NSA Supermarket

This is the kind of supermarket you go to when you just need something – in my mind it’s a more extensive bodega.
Any kind of basic meat, vegetable, or fruit is here. What’s not here is Boar’s Head level meats, or tons of organic fruits/​vegetable/​dairy products.
Most of the aisles are lined with items that are standard – nothing like the extra healthy (and more expensive) options at a place like Whole Foods.
All in all it’s a solid grocery store to get what you need. I eat pretty healthy and needed some stuff and just ran in there because I’m a block away – didn’t buy any of the standard stuff I normally get by it will definitely do.

Want to shop there, but I am afraid of being tracked by the n.s.a in the dairy isle.

Overall this place is pretty good it’s just I always feel in the way. I think they restock all their stuff during the day to make it cheaper and they don’t have to pay people to do it at night but honestly I feel awkward. God forbid you use a cart because the store isn’t big enough to move in. The people are usually great and I know it’s not their fault they are restocking during business hours but it really is so inconvenient in such a small store. If I need something and they are restocking it I feel bad asking to get around them. It’s overall great for students with their discount pricing and great weekly sales. I always buy more than I plan on but that’s my fault not theirs! They do a pretty good job with everything ringing up like it is supposed to too. When you are buying a large quantity you don’t have time in store to check everything.

unfriendly cashiers, un priced food, creepy employers hitting on me and following me in an aisle?, creepy stranger harassed me there saying I could not move in line when it wasn’t MY TURN IN THE CHECKOUT SO I DIDN’T MOVE. Asked me am I waiting for santa clause. I could move faster than that douche but he was so impatient and I thought he was going to lose it. He put his food on before I did. This place never has all foods in stock. It is very hard to find the entrance. The lights inside so are dimmed you cannot see enough. There are barely enough people working inside. The only pro about this store is that most things are cheap or reasonable prices except for the fruit. They don’t sell any good meat.

very good price and products were fine.
but it was hard to noticed that there is the supermarket because lights in store are so dark.

Do «pop-​up» grocery stores exist? This place feels so temporary, no ambiance at all. Picture an abandoned warehouse: dim lighting, bizarre smells in places, high ceilings… perhaps some homeless people wandering around. No music, just echoes.
Now to that image, add some shelves. The best part about this place is that they carry a pretty good selection of whatever you might want. But at about 50−100% markup. Some people say it’s convenient, but I’ll just stick to Whole Foods or Gristedes for my convenient albeit overpriced groceries.

Haters gonna hate. However, I love good old NSA (though the name makes me feel as though the government is peering into my shopping cart) — I think it has a cool selection of Latin foods (Goya has its own aisle). From the vegetable grocer rinsing down the produce by spraying water from a water bottle to the friendly Dominican cashiers to the always surprisingly long hours, this place makes my day. The beer selection is extravagantly large (being from New Jersey I am always confused to see alcohol in supermarkets) and you can get some great sales. This store is the perfect size– not too overwhelming but big enough that they have a large selection.

