We visited Sprouts and liked it. Smaller format than a Safeway, but most of the food items we shop for. This plus Costco will take care of the vast majority of our shopping. Not quite as upscale as Piazza's or Mollie Stones but prices quite a bit lower. We hadn't heard of it, but it is a mid-size chain, over 100 stores from Texas through California, so they know what they are doing. Definitely worth checking out.

I was pleased with Sprouts when I checked it out - I have to go to that center frequently and to also do some grocery shopping there at a nice store will be great. I agree with the above post that Midtown Safeway does not meet our family's needs and I only reluctantly shop there, on rare occasion, if absolutely necessary.

Safeway midtown is small and dingy?
True, they don't restock the shelves as often as they need to, but Small and Dingy? Perhaps you were brought up in a wasteful, rich environment so that this big store looks dingy to you. Spoiled rotten is the way some would describe that opinion.

Shopper, yes the midtown Safeway is small and dingy. The only reason that Safeway keeps that store that size is that Palo altoblocks normal sized does. Go to the Menlo park Safeway to see a real store or try the nob hill in mountain view. I hardly think wanting a real full service store in my city as being spilled rotten. Feel free to shop their. I will also do my shopping in mountain view.

I live in midtown, half a mile from the Safeway. I never go there. I don't know about dingy, but their selection of foods really sucks. The majority of the store is bland packaged foods. The fresh food section is very small and only stocks bland American-style foods. If you're trying an Asian or Latin American or European style meal, you won't find the ingredients you need at Safeway.

Mountain View has a vastly better selection of grocery stores than Palo Alto. I am thankful to the government and landlords of Mountain View who allow these stores to exist and thrive. I am sure that a large portion of their customers are other Palo Alto residents, like me.

Anyone, please cite 3 locations in Palo Alto where a major new grocery store could be built, with adequate parking and traffic flow.
(Alma Plaza is not an answer, since that is a done deal.) My point is that if we don't have the open real estate available, all of the complaining about the lack of mega-stores is irrelevant.

Site 1, 2 and 3, Charleston/San Antonio (where Western Marine used to be), all that area is ripe for development and would fit nicely with the new stores Mountain View have opened just up the street. That area is a rabbit warren of light industrial and blight at present. The corner where Western Marine used to be is imo the best site, but there are other areas behind also.

Grocery stores don't have to be huge if they are excellent in one particular area. For example, Mountain View has stores that specialize in Mexican foods, Japanese foods, Chinese foods, European foods, etc. These stores aren't huge, but they have a wide variety in their specialty area, so you can always find what you want if you pick the right store. In comparison, Palo Alto's grocery stores all stock the same bland foods and never have what you really want. Why doesn't Palo Alto encourage and embrace variety and diversity?