P.C.B.'s fancy grocery store - Unload that fresh money at The Fresh Market


The Fresh Market #214
15500 P.C.B. Pkwy.
Panama City Beach, FL





After watching a beautiful sunset at the west end of Panama City Beach, you realize you are hungry. However, you'r not quite in the mood for a sit down restaurant and certainly not wanting cheap fast food like Taco Bell or McDonald's. You know that Publix makes delicious subs but the rest of their deli stuff is ho hum. But you're not quite craving a Pub Sub. What do you do?

Well, if you don't mind dropping a few extra dollars, The Fresh Market is a pretty nice foody store. Some of you retail fans have probably seen photos of Fresh Market before, but this one is a fairly new build Fresh Market. This store opened back in September of 2015, so that makes this store only 4 years old upon my recent visit. 
The Fresh Market is a very nice (and upscale feeling) supermarket. Honestly it's so upscale feeling a middle-classer like myself feels a bit out of place inside this store. I can guarantee you though that the employees here are not wealthy. You can't get wealthy working for a grocery store, unless you spend many decades working for the behemoth Publix Supermarkets. 


Across the front end, In both of the Fresh Market stores I have been in they have these wooden canopies placed over the checkout lanes (a place where your wallet goes thin). It gives the checkout area a sort of outdoor market feel. I have to give The Fresh Market a plus for creativity. The certainly make their stores look fresh and inviting. 


I took this photo from the Produce area looking toward the left side of the store. Basically across the front end of the store from right to left is in this order: Produce, Bulk, and Specialty Wines and Beverages.


Directly behind the Bulk Foods is a square shaped island which houses the Deli (and the Charcuterie) .

Looking strait back from Produce is  a continuation of more produce and eventually reaching the Meat and Seafood counter. 


Looking to the right a bit is more produce along the right wall (which I'm assuming is almost completely Organic). 


Okay, these photos didn't quite upload in the order I wanted them to, but what the heck? Why don't I just go ahead and show you the left side wall, which contains frozen foods on the left wall, and beverages on the other side of the aisle. 

Here is the back left corner which contains a dairy section (a lot of Greek yogurt, milk and juices). 


And here is my favorite part of The Fresh Market, their baked goods. If you really are tired of the institutional stuff that Publix spits out of their bakery, you should try a cake, pie or pastry from The Fresh Market. The quality of their baked goods is superior to Publix, and its a bit more expensive too. Like I said in my one flickr upload for this store, I don't shop at The Fresh Market very often at all, and its mainly because of the someone snooty atmosphere and the high prices. 

In this photo we see the back wall which encompasses the Meat & Seafood Counter, with the Bakery department just to the left of where I'm standing in this picture. 


Here's a view walking around to the right side of the Deli island looking back toward Produce.


Here's the front side of the Deli island. This part contains fresh prepared items like potato salad, coleslaw and other similar items. 


Doing a 180 degree turn facing the front, here is an aisle dedicated for a shelf of foreign chocolate. Between here and World Market (which is just a little further down the strip plaza known as Pier Park North), I think Panama City Beach residents and visitors alike have 2 good stores to buy foreign candies and chocolates at. 



Looking to my left again, just over from the bulk foods and candies aisle is a small aisle containing Health Foods and other herbal remedies. This is an area where Lucky's Market really puts The Fresh Market to shame. Lucky's has a much larger selection of Health Foods in their Apothecary than the Fresh Market. Although I don't know if prices are much different. Quite a few items in Lucky's Apothecary are in the 50, 60 and 70 dollar price range, but Lucky's selection is amazing! 


One last look down the Bulk Foods aisle, we get a good look at the faux wood flooring. The flooring is one of my favorite aesthetics of The Fresh Market along with the green and white striped awnings over the fresh departments. 




Just as we're about to check out, here's one last look at the place. In the left front corner is the craft beer and wine department, just on the other side of the Health Foods. 

Honestly I did come here to grab something to eat (just as stated that one could do here in my introductory paragraph). However, when I came here I had a hankering for fried chicken. A relative of mine had gotten an 8 piece fried chicken pack from The Fresh Market in Gainesville I found to be delicious. To my disappointment they did not have any left.To their defense it was Sunday evening at about 7:30 pm. They close at 9. So I ended up getting some cool chicken wings that I heated up in the hotel room microwave. They were not that great, haha! I guess you could say my shopping experience at The Fresh Market on this trip was middling. 

Overall, I'd say that the Fresh Market's high point is their bakery. Other than that you can buy just as good (and cheaper) produce at Lucky's Market, just as good deli items at Lucky's as well, foreign candy and chocolates are at Trader Joes, and as for wines and beers, Lucky's and Trader Joe's have as good or better of a selection. I can see why The Fresh Market has been closing stores. They are expensive and have a really small niche market. 

That's it for this place. Soon I will have a short photo tour of a store that's on the completely opposite end of the grocery store spectrum from The Fresh Market. 

See you all soon, 

Yon Woo

Comments

  1. Retail RetellNovember 25, 2019 at 6:47 PM

    I've never been in a Fresh Market store. Olive Branch was set to get one, and the building was built (architecture looks virtually identical to this store in fact), but it never materialized. It wound up opening as a Planet Fitness.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ian WoodsNovember 27, 2019 at 2:50 AM

    That's interesting. I'll bet they had that store planned right before the announcement of their multiple store closings back in 2018. Is Olive Branch a more wealthy area in Mississippi? Fresh Market tries to open in areas higher income. Planet Fitness was probably a better bet. Heck, I could see this P.C. B. Fresh Market eventually closing and becoming a Planet Fitness.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Retail RetellNovember 27, 2019 at 8:54 AM

      I'm not sure it's majorly wealthy, but it was the fastest growing city in the entire US from 1990 to 2010! I assume it's still the fastest growing locally, too, although apparently not nationally anymore. I think Fresh Market would have done well in that particular location. But it also helps that the grocery stores for OB (Kroger and Walmart) are located further into the town. The Fresh Market was set to open nearer to the western edge of town, where there aren't any grocery stores for a good stretch (besides a PFresh Target across the street). Here's the blog post I did on the store: https://midsouthretail.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-fresh-market-that-never-was-olive.html

      Delete
    2. YonWooRetail2November 27, 2019 at 2:00 PM

      Thanks! I'll give that a read!

      Delete

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