Wednesday, December 06, 2006

O'Malia's Downtown: The Ghetto Grocery

Man, does O'Malia's downtown ever suck! Specialty stores in Indianapolis like Kincaids and Penzey's must be loving the holiday season because grocery stores that used to have a foot in this space are disappearing fast. Not only have I consistently not been able to find basics at O'Malia's in the past few months like, say, *soy milk*, but now, their meat department seems to be operating on fumes. They don't carry some basic items they used to and they can't get anything special ordered in.

Sadly, I end up paying out the wazoo at Kincaids but if they can fill what I consider a relatively easy meat order (10 lb turkey breast in early December), then I'm just glad they're around. The O'Malia's meat counter people first told me turkey breasts don't come that big and then that they won't have them until Christmas. Hey, I didn't just fall off the food truck yesterday. I've been cooking 10 lb turkey breasts for a few years now. Never mind that I've found both frozen and fresh at that same O'Malia's in that same size at exactly the same time each year for the past five. I was happy to let them know I'd call a meat market that could actually fill my order. That's my mini-rant for the day, but I'm having 65 people over for dinner and cocktails on Saturday and there's no time to screw around. I'm off to Kincaids for my bird.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It really saddens me to say this, but O'Malia's hasn't been the same since Marsh bought them. I've been going to the location at 56th & Emerson for four years now, and have watched it wither on the vine. The employees are nice and the store's always clean, but the meat department's selection has gone steadily downhill, and we just haven't gotten excited about going there since they cleared out the extensive International Foods section they used to have.

It's tragic, b/c it really felt more like a neighborhood grocery store than a big chain.

Anonymous said...

I cannot begin to say how much I agree with this post. The downtown O'Malia's has been a dump for several years now - dirty, cramped and very little you product you actually want to buy - at top dollar! The check-out clerks run from strange to very strange and sometimes rude. Combine all that with the Osco gone and O'Malia's pharmacy a joke - where are downtown people supposed to shop? I think that's it - they know we have no options and therefore will put up with it. But what about all the new condos going up everyday? I think anyone who put a decent grocery downtown would be sitting on a goldmine.

Anonymous said...

Also agreed, the downtown O'Malia's is a hole. Maybe Sun Capital (the company that bought out Marsh) will fix it up, get them on track.

I'm told by a source that Sunflower Market (in Broadripple) is looking for space in downtown Indy. They could be our savior!

Send Sunflower an email at
customer.service@sunflowermarkets.com

and encourage them!

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