Dominican Supermarkets

Bravo in Los Cacicazgos. my favorite.
Nacional in Arroyo Hondo very good too. and National in Ave. independecia, the only supermarket in DR. that has boneless thigh.
Carrefour has the best prices, but they never has enough cashier to pay.

It's a tie.........

Carrefour and Nacional at Lincoln and 27 both have very good selections, hot food bar, fresh squeezed juices, and a good booze section.

Not being close to any of the aforementioned large supermarket chains, we tend to restrict our grocery shopping to the local supermarkets - Supermercado Rodriguez in Sabaneta and Super Yudal in Cuesta Barosa village. What they don't normally stock on a regular basis, they will get for us on request. For meat purchase we use the local butcher but we do have our own home bred animals for pork and lamb which, of course, we are happy to supply to others too - see our bigpalmfinca advert in the classifieds.... Occasionally we do visit Playero in Sosua but only under sufferance!! We just feel it is worth a trip to POP or Santiago to save a few pesos which we would spend on fuel getting there anyway!

Iberia in San Pedro. Significantly cheaper than the newish (3 yrs) Jumbo and helpful staff. Appalling fruit and veg so get that from the market in San pedro.

matilda

I have lived, worked and travelled throughout most of the Caribbean and I must say, overall, the supermarkets in the Dominican Republic are pretty hard to beat!

You can get get pretty much anything you want and then some, and in a nice shopping atmosphere to boot.

The only killer is the 16% IBITIS

The best I can do is the Iberia in Higuey but I guess it's worse for us in the east. I must confess that my biggest complaint about living here is the quality of food items. The vegetables are appalling. Virtually everything at the stores is rotten. Every time I'm in the States and visit a Whole Foods or Wegman's I feel I'm in heaven. I enjoy cooking but it's just not the same here. What I would do for a quality piece of beef tenderloin!!

Yachtmaster, have you been to Sint Maarten/Saint Martin? I find the food/veg/fruits better there than here in the DR.

The best I can do is the Iberia in Higuey but I guess it's worse for us in the east. I must confess that my biggest complaint about living here is the quality of food items. The vegetables are appalling. Virtually everything at the stores is rotten. Every time I'm in the States and visit a Whole Foods or Wegman's I feel I'm in heaven. I enjoy cooking but it's just not the same here. What I would do for a quality piece of beef tenderloin!!

Yachtmaster, have you been to Sint Maarten/Saint Martin? I find the food/veg/fruits better there than here in the DR.

while living in santiago i did most of my shopping at nacional and i was always pleased with their selection of both dominican products and american products, i also didn't mind the free presidente samples every once in a while. I also spent some time in caberete, and used Janet's supermarket to pick up a few items every so often.

InsanelyOne said:

Yachtmaster, have you been to Sint Maarten/Saint Martin? I find the food/veg/fruits better there than here in the DR.

Click to expand...

I spent a lot of time in St. Maarten - typical island stores, nothing overly special. They seem to go out of business and reappear under a new name.

I do find the Dominican diet to be lacking somewhat in fresh fruits, vegetables and salads. Lots of rice, beans, beef and chicken, plantains and avocados. Depends what you are used to I guess.

Yachtmaster said:

I spent a lot of time in St. Maarten - typical island stores, nothing overly special. They seem to go out of business and reappear under a new name.

I do find the Dominican diet to be lacking somewhat in fresh fruits, vegetables and salads. Lots of rice, beans, beef and chicken, plantains and avocados. Depends what you are used to I guess.

Click to expand...

Perhaps you need to be in different company I eat a lot of Tomatoes, lettuce, Chayota, beets, onions....etc when I'm in the DR. Mango, oranges...etc.

I do the majority of my shopping in El Pola (La Sirena) but I get my meats from PriceMart, and a few things here and there in Nacional. I hate Nacional's "look down on you" attitude. I was halfway followed throughout the store one afternoon (I am guessing because I had on a tank top and shorts, and being of the darker persuasion) and and wasn't given one smile until I spent 7,000RD.........I never spent that much there again. The most they'll get out of me is 250RD
SHALENA

bob saunders said:

Perhaps you need to be in different company I eat a lot of Tomatoes, lettuce, Chayota, beets, onions....etc when I'm in the DR. Mango, oranges...etc.

Click to expand...

Maybe so, but do you eat as well and healthy as you would back home?

The company that I hang out with in the DR suits me just fine for plenty of reasons, other than just for the food, even though some are pretty darn good cooks. I find though that in general, people that I know in the DR are not as health and nutrition conscious as people in the USA or Canada......

Yachtmaster said:

Maybe so, but do you eat as well and healthy as you would back home?

