m just lazy enough to pop in for a few staples. First of all, it smells like old fried chicken grease. I bought some yogurt here and while I was eating it I noticed a cigarette smell, perhaps they smoke in the back by the cooler. My yogurt container was so gross and smokey smelling I had to throw it away. I feel sad for the produce that have to live here. If you do find yourself unfortunate enough to be shopping here, check the dates on everything, I often encounter expired food on the shelves.