Bel Air

This store continually has EXPIRED merchandise on the shelves — dairy, bagged produce, etc. Despite letting employees and managers know repeatedly, this never gets remedied. Tonight was the last straw. Is it just me, or is it unrealistic to expect a customer to have to check EVERY item for the expiration date before placing it in your cart? Apparently they totally lack respect for their customers and simply hope they are too dumb to notice and/​or too lazy to return expired goods… In any event, I will not return. Hello Nugget! Even though it is a much farther drive, the customer service is amazing, the selection is quite good, and the prices are inline with the crappy grocery stores.

I used to avoid this place due to terrible customer service at the checkstands until recently I have had a series of good experiences. I can usually find good quality meats and produce here, which justifies the higher than average prices. Location isn’t the best for me, but that shouldn’t impact my rating too much. Giving it four stars simply dut to the fact that I can frequently find the same brands for less elsewhere.

We have been coming here more and more lately out of convenience but they have increased a star for me as both my husband and I have come to love this store. My rewards this last quarter was $ 29! which loosely equates to that I have spent $ 2900 in the last 3 months here. First, the remodel is beautiful. It just makes shopping that much more pleasant. The employees are very much the same folks I encountered 5+ years ago that tells me they are happy to be there. Parking is easy and lines are never long. I know where everything is so it is a low stress trip for me. I sometimes even find myself smiling vs. the stress I feel at Winco or Walmart. Just made a trip on my way home for some bread last night and picked up stuff for Friday nights dinner after a long day at work that was not daunting. I always come for my meats and produce here. Other stuff is still exorbitantly expensive so I still have to get that elsewhere unless I am completely out. However, they are a full service store so the profit has to come from somewhere so I get that. Bakery dept. has improved and the bread wasn’t hard as a rock. Here is some areas of improvement… The deli and meat dept need to be more team oriented as I feel a great divide there. If I am waiting to be helped in front of meat counter, all the deli people ignore me looking at me square in the face. Hello? can you at least get me help if you can’t help me yourself? or simply ask, «have you been helped?» Same can be said vice versa. It shouldn’t matter if its NOT your dept. in order to help out a customer.
Second, the floral dept. lacks creativity. The bouquets and arrangements are very outdated and always the exact same. I never come here for flowers and banned my husband from getting me flowers here as I am always disappointed. They look like something you get your 90 yr old grandmother or a funeral. Very plain and boring. Flowers are suppose to evoke a positive emotion and theirs leave me with emptiness so that is one convenience they cannot fulfill for me.
Quite often I find as I get older that my time is worth more than the extra buck I save going across town. We shop here at least twice a week.

I was torn between a 3 and a 4 star review here, so I’m giving it 3.5 stars and unfortunately rounding down;this location isn’t as good as my usual Raleys/​Bel Air locations that I have come to know and love. I see some other reviews saying that they are remodeling to update the interior, so I really hope it’s true and they get more in line with the other locations in the area. Once they update their interior, I will be back and write an updated review.
This is an older location so it’s a little smaller and more dated. They do have the great Chinese/​Deli section that everyone has come to love and expect from Bel Air, but I have found their selection of products lacking compared to other locations. Their produce section definitely wasn’t as good, and didn’t have a lot of the Vegetarian/​Specialty items which I can get elsewhere.
They did have a good cheese and meat selection, but were lacking a little in the snacks department which I have come to enjoy. They were also missing the Natural/​Organic section which is in many of their other locations, and it happens to be my favorite section, so I was a little disappointed.
I was able to get most of the groceries that I came for, and the shelves were nicely stocked, but I agree with the other reviewers when they say that the store could use some updating with their interior and adding a lot of the specialty items found at their other locations.

