Smart & Final

Not bad. Definitely a cheaper grocery store. Small but worth most of the sales. Staff was friendly. Some items are in bulk and were pretty affordable. Pretty large assortment beers. However some items were way more expensive than even Walmart. wanted asparagus but a medium
Sized back was over 7 dollars had to triple check to make sure it was right. Could’ve bought half that amount for 3 bucks at Walmart.

I thought this place would be more like a Grocery Outlet (dirty, random), but it had a surprising amount of things. Having time to kill around here, I ended up inside and found it well organized, stocked and had a wide range of good stuff.
I actually ended up buying lined paper for my students here at a good price. SCORE!
Service was a lacking; I could tell the woman didn’t really care. But would I in her position? Probably not. Though she did have this cute rapport with this tiny, old Asian large (she being a big, Latina women). Very cool to see. ..

Felicia, I hope your shift was about to end as we passed through your checkout lane moments ago, because you were clearly «over» your job today. Maybe your replacement was late or a no-​show and it’s girls night out and you’re hella pissed… i dunno. What I DO know is that your unfriendly an impersonal customer service lacked in the service department. My reason for taking the 15 minutes to stop what I was doing just to write this, is that you need to know when your preoccupation is transparent to your customers.
Now go have your girls night out and blow off some steam, Felicia! And don’t forget to designate a driver. :-))

Clean, well organized, fresh produce.

After seeing the weekly specials on Tuesday, I drove to this location on Wednesday, during my lunch hour, to buy some vegetables. Unfortunately, none of the items that were on sale were available. Even when the item was available, the prices didn’t reflect the sale. I didn’t want to walk out empty handed, so I bought some grapes and a pack of zucchini. In terms of size, this place is really tiny compared to the Fremont location. Besides 2 cashiers, there were no one around to help you. I don’t think I’ll ever come back to this place again.

This is a nice store except for two problems. First, it is in a horrible spot for easy automobile access. The Grant and El Camino Real corner is always heavily congested, and it is difficult to both enter and exit the parking lot. 2^nd, they never seem to have enough checkers to handle the volume of customers in the store. I would suggest that you go instead to the Smart and Final at Fremont and Mary in Sunnyvale.

smart and final sucks period, I am not sure why there are still in business… oh yeah because there prices are stupid low and thats why they can have dirty stores and crapy service!

The atmosphere is kinda… dingy?
Anyways, I’ve been searching for a place to buy whole packer briskets for barbecue. Smart & Final seems to be the only store in the area that sells whole packer briskets for a reasonable price. (Costco only sells brisket flats, other places cost 2 – 3 times as much).
Therefore, due to a lack of any real competition, Smart & Final gets my approval. (Although I do wish there was a nicer place to buy briskets).

The employees have been extremely rude to my wife, who’s Vietnamese,
on a number of occasions, of which this is only the latest. She
bought three cases of water and Fred (? old white guy) brought them
out for her. He picked up the first case, lifted it high and
*slammed* it down into the trunk of her new Mercedes, causing the car
to rock back and forth. She asked him to load the remaining two more
gently and he yelled at her, «Do it yourself, lady!» and stormed off.
She walked back into the store and was told that the manager was
unavailable. The clear message is that Asians aren’t welcome at this
store. She continues to go there, where she buys tons of drinks for
the various gyms that she owns because, in spite of the horrendous
«service», they have good prices. Can’t have it all, I guess.

Smart & Final is Cosco type shopping on a smaller scale and no club membership required.

Rudeness, Filthy and Poor Management … 3 best ways to describe this store.
I have been longtime customer of the San Jose store and have always had good experiences with them and just assumed all stores were the same. BOY WAS I WRONG!!!
I dropped by to pick up some drinks and produce as I usually do and the first thing I noticed is the look of death from the employees as I walked through the doors. They looked at me like I stole something or I was some sort of criminal. So I wandered over to the produce section checking out there carrots and apples and what do I find? Nats and fly’s feasting upon the fruit and veggies, GROSS!!! Not only that but the floors near the produce section were filthy, filled with dirt smears and god knows what else.
After seeing grossness I skipped the produce and got my cart and headed right over to the drink isle looking for my flavored Crystal Geyser drinks. When I asked one of the employees where the drinks were on the isle he just pointed and then went about his business. Thanks for the help pal! I got out of there before I made anyone else angry because I was asking for help.
When I got home I went to put my drinks in the fridge I realized they were the wrong ones. They were just regular sparkling water, no flavoring.
So today I went back with the drinks in package — mind you there was a slit down the center of the plastic, no drinks were open and I had my receipt. I went to exchange them for the flavored ones and the manager told me she wasn’t going to accept them back. I explained to her none of them were opened and her reply was:
‘I don’t care, we can’t any credit back from this so why would we accept them back”.
I explained that I as well as my family were longtime customers of Smart&Final San Jose store and do you really want to lose a customer to Costco or another competing store. Her reply was «Sorry» and then she turned around and ignored me like I wasn’t there anymore. The cashier looked at me and I looked at her and then I grabbed my drinks and walked out.
I will be taking my business to Costco now! Adiós Smart & Final