NSA supermarket… a strange place indeed. Probably the weirdest supermarket I’ve ever seen. No doubt. Dim lights… check; non-​English speaking staff (especially around produce)…check; dazed & confused cashier girls… check; erroneously priced products, when you can actually spot a price tag… check; sometime overpriced… check ($ 2.49 Fage Greek yogurt vs $ 1.49 at Whole Foods); inconsistent and unreliable selection… check (don’t fall in love with anything in that store, because chances are they soon won’t carry it anymore). The list goes on, granted… BUT, for someone like me who has been waiting for over 10 years for this or any supermarket to open at this location, NSA supermarket (what kind of a name is that anyway) is a godsend. Hence, the 4 stars.
I’ve had many strange and disappointing experiences in that store, but on and all, it’s getting to a point where a) I expect so much to be disappointed that I actually have very pleasant surprises here and there, and b) both the staff & management I guess are slowly catching on to the unhappy customers. Their selection has improved drastically over the last 6 months to include more and more specialty products and imports one could find at Whole Foods or Bed Bath, such as the killer British potato chips Tyrell’s (extremely addictive, be careful) or the unbelievably too-​good-​to-​be-​true Ines Rosales Sweet Tortas from Spain (if you are not looking to put on a few pounds, stay away from the Seville Orange flavor). But yet again, don’t get your hopes up because you’ve been warned, it is entirely possible that none of these deliciousness will be there when you decide to visit.
On a more practical aspect, NSA supermarket seems to always be open, no matter what time I need something. Take yesterday for instance. Woke up as sick as a dog. Nasty sore throat that called for immediate hot lemon water with honey. Of course, I have no honey and no lemon. Came here on Unilocal to find their phone number and to my surprise someone answered the phone when I expected a recording to tell me they opened at 8:30a-9a. But no, they were already open, and at 7:15a I was browsing the aisle in my PJs looking, well… not too hot but happy to be there. That same night, I’m still dying, still in my PJs and now I need to have some good old Sopa de Pollo. You’ve guessed it, I have no chicken, no lime, no cilantro, I have nothing. For less than 10 bucks, I prepared my magic cure, good for the rest of the week. The only ‘yikes’ here is that the chicken wasn’t free-​range, worst than that, it was Purdue. That really killed me — I haven’t bought that stuff in probably 15 years — and I couldn’t stop images from Food, Inc. to flash before my eyes. Really terrible way to start preparing a meal. Had I not been so sick I would have gone to Whole Foods and spent big $ on organic, or even picked something else to eat, but at $ 2.75, my 2 thighs/​2 legs manager special looked quite the part. I just hope I won’t OD on growth hormones now.
So you see, NSA supermarket might be the weirdest supermarket on that side of Manhattan, but at least it is there, it is open from at least 7a to 10p, they have everything you need (except for good organic produce) and for an area that’s been seriously lacking for so many years, I’ll take it any time, any day.

NSA — «No Strings Attached!» Sounds great, right? Who wants groceries with strings, anyway? Since this place opened (or, rather, changed their name), I’ve been looking forward to shopping without making a commitment to the store.
My experience was less than stellar, however. (Much like I imagine my experience might be if I answered an «NSA» personals ad.) This was probably the darkest grocery store I’d ever been in. Industrial lighting hangs from a dim, cavernous ceiling. The ill-​lit products just didn’t seem very attractive, the selection was less-​than-​excellent (though all right by Manhattan standards), and the prices were high.
This is one relationship that won’t be continuing.

Pretty nice supermarket in the Chelsea neighborhood. Has a decent selection of food from fresh fruits to milk and all the other boxed up stuff. Only a few blocks away from Penn Station which is nice and also very close to FIT for those living there in the summer time or school year. The prices are also very reasonable.

Pros:
— Prices are decent. Not great, but decent. (Caveat, don’t buy bread without a price tag that’s marked W.I.C. approved. I made that mistake and bought $ 4.50 loaf of something that usually costs $ 2.50).
— Never crowded. Unlike Whole Foods, Trader Joes, or Fairway, this place never has a crowd or a checkout line that requires air traffic controllers.
— Location. At least for me it’s right around the corner.
Cons:
— Customer service is by far and away awful. I shop here all the time and managers continue to act indifferent and at times unfriendly towards me (not surprisingly, they are friendly towards my wife who is young and attractive). Speaking of which…
— …All of their cashiers are young girls (did I mention the store managers are creeps?). Only one or two of them are friendly. The rest annoyed that you making them scan your groceries when they’d rather be joking with their other cashier friends or texting.
— The deli counter guys are ok. Some are real jerks. One night I was deciding what I wanted and the deli guy said hurry up we’re closing (they were closing in 10 minutes and his comment wasn’t wasn’t one of those helpful FYI comments).
— Fresh produce and meat is a joke. I won’t buy meat there anymore because if it’s not visibly spoiled on their shelf, it’s probably spoiled on the inside or underneath where you can’t see it. I will buy fruit and vegetables from here, but only after a careful inspection and I have to be sure it within 2 or 3 days it spoils.
— There deli meat spoils after two days. I buy their boars head meat and it used to keep for about 5 days, but over the last year it’s started to spoil faster and faster. I’m actually going to contact Boars Head and tell them their meat sucks or this supermarket doesn’t do their product justice.
— Store officially closes at 10pm, but they’ll close anytime they feel like between 9:45 and 10.
The only reason I shop here, and I mean only reason, is because it’s close to where I live. But I’m so feed up with them that I’ve started to look at grocery delivery services. What a sad state of affairs. When I moved here over a year ago I was excited about this store: it’s big, it’s bright, it’s never crowded, the prices are tolerable. But the more I shop there the more I hate it.