Pros:
— Currently remodeling. I have high hopes that it will be less scuzzy after the remodel.
— Soup. They now have broccoli cheddar soup available in the deli section.
— Self checkout. Yay. Now I can avoid talking to be people.
— Wine and alcohol. They have a decent selection of alcohol. They now have wine from Terra D’Oro in Amador. Decent selection of ciders.
Cons:
— It was pretty scuzzy. I’m hoping to see an improvement now that they’re remodeling.
— Overpriced for the quality. There are cheaper options for almost everything you could purchase here.

Went through the check out line paid for over a hundred dollars in groceries, the machine wouldn’t print a receipt, the manager was less than helpful, told us he’d call us in a few hours when he got it worked out, no call. stopped by the store four hours later, still no resolution. no way to check if the prices were accurate. still waiting on the manager to call back I won’t be holding my breath. I’ve shopped with raleys /​bel air for years. maybe it’s time for a change considering this is how much they care for my business.

#BelAirSellingExpiredFoods
To the manager, please check your products’ date of expiry in the dairy section. I was there September 6^th, around 7pm. I grabbed one of the sunnyside milks, it was dated «Sept 03». Not only one, but all of the milks are expired. What is wrong with you guys? Someone is not doing their job. Your customers are paying more to get a better quality stuff, but it seems the cheapest grocery stores are way more better.
Not only the milks, months ago I purchased a cheese that was about to expire in 3 days.
So, customers of this store, beware of the products you’re getting. Always read the labels and expiration dates.

5 Stars
This is my neighborhood grocery store.
As someone who grew up shopping at Raley’s and Bel Air locations as a child tagging after her mother, it only made sense to sniff out one when I moved 30mins north of the home town to Roseville.
I’m a SomethingExtra member and love the personalized offers and coupons (for someone with a lacking budget, coupons are my friends). The high quality of produce, meats and seafood keep me coming back again and again. I also appreciate how this location has a Sizzling Wok section, something I didn’t realize all Raley’s and Bel Air locations did not have.
They also help out throughout the community as well which makes me feel all the better when shopping here for my weekly (or bi weekly) groceries.

We always go to Safeway on 5 dollar Friday. We just started going to Bel Air’s 5 dollar Monday. Today is 5 dollar meat loaf. I could only find COLD meat loaf, so I asked where is the HOT meat loaf. I was told it would be 30 minutes. REALLY:(it’s 5pm. It seems this would be peak time to have hot meat loaf available.
«Time Management»

This is where I buy a lot of my recipe ingredients because I like to get good quality ingredients. Their produce and meats are very fresh and you can taste the difference from when you buy at like Walmart. Yea they are slightly more in cost but paying for quality is worth it. There are also lots of unique harder to find items and a well-​stocked Asian section when I want to buy goodies that remind me of home. They are always eager to help find what you’re looking for. Places with friendly staff often mean I’m more likely to come back.

For a grocery store this place gets a 4 star from me… always super clean and well stocked and for the most part well managed on the front lanes. The best part is the buy 6 bottles of wine and get 30% off deal they run. Nice bonus as well is they have a great selection from all over California and it doesn’t have to be just wine.

I came here on December 3, 2014.
Very unprofessional. Had to contact corporate! The cashier was very rude, the bag boy didn’t put all my bags in my cart (I’m pregnant btw, I had to put my bags in my cart myself) and didn’t ask if I needed help out to my car. I then call the manager about my experience and all he says is «I will talk to her.» No apology. Or nothing.
I would not recommend!

The people here are so nice. They treat my children like they are amazing and they are so helpful! I love shopping here. The store is always clean and we’ll stocked. The produce is consistently good.

This place is crapy, checks are always rude and unprofessional. I hate coming here. The store is overprice. You would think they would be a little more professional and no yell to each other while helping customers. This was not the first time I’ve seen this.

