Associated Supermarket

Just checking in to let you guys know… this place still sucks. When these thieving b*stards get bought and removed out of the neighborhood, I will do a dance as they haul the last jug of expired milk out of the back door.

This place needs to be shut down or they should not be allowed to sell anything perishable. Have noticed moldy produce, gotten milk that spoiled 4 days before the date they put on the box, among other things. It’s disgusting that this place gets to stay open and potentially make its customers sick for years and years. They need to have the same scrutiny as a restaurant and get shut down by the health dept so a more competent grocer can step in. Luckily there are enough other options in the area.

I like the Polish products they sell there. The other regular items are a bit too expansive and I rather to chose the Trader Joe’s taht is cheaper and the products quality is better. The girls who work there are not nice and barerly say Good Morning/​Good Bye. As someone here said, they are always busy on their phones which is absolutely unprofessional. I only go there for Polish cheese and ham, overall it is not a good experience.

I’ve lived here in Gpt since 1987 and am no hipster. This horrible nasty remnant of 19^th century ideas about stores used to be worse, the food was worse, the conditions wee worse. the cashers were worse. But the long-​time manager is a walking nightmare.
They replaced the cracked linoleum about 10 years ago now and the place doesn’t smell so much anymore. But the produce is almost invariably past the expiration date .
I’ve repeatedly been in Warsaw and Kraków, so please don’t try to rescue this hellhole’s rep by saying «its Poland.» It ain’t. And the rude, no-​eye-​contact, on-​their-​cell-​phone cashiers are actually far better than they were previously. I no onger have a problem with that part of the service there.
Make the effort to go to Key Food; they have Chleb Litevski and Polish beer too. An they are open later by far and they got better cashiers decades ago.
Really, Associated doesn’t care about you. Comparison: C-​town, the ultimate inner-​city chain, upgraded to hipsterismo with a complete redo a couple years back. ASsociated, are you listening?

I’ve came to this grocery store since I was like 10 and and I’m currently 18, and for the first time this sunny Sunday morning a cashier was actually friendly. a beautiful young lady with black hair, she may have been a (temp?) tattoo on her left hand give her a raise! it wasn’t just me, she was friendly to everyone on her line. I’ve worked as a cashier and it gets frustrating, especially when people are rude so I try to be extra friendly because for me that made me have more patience. they carry my favorite gelato that nobody in the whole neighborhood neighborhood has. I usually go here when my mom forgets to buy something on her trips to Food Baazar and they have pretty good deals. Their bread selection is small, but decent, dairy is great, their produce is usually decent. sometimes the prepacked produce looks sketchy. this review probably won’t help you, but I hope that cashier quits before she loses her great attitude.

I’d be able to overlook the poor produce and uncleanliness if the staff were pleasant, but they are not! Every checkout girl, save for a sociable brunette, is busy on their phone, scowling, and doing nothing to make the experience nice.

I mean you could try to repaint the sign outside to make it look like you’re not closed when you’re open. Cold War style grocery shopping with a decent cheese selection. Grab the essentials and get pissed off when the deli department yells at you for ordering 30 minutes before they close. Produce got a little better in the last year and I think I finally made one of the cashiers laugh for the first time in eight years but does that really matter? It is clean and there are some deals to be had, but I think they still hate newcomers. It’s the last of the Greenpoint Polish old school supermarkets.

I have to go to this store. There are items this store carries that you can’t get anywhere else in the area. You also have to know what you’re getting in to when coming here, meaning don’t assume it’s a place that will satisfy all of your wants and desires. Also, if you’re not interested in an amazing international butter section, jumbo organic eggs that are always in stock, or tons of cottage cheese, you’re quite possibly in the wrong place. Everyone in this store has been exceptionally courteous and helpful to me, but I’m also not trying to spend more than four minutes there. This supermarket fills a very important niche in the food shopping community, and it can’t be judged by appearances or projected assumptions.

They suck!!! All the time, every single day!!! Produce and chicken are always old and frequently have expired merchandise on the shelves. Only good for bare essentials!!!

Here’s an interesting thing — Tonno canned tuna, which, even at Trader Joe’s is usually $ 5 – 6 PER… is only $ 2.50 here. Also, you can get organic mesclun greens at a decent price. So it works. It’s not great though.

You know, I worked in this store from 1980 to 1982… Good old times and good memories!

The
Cashiers
Suck and poor
Produce. Fine for
Picking up basics before its seven.

