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| - I moved to Montreal to study and I lived around Guy Concordia for 7 months. PA is like a 5-minute walk from me and it became my grocery store every Saturday morning.
At first I really hated how small PA is and thought, "Is this really where I'm buying my food for 7 months??" Then I visited Adonis, IGA, and even the Atwater market and here's my findings.
So from Guy-Concordia station, for example
- Provigo (Montreal's Loblaws, closed) is 4 minutes walk
- PA is 5 minutes walk
- Adonis is 8 minutes walk
- IGA is 12 minutes walk
- Atwater market is like 30 minutes really, really tough walk in the winter (And trust me, I am a walker even before Pokemon Go)
I find the amount of time I invested to go to Adonis and IGA was NOT worth it at all. I find Montreal grocery stores in this area to be full of packaged, instant, frozen, and snacks (like chips and pop). So in Adonis and IGA, it's exactly the same as PA but bigger and with more shelves to fill. That's it. The variety of vegetables and fruits do not grow with store size.
PA will meet all your needs if you're just looking for vegetables and fruits. That's the food I eat, I'm not sure about you. I was very angry at the beginning that the fruits are not consistent at PA, that's why I ventured out and explored other grocery stores. Unfortunately I found it's just the quality of foods in this area. PA will have basic fruits and vegetables, variety of eggs, milk, yogurt, cereal, dried beans, rice, flour. All the basics.
For students looking for the unhealthy sodium kind of food from brands, there is Pharmaprix (aka Shoppers Drugs Mart) that's 1 minute from Guy-Concordia station. Adonis and IGA will pack popular brands that you love, including rows and rows of shelves of ice-cream, chips, instant you-name-it.
Atwater market will sell the organic fruits and vegetables just like PA's upstairs. However the prices are ridiculous. I've never paid $4 per organic apple, this must be magic.
Now the downside to PA is that the meats and the seafood isn't that great. The quality at IGA is a lot better.
Also PA is super busy and the staff are students too, so they're all younger than me and more tired. I'm being honest, young students are always tired, they never want to do anything (like cooking). I was a student too in Montreal FYI. So my best advice is to visit in the mornings before 10:30am. The staff at this time are morning people, so they're a lot more mature in behaviour especially during Saturday mornings. Think about it. Friday nights? Not these staff.
Since PA is always so busy, there is a lot of staff packing, stacking, check-outs, and CLEANING. PA is super clean and messy at the same time, but the staff will clean clean clean as people come and go. The morning staff haven't seen the sh*t from customers of the day yet, so they're super nice and will get things for you from the higher shelf.
In conclusion, I hated PA when I first arrived to Montreal because I was used to Loblaws and T&T and other freaking amazing markets in Toronto. But overtime I found PA to meet all my needs compared to the other grocery stores in Montreal, so I am a happy, loyal PA customer giving my best smiles every Saturday morning.
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