My favorite in Seattle is Central Market - it makes living north of Seattle worth it! Great service, huge selection. 6 isles of "Asian" goods - not the 1/2 of one side of an isle like other grocery stores as well as a fridge and freezer selection. shoreline.central-market.com/new....php There's also a couple smaller markets (Ballard Market and Greenwood Market) that are in neighborhoods, but nothing beats the giant Central Market. The meat selection is almost purely organic with very competitive prices (often times much cheaper than QFC conventionally raised meat), they make their own sausages, big fish selection including bulk frozen seafood, the groceries are split 1/2 of organic and conventionally raised - you can often find better deals in season on the organic produce. The deli and cheese selection and fantastic and I love that the freezer section is tiny - about 1/2 the size of the bulk! :) My friends like to tease me that I love Central Market too much. It's a 20 minute drive from my old apartment, but we'd still go there once a month to stock up on the essentials.

My other favorite place to wander around, but I don't often buy all my groceries because it can be spendy, is Uwajimaya. uwajimaya.com/ I used to work 2 blocks from here and there are some great deals on sushi in the afternoons. I like to come here and meander through the housewares and you can find plants for your garden that you can't find at most nurseries/home depot/etc...

On the SF Bay Peninsula it's Sigona's. Broad produce selection of very high quality. Many local farmers, growers. Good selection of cheeses, an olive bar, bulk olive oils (which I haven't tried), and super-high quality fresh orange juice. Limited seleciton of canned/packaged goods but it's high quality. Hit or miss dry bulk section but what they do have seems high quality. Knowledgeable staff. They now carry wine and beer, and also have a small section of meats and fish. It is in my opinion *the* place to buy produce on days when the farmers markets on the Peninsula aren't running. There's a Sigona's in Redwood City and one at the Stanford Shopping Center.

For dry and canned goods, including exotics and staples of high quality, Draeger's. Same goes for dairy. I use Whole Foods more often than Draeger's, though, because of price. If you need flours, Whole Life Natural Foods in Redwood City has a wide selection of Giusto flours and meals. They also have locations in Burlingame, San Carlos, Menlo Park, and Sunnyvale. The RWC store refrigerates most of the flours and meals, and I'd guess the others do, too.

I like Fresh & Easy very much. I just got some propaganda from Albertson's asking me not to go there, as a matter of fact... got some from Ralph's a while back, talking about how Tesco sells bad food etc., but little do they seem to know I've seen more than my share of rotten veggies at Ralph's.

The Fresh & Easy people are nice. Self checkout but they'll bag for you if you want. Too much packaging overall (individually wrapped ginger?) but it's also dated and when it gets close to the "sell by" date, they mark it down. The prepared meals are tasty too. I like the pad thai.

F&E is pretty much perfect for me -- single, lazy, want tasty food and don't want to drive 5 miles to Trader Joe's. Works for me. :-)

I don't know if it's helful to you or not, but there's also a Fresh and Easy in Arcadia at 133 E Foothill Blvd, 91006. I love Fresh and Easy, however, I agree with another poster that their packaging is a bit much. Other than that, it's awesome!