HuMaNpUmPkIn

I went there the other day, and I will be honest, I nearly wept. They had so many of the things I missed from England, even IRN bru, even though the price tag was fairly hefty. It felt like such a breath of fresh air for an island that's existed under a monopoly for far too many years.

Any other expats in st. Lucia interested in sharing their thoughts and experiences with the new supermarket?

LottieLou

Is this the new one in the Bay Walk Mall? (the new one in Rodney Bay?)

HuMaNpUmPkIn

That's the one

pgtips

How does it compare to JQ's across the road ? Does this signal the beginning of the end for JQ, or is it just healthy competion ?

HuMaNpUmPkIn

Well, so far it's difficult to tell. It's vastly superior, and it's always full, JQ is emptier and emptier these days, but foodmarket is more expensive, so we're probably just looking at some healthy competition once the novelty of a new supermarket wears off.

Dragonflies

Think this may be the one who a friend of ours is involved in. He was involved in the start up process of one here in Antigua and on opening it was heaven! Unfortunately for us and fortunately for you he went to St Lucia. It certainly went down hill after he left!

BabsS

This is very interesting! I have just joined this forum and know St Lucia well and some of the ex-pat community too. I will certainly check out the new supermarket when next on the island....

Pistolpete2

Hi again Pgtips - no escape from me today, I'm afraid.

GL Supermarket is owned by Goddards a family conglomerate in Barbados who own Peter & Co and part of the M&C Group already in St Lucia.

SuperJ have many attractions for their customers such as specials and promotional pricing as well as their points system which if worked properly can effectively give around 2.5% off your grocery bill. I think it is partly for this reason that GL has not caught on with the locals big time just yet. There are still lines on Saturdays in Rodney Bay while you can be first at the checkout counter at GL across the road.

GL is lovely and there are certain areas that might attract. They have a much bigger range of fresh produce with things like Kale, Artichokes, Creamer potatoes, Zucchini, Swede etc. and the prices are reasonable.

They also have a better and cheaper range of apples sold by the kilo and not loose.

There is a superb range of steaks and fresh meat but the Super J deli is, I think, cheaper.

The range of wines is fantastic and hard to believe it is in St Lucia - Dom Perignon and some serious Californians etc.

If you are into curry sauces, salsa, dips and spices they are there but expensive.

I don't think that Super J are in any kind of danger but we should start to see a better range of items at Super J so that they can give GL a run for their money. They could then be in trouble, after all, as my motto goes:

THERE IS ONLY ONE DOLLAR

Be that as it may, the tourists love it because it's set up just like home. But I've heard that locals are grumbling about the prices and that could be because they went at start-up when GL had not used spies to cross-check to Super J and GL were much more expensive on some staples. The spies have now been out though.

pgtips

Well I am just glad there is much more variety and a bit of healthy competion is good.