The company that I hang out with in the DR suits me just fine for plenty of reasons, other than just for the food, even though some are pretty darn good cooks. I find though that in general, people that I know in the DR are not as health and nutrition conscious as people in the USA or Canada......

Click to expand...

Do we really want to be as nutrition conscious as everyone in that world we left behind? (In my case, England). It is easily possible to eat extremely healthy food here and most of it is grown naturally and not 'forced'. No offense intended but 'you are what you eat' anywhere!

Yachtmaster said:

Maybe so, but do you eat as well and healthy as you would back home?

The company that I hang out with in the DR suits me just fine for plenty of reasons, other than just for the food, even though some are pretty darn good cooks. I find though that in general, people that I know in the DR are not as health and nutrition conscious as people in the USA or Canada......

Click to expand...

I didn't mean to cast dispersions on the company you keep. I've eaten in numerous private dwellings in Jarabacoa and found salad is a part of the meal. For sure beans, rice, and chicken are the largest component of most meals. We are lucky enough to have a lot of fruit and vegetables given to us by relatives and we have several pieces of land that are rented to farmers in return for looking after the property. I agree that most Dominicans are not that nutritionally aware, but more and more are becoming knowledgeable about the causes of heart problems, cancer, and diabetes, at least in the circle of people we know.

whirleybird said:

Do we really want to be as nutrition conscious as everyone in that world we left behind? (In my case, England). It is easily possible to eat extremely healthy food here and most of it is grown naturally and not 'forced'. No offense intended but 'you are what you eat' anywhere!

Click to expand...

True , but when faced with a lack of means and nutritional education, one's lifestyle and eating habits tend to follow suit.

bob saunders said:

I didn't mean to cast dispersions on the company you keep. I've eaten in numerous private dwellings in Jarabacoa and found salad is a part of the meal. For sure beans, rice, and chicken are the largest component of most meals. We are lucky enough to have a lot of fruit and vegetables given to us by relatives and we have several pieces of land that are rented to farmers in return for looking after the property. I agree that most Dominicans are not that nutritionally aware, but more and more are becoming knowledgeable about the causes of heart problems, cancer, and diabetes, at least in the circle of people we know.

Click to expand...

You are probably luckier than most as many, unfortunately, seem to be more concerned about day to day survival rather than following the recommended daily servings of fruits, salads and vegetables. I would dare to suggest that the buying habits of people who are shopping in the local supermarkets in the DR are more budget driven rather than driven by a knowledge and understanding of the long-term benefits of healthy food choices.

Nacional > Has great customer service, you will have sometimes 3 attendents helping you at checkout counter, they have a great selection of fruits and veggies, and prices are good. ( meat is pretty good also )

Pola/Sirena, kinda like Wall Mart supercenter, Groceries and everything else, usually low priced stuff. Fruits and veggies good, meats Ok, prices good. the Sirena on Winston Churchill is the best one to go to, the new one on the Luperon sucks, its crampy, badly layed out, and parking is awkward.

Bravo: good meat , prices not so low but quality generally good, I'll go there when Milk is on special ( got kids? ).

Jumbo, looks like they modeled this store after "Target" but with a super market also. the new store on Luperon, is really nice, prices are good, and food items are at decent price. everything you need in one place.

Carrefour, used to be my favorite place to shop, but as products from the US have dropped in price, and stuff from Europe has gone up, I just do not shop there, they have always had problems ( since day 1 ) with items having to be priced checked, lines are slow, their fruit and veggies are usually more expensive than other stores and with less varieties. but they do have great buys on appliances, and things for the house, also they sometimes offer 500g of dark chocolate for like 140 pesos, ( me likes a lot )

In Santo Domingo, I shop at Nacional. I like their "Food Club" brand of products. Buying that, I can get my fix on some packaged foods that are like brand names from the U.S. but much cheaper.

In Barahona...geez. There are two "supermarkets", Ana Isabela and Jacobo. But they are nothing like a real supermarket in prices, quality, service, variety, hygiene...in any way at all really. I prefer Ana Isabela for cheaper prices, and also because I enjoy seeing their 2 resident cats.

Attention anyone with interest in investing in Barahona or supermarkets: Build a nice, small chain supermarket in Barahona. Everyone from the surrounding towns and provinces come from far away to make monthly or bi-monthly purchases in Barahona at 2 tiny, crowded supermarkets with high prices. They do not even sell any vegetables or fruits at all, people have to go to the dirty, run down public marketplace. Those stores make a killing. I'm sure if you investigate, you will find that it is one of the few and largest regions without a chain supermarket.

Me encanta el nacional, most of the things that you are looking for you can find it right there