This store is such hit or miss.
Good reasons to go here:
— Wide aisles that can fit a stroller (the only checkout line that can fit more than an umbrella stroller, but not a double stroller, is the one nearest to the deli though)
— Baking basics
— Murray’s chicken
— When they have Breyer’s 2 for 1 on sale. They seem to be the only place in the hood that has Breyer’s Mint Chocolate Chip, too. Key Food does not seem to have it. Ever.
— Garlic & onions
— Pastas on sale
— Cooking oils
— There’s a funny little grocery cart near the tomatoes that has dented items at a discount. You can sometimes find basics in there after rummaging through the all-​too-​processed boxed & canned foods in the cart.
Not-​so-​good reasons to go here:
— Asshole checkout girls.
— Check the sale-​of-​the-​week prices as they are scanned. Alot of the time, the sale prices are not entered in the system and you have to make sure they give you the sale price.
— Deli cheeses smell like barf. Their «gourmet» cheese section is totally hit or miss. 75% of the time, it is ok, but the other 25% of the time, the cheese smells like barf or is already old and moldy well before the expiration date.
— Check the dates on all organic «clamshell» salad containers. They charge $ 4.49 for salad that expires the next day. Sometimes, they will mark down the price to $ 3.39 or so for those almost-​expired ones, but most of the time, they do not.
— Extremely oddly priced boxed organic items. Don’t buy anything organic here. You can get it cheaper at The Garden.
— They DO NOT take internet coupons! Only printed ones from whichever newspaper. The NY Times only carries a very small coupon sheet on Sundays with nothing that is sold around this hood.

Yes, the cashiers can be humorless and gruff — and, yes, the management closes up shop early. That’s because they’re European. Any questions? Great … let’s move on.
This is a place where you’d go to stock up on certain items. (Bread that isn’t tasteless, for example.) Associated in Greenpoint is the best place to buy amazing old world bread, European cheeses, deli cold cuts, pickles, jam and Polish specialties like pierogis. It’s not a fantastic general supermarket. The coffee selection is not especially good. Supermarkets in Afro-​Caribbean neighborhoods have the best coffee. When you’re a New Yorker, you learn to compartmentalize this way. And that’s an important part of New York survival. There’s a reason why we don’t have Walmart!
I live in Bed-​Stuy and make a trip here about once a week to buy Lithuanian bread and other goodies — I recommend it.

Great if you are in a hurry but for big shopping you might want to go to a bigger supermarket, not much of a selection. Kind of pricy but the deli counter is great. Only set back is the cashiers have a bit of a tude.

Associated is the worst grocery store ever! The selection is poor unless you want some basic staples — but the nail in the coffin is the rude checkout staff. These girls eat, text and gossip with one another without a hello, a thank you or even a fuck you. Associated, you are dead to me.

This place is Poland.
All the people in here are Polish and workers alike.
Otherwise its a regular city-​style grocery store, with a scant selection of pharmacy type products, But they do have my alltime Fav Cereal– Quaker Oh’s!!! If you havent had them, its worth it
They are found usually above the eyesight of children, becuase the box is bland and Yellow.
Its probably top-​shelf, righfully so becuase its more like a top shelf liquor. novice drinkers/​cereal eaters dont really know what there missing becuase they stick with the regular shit.
And yes, No organic BS to look at and think about all the money wasted buying that crap. Listen, organic shit is in a box and produced by a carbon produced corporation, thats why its in a supermarket in Brooklyn.

This is not a «supermarket» this is a big Polish grocery store. It is not the place you would go to do your major food shopping. It’s the place you stop in, when desperate and feeling too tired to walk to Key Food two blocks down Calyer St.
I once asked the «produce manager» for basil. He looked at me like I had two heads. I said «oh, you don’t have basil in stock?» I realized there was a language barrier. Then he said «we don’t have, it goes bad fast» so there you have it. Don’t go to Associated for basil.
The cashiers are unapologetically just not nice. I wish I could figure out why they’re so nasty, it’s really weird. If you don’t speak Polish, please ask them to speak English instead of apologizing for not speaking Polish. I have stopped apologizing for not speaking Polish when I am in Greenpoint, it was getting ridiculous.

i love this supermarket. My one HUGE con??? The fact that they close so damn early! Seven usually on a Mon-​Sat basis and Five on Sundays.
They are super organized, usually their produce and meats are beautiful. They stock a ton of yogurt, ice cream, and frozen goods which I LOVE!
I’m not too keen on the fact that most of the people that work the registers are all of these polish girls who do not speak much english and that most of their magazines are in Poilish, but it prevents compulsive last minute shopping.
Otherwise, they have a simple, clean, organized supermarket, that is convenient for all those in the neighborhood.

Produce: Moderately priced but often not fresh… or in stock. Basil, anyone?
Grocery items: The only reason to shop here aside from the organic items which are priced very silly. Annie’s Mac n Cheese, for instance is $ 2.89. The place down the street? $ 1.49. Other items are very reasonable. I’ll stock up on pastas and juice here.
Meat: Your standard horrible meat assortment except for the small selection of Murray’s Chicken. No other grass-​fed or free-​range (or wild) meat items.
Dairy: They offer a few organic items but again, at exceedingly ridiculous prices. Organic milk is $ 5 a gallon. Butter is $ 6.50. *gong*
Wait, that’s The Garden price. Hmm. Organic stuff is expensive!
The real reason for the one star are the mean and nasty employees.
If you are there within the last 10 minutes before closing, the check-​out girls will approach every customer individually and in the rudest possible voice scream, «WE“RE CLOSING!» I almost dropped my basket I was so shocked. This happened again five minutes later as I approached the check out where I got the stink eye (although I always get the stink eye here) and the silent treatment (oh, I always get that here, too). Their boss must be a tyrant because they are the most miserable lot I have ever seen. I am just realizing now… I hate going to this supermarket! One star is too much!