Been shopping here for 3 years because we live in Morgan Creek which is nearby. First of all, the people that work here are all VERY nice and friendly — that is not the problem.
The major issue is that this store has serious issues with stocking their shelves properly and keeping expired food OFF of the shelves. I can’t even count the number of times that my wife and I have bought food (especially greek yogurt, eggs, gluten free foods, jams) and the expiration date was weeks old. This can get missed because the bad expiration date items are mixed right in with the good ones.
We have also brought bread from here that upon further discovery had HUGE green colonies of mold hiding just under packaging, often hidden from view. In some cases, the mold is there on items that still have a good expiration date which (to me) makes it likely the food was mishandled on the way to the store, or at the store itself.
The meat department is not great, but the fruits and produce department is just worse. The prices are okay, but the quality is terrible. It is routine to go in the strawberry or blackberries and find mold all over many of the boxes lying just under the top level. Meats often look old and discolored with poor cuts.
The only positive thing I can see is the premade & heated Tri-​Tip is decent, and those ready made stir fry meals near the meat section are decent (again, check expiration dates CLOSELY here as well).
We have since switched to different chain of stores, and even though we buy basically identical foods, we have not seen any of these problems.

This grocery store has by far and away the slowest checkout personnel that I have ever experienced in my long life. Not only are they awesomely slow but they like to stop and talk to the customers rather than talk to them while they check them out, regardless of how long the line is.
I tried to use the self checkout several times but something almost always goes wrong with the machines. Then i’m stuck back in the regular check out line because they don’t have a full time assistant to man the self check.
It’s a shame since their store is quite nice otherwise. But I can’t shop their anymore.

PHARMACY is TERRIBLE the associates think they are doctors and think they get to tell me how to take Meds instead of what my doctor prescribed. Ernie is absolutely horrible, condescending and rude beyond any reason. You need to teach your employees respect tot customers instead of telling them to go somewhere else for their medicine.

We shop here for convenience items. Not our main shopping. Great store with higher end selections than some grocery stores.
The main reasons we use Bel Air is because of the deli. My son loves the chinese section and if you hit them shortly before they are shutting it down, they will pile it on!
My son is a teenager and anyone with teenage boys knows they can eat a horse. I take him to the deli right around cleanup time and he cleans up.
Also another great reason is getting cash back when needed. There is always something we need from the store and cash back no fee. This really helps considering my banks closest location is off Antelope.
As far as the traditional grocery stores go… Bel Air and Raleys are always dependable and clean.

Not all grocery stores are created equal.
A — At the top of the heap are the Whole Foods and Nugget Markets and SOME Raley’s /​Bel Air’s. These stores are at the top of the grocery caste system, and you know you are going to pay top dollar for your lovingly-​arranged produce and gently-​harvested, single-​roll toilet paper. Occasionally a Safeway will edge its way in, through total makeovers with the polished concrete floors and deli-​on-​steroids look.
B — In the middle of the pack are most Raley’s /​Bel Air’s, most Safeway’s and… yeah, I can’t think of anyone else. Here is where the smartest shoppers find the local produce and best weekly sales. As always shop the perimeter of the stores, buy what’s in season or on sale, and save your bulk buys for Class C and D stores.
C — Here is where your Walmart’s and Costco’s reside. Bulk pricing, shop smart and you are in and out in less than 4 hours due to size and shiny object syndrome. Get your 12 pack of paper towels, your 33 cent cans of whatever, and your year supply of laundry detergent here. I know it’s a lot, but you’ll thank me later. No food!
D — SaveMarts, Albertsons, and assorted other ‘lesser’ stores
F — Let’s just not go there. You know who they are.
So…where does that leave this Raley’s /​Bel Air? I’ll give them a B– grade. Lots of parking, lots of other stores around for your dry cleaning, banking, and other sundry suburban errands. Good produce, solid meat department and overall clean. A little dated, but aren’t we all.
*Trader Joe’s, Fresh and Easy and the like are the B+ students, they are good, but just not good enough. Small, pricey, imported… good for browsing and gazing, never for a serious shopper with a budget

This was a great grocery store to come in. Its always clean and everyone is extremely nice. Its very organized and the people knew exactly were.
I am always walking into this store every SUNDAY. Always buying some snacks to take over to a weekly meeting. COOL STORE!