The prices are bit high these days so I am shopping at Aldi and Lidl. In the DC area, the grocery store chains are Whole Foods, Wegmans, Harris Teeter, Giant, Target, Safeway, Trader Joes, Freshmart, Shoppers, Aldi, Lidl. There are others such as Food Lion and Save a Lot which are really lower cost but they tend not to be where I go. There are international food stores, such as H Mart, Lotte, LaMart, and New Grand Mart which carry many Korean and Latin American foods but also have all the other items that Americans buy.
The large stores tend to have deli counters and food ready to go. But the smaller cheaper stores tend to have whacky and imported finds.
In the United States, grocery stores are chains and they are huge. Some stores in the US are the size of malls in other countries. When I lived in Rome, most of the grocery stores were pretty small, maybe two to four aisles. American grocery stores can be so large that you can get many of your 10,000 steps in just by walking down the aisles. One thing I notice is that most are only one level. This is because America has a lot of space. Or maybe it has to do with people being more willing to shop if they can stay on one level.
There are smaller independent grocery stores but these tend to be more expensive. The US is a car based country so most stores have huge parking lots and people buy large portions of lots of things. Most people do not shop every day. Maybe once per week. It is amazing how long things can last in the fridge. Scary.
The main reason I shop in Aldi and Lidl is because they have European style Greek yogurt which has a higher fat content so it is not runny.