Terrible layout, prices aren’t cheaper than Western Beef overall & staff unfriendly & bad lighting.
I’ve had similar experience of taking something that was on sale and having to tell the staff to change their price when my items rang up. They didn’t give me a hassle about it, but seriously, update your cash registers. I think they’re trying to scam people and you have to catch their mistake.
But the aisles are wide.

I stopped by here in the evening today for a snack.
I saw they had fresh prepared salads. I selected the chicken tabbouleh salad which had tabbouleh (about 1 teaspoon amount), It had romaine lettuce, about 4 slices of chicken breast, and some vinaigrette. It was $ 3.00 for roughly ½ pound. Not a bad price for Manhattan.
They also had chilled beer and sodas for sale. I picked up a 24 oz (oil can) of Heineken.
There was no line when I went to pay at the cashier

Sure the store’s a bit dim (why is that?) and the cashiers don’t talk to customers and act like you’re interrupting their day. But the store itself isn’t bad. Currently it seems to be going through a renovation of sorts and things are moving around. Their prices aren’t bad and often I’m one of only a few people shopping there so I never have to stand in line.

Out of date meat on shelves. Deli takes 20 minutes per customer. Managers are all MALE and all RUDE. Prices at shelves are NOT the prices at checkout. When I pointed out a misleading sign to the Manager named Ralphie he left it there and made a nasty remark about me. How this person is employed is beyond me. Cashiers obviously hate their job as they snarl at customers. Only ONE employee actually works, which is the dairy guy and if all of this wasn’t bad enough they play RAP and DISCO making anyone over 18 want to kill someone! It’s not music to shop by which I guess explains why there were only 3 other shoppers there.
I will NEVER shop in that store again and as there are at least 4 other supermarkets in a 4 block radius they better get in some employees who don’t stand around looking bored, being smug and acting like thugs and bullies and they better do it sharpish. Ralphie especially has to go, he actually threw a bag of carrots at the cashier just as I was about to put my groceries on the belt. He’s bad for morale, he’s bad for business and he’s just plain dead weight. Of course if you rather have an empty supermarket, demoralized staff and angry customers then he’s definitely got the right job for that.

Yes,
It is nice to have a supermarket in the neighborhood but what bothers me about this place is that they close much earlier then 10:00 pm. Today I was there at 9:45 and they were already closed. There were two other people trying to get in but were flatly denied entry. One of them begged the manager to be let in because apparently today a yoghurt sale was ending and that’s all she was going to run for, but no, no such luck.
Boo-​hoo

I confess.
Suffering from sticker-​shock, during pre-​NSA era, I used to purchase grocery in Jersey City on my way home from work. NSA saved me from getting chilling side-​eyes from fellow commuters.
Yes, the produce section is its weakest link… There is typically 1 bad onion in the bulk bag. Nevertheless, it’s a reliable bright clean place to get dairy, dry goods, snacks, bread (always on sale) and ICE CREAM! I dared to try their generic brand… not too bad, especially when made into a float. Hey! on a hot summer day, it works.

yesterday i was walking to work, when i saw this Supermarket enters that is cover by tree, I just thought it was a regular business, never hear of NSA, so i walked in, first spot you come in to is there produce then there deli and up the ramp to the rest of the market, well, I like there stuff very friendly, to bad all i got was Neuro Drink, but the cost was cheaper then other places i have gotten it, $ 2.17, if i would have pick it up at in any other market, it would have coasted me $ 2.99 what a differences.

I’m new to the neighborhood and it looks like this place is too. I’ve stopped by this place a couple times now on my way home from work. It’s nice and shiny inside, and the prices are great. the selection is decent, perhaps a little weak on produce. I’m excited that they have Boar’s Head meats in the deli, which I had grown to like from shopping at Harris Teeter back in NC. Another big reason to shop here — their beer prices are about as good as I have seen in Manhattan, and the selection is impressive.
Like someone else mentioned, this is just one more reason never to go to that dirty overpriced Gristedes again.

So glad this place is here.
NSA is a pretty large space. They offer a wide selection of cereal, beer, soda, juice, etc. Their generic brand is called Best (never heard of it before).
Their weak point is the produce section. Some of the stuff is not as fresh as could be.
Finally, prices seem to be nonexistent here. We could not figure out which price tags corresponded to which products, so we had to guess. Nevertheless, the prices are fair and even as low as some supermarkets in Queens.
I’ll update as we visit this store more frequently. Until then, I’m glad I don’t have to set foot in a Gristede’s.