The cashiers will literally walk away and adjust carrots if you take too long to get to the register.
It might not be the fault of the cashiers but the store lay out. The registers are set up in such a way that if you’re medium height, people will be unable to see you when they’re in a certain part of the store. So when cashier’s walk away to fiddle with shelves, they will not be able to see you.
All too often I come up the registers with their lights on and no one in sight to ask for help from. I just want to get it and go, not play hide and seek.

I sometimes come here after going to the one in Sunnyvale and find they are out of something like a brisket or lump charcoal. It appears to be a smaller more cluttered store to navigate the isles with your pushcart and a very different clientele from the Sunnyvale Smart and Final crowd.
Parking can be fun as they are right across from a Burger King which has a lot of traffic. As most Smart and Finals there seems to be only one or two deep in their stock so if Sunnyvale does not have it, a sort drive down 85 to this store which usually does.
This shopping center can be a challenge to get in and out of as you have to cross El Camino and getting out you have to play frogger to cross the traffic to turn around on El Camino to go back north.
This place works in a pinch, but not my primary go to sore. I miss the days when they had a larger selection of stock to chose from. Any specials on their weekly flier
tend to run out really fast. And don’t ask for a raincheck as they just shrug their shoulder’s when you do.

The first time i went here in the winter on what i thought was the coldest day; they had the AC blasting in the store to make it even colder.
Thankfully, i filled out the survey and my next visit was much more pleasant.
The store is well stocked with your typical buy a gallon of stuff. when their avocados are on special it is a really good deal and I also stocked up on pork tenderloin here now that i am all about brining… yum pig fat!!!
I wish they had more organic stuff but again buying cheap bulk the grade of products is down a notch but the pork is top notch.
Bonus being next to a Japanese market where you can get sushi to go.

I come here to buy my hash browns and that’s about it. I don’t think the quality of food is very good. And there are some sketchy people around.

The cashiers who work here seem unhappy :(
I’ve never shopped here before but I wanted to stop by to pick up some laffy taffy’s that are not sold anywhere else. My boss bought a case of it and I got hooked. If you’re wondering its the strawberry rope laffy taffy’s. Yum!
Anyway it felt kinda dingy and depressing in the store. I don’t think Smart and Final will be a place that I will visit regularly. Or I take that back, except to get my laffy taffy’s.

It’s not the nicest location that I have been to and the selection isn’t great. The worst part was they charged me $ 5.50 more than they should have on a $ 20 purchase. Luckily I reviewed my receipt and called them on it. The lady informed me that I needed to look at the price below the item and not above. I stood my ground and she sent her coworker to check. Finally after waiting they finally recognized the erroe and agreed to give me the money back. No apology or anything. Check your receipts because they could be wrong.

What is up with the horrible atmosphere when walking inside of this particular store? The workers there are terrible! Maybe they hate their jobs, and I can understand if it’s the boredom killing them since they barely have any customers… but just their attitudes make me hesitant to walk in to shop there anymore. I would have rated a little better if it weren’t for that
Other than that, I guess it’s sometimes convenient… but the freshness of the food is questionable. It almost makes me think that the only reason it’s a bit cheaper is because the food (mainly produce) is close to the expiration dates. We buy cola here if we don’t feel like running to the grocery store after buying necessities at Nijiya.

Close to HackerDojo, easier than going to Costco for HD supplies. Antiquated VISA payment system, much easier to buy commercial supplies here than Costco or Restaurant Depot in SJ. Prices slightly higher than either location.
Paper Towels for bathroom: 21 $/​pack of 3k multifold towels
Red vines 8 $/​tub
paper plates
plastic utensils.

They sell a few things that I frequently use and at a good price.
1. Ghirardelli double chocolate frappé mix
2. Café D’Vita mocha frappé mix
3. Scott’s brand common sense 1000 sheet roll toilet paper
They have a great selection of cleaning supplies and catering supplies.
And they sell organic milk — believe it or not.