There were four self checkouts, but one was out of order. Two customers of the remaining three machines were waiting for assistance but nobody came; meaning only one machine was actually working. Finally we started using the machine, but the searching was terrible. To find green onion, "greenonion" "onion""scallion" none of them worked or suggested similar products. Finally found as "oninon, green". Very inefficient. read more

The cake section all Had freezer burn the woman behind the cake counter was touching her mask read more

Decent grocery store with decent prices. The seafood selection could use a little work. Otherwise, you can fairly find what you need here.

Back in the mid-1990s, Lucky was located on the Albany side of the old El Cerrito Plaza. Then came Big Box EC Plaza (including Albertsons) and now it's Lucky near the site of the old Capwell's. And speaking of that, it still bugs me about the missed opportunity presented to the City of El Cerrito several years ago by the Prince of Wales' Summer School in Architecture and the Building Arts. With their recommendations to redo the old El Cerrito Plaza, this place "coulda been a contender". Instead, it's just another ugly Big Box mall, with poor traffic flow and an idiotic roundabout to match. This Lucky is a big store, with lots of full-service choices and a Starbucks within. In addition to my disdain for the "new" EC Plaza, I'm a creature of grocery store habit, so it's easier for me and my Club Card to go to the Albany Safeway, although Lucky is a better store. But I do come in occasionally for a few things, including birthday cakes, converting my loose change at the Coin Star Machine, and supplementary grocery items. read more

Looking for Velveeta? No problem, it's right here next to the biscotti! Tail dragging at the end of a long day? Fear not! The Red Bull is waiting for you right next to the firewood and the air filters! Someone is having fun at the El Cerrito Plaza Lucky, check out the photos. Far from complaining about this feature of an otherwise run-of-the-mill chain grocery store, I love it! Keep going! Put the tampons next to the canned mandarin oranges! Slap the Kool-Aid in the refrigerator case with the chicken wings! I just hope that a grumpy manager doesn't take the signs down. Seriously though, if you happen to be (or live) in the neighborhood, this is a fine place to stock up on pantry staples. The staff is friendly and helpful and there is a good selection of international ingredients (I picked up a "portable" size Sriracha, for example), and they even have a small section for staples and condiments from The South. It's the only place around here I've ever seen Cane Syrup (the southern kind, not the British kind). The choices are esoteric and unexpected enough that its worth it to just wander up and down the aisles to see what's going on. Although it's not exotic, I found Keurig coffee pods on sale here for cheaper than Amazon *and* Costco. Think of it as a Supermarket Safari. read more

Lucky - Velveeta. Try it for dessert! - Grocery Near Me - El Cerrito, California

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I was visiting a friend and I had an hour to kill. Enter Lucky, home of the discounted baked goods. ...seriously? Best invention ever. Man I wish we had Lucky's in SF and WC. My life would be a whole lot tastier if there was. read more

Row upon row of high fructose corn syrup-drenched, mass produced slop for the hoi polloi. The meat section is really weird, small and suspect-looking too. I am not trying to be a snob about this, but really. read more

Lucky is in plain view so checked it out. liquor is priced higher than other grocery chains. $1 more for 6 paks. the usual selection of mainstream and microbrew beers. buys: foxbrook merlot (2.48) -not tasted yet. wonder how much arsenic is in this wine? 2 buck chuck's is aledged to have arsenic. take outs: -in and out in minutes, had to choose shorter line. -not many shoppers here, may all be at trader joes.. read more

The reason why I shop here is because TJs doesn't have everything that I need on my list so I mosey on over to Lucky's. It's much more convenient than truckin' over to Safeway which IMO, is a sad little grocery store and never seems to have a good selection of produce. They've had some decent sales my staples - bread, produce, and meat. The reason why I like them - Self-checkout lines!!!! read more

Bleh. I liked it better when it was Albertson's. The lines are longer now and half the produce section was empty. I couldn't find any baby carrots. What grocery store runs out of baby carrots? I didn't think the prices were that good ... but they took the time to show their price and their 10 cent savings over Safeway. Does that mean for everything that didn't have a comparison, Safeway is cheaper? The cashier I had was super nice so I feel bad giving low marks .. But her bagger assistant needs some work. He handed me each bag as he filled it instead of just putting it to the side. So picture me carrying 3 plastic bags as I'm signing a receipt and then putting my credit card back into my wallet. read more

Lucky's is pretty convenient and I find some great deals sometimes, so I thought I would write a review. I did a lot of baking and making jams during the holidays, so I came here to purchase my supplies. They have jelly pectin that is cheaper than Safeway, so I stocked up. Turned out my jams were the JAM and I came back for more. My biggest peeves are the weird store layout in the back and the long lines, but it's a big store. read more

My family always shopped at Lucky's in Montclair when I was growing up. While I was off at university, Albertson's swooped in and totally ruined them. I came home for the summer and all of a sudden the produce was no good, the meat was no good, selection was no good, and the prices weren't all that great. It's nice to see the old Lucky name again, and I hope they can embody some of the old traits that made them so great. For now they still have the same unripe produce, bad meat, and high prices. Just yesterday I purchased a nice big roast for my cousin's visit. It looked great and $3.99 a pound was a good deal. I put it in the fridge. Today it was looking a little slimy. I looked at the date and it expired 4 days ago. That's 2 days BEFORE I purchased it. GROSS!! That's what I get for not checking the date. I know to avoid the meat with the orange "Discount" stickers, but this one caught me by surprise. I don't think I've ever returned groceries before, and as such I'm not in the habit of keeping track of the receipts. This is the first time I wish I had. As much as I hate on Lucky, I do still shop there pretty much every month. I love TJ's but they just don't carry a lot of our necessities. I love that Lucky has skinny-cow ice cream, that stuff is totally decent. They have a great Asian aisle, there's Mexican goodies, and even a Jewish section. Lots of good finds there. I'm addicted to their Sunny Select brand Seltzer. They never used to have it in stock but these days they always do. I like to think they responded to the demand and increased their stock just for me. I get CommuterChecks from work which means I need to buy my BART cards from Lucky. Over the last year, I've waited at the service counter roughly 20 times to buy BART cards. Of those visits, they have had a blue BART card in stock on 6 occasions. Maybe half the time they're kind enough to put up a sign so I don't have to wait in line. The "No BART Cards" sign haunts me. Still plenty of room for improvement, but at least they've got some things going for them. PS: They were out of limes. How do you run out of LIMES?? Hot summer evening, Wifey put the Corona back on the self and pouted. read more

A lot of places in the East Bay have gotten pretty pretentious with the progressive gentrification. I really love how they always have great specials, a really extensive selection, and everything from a working class budget to filet mignon. The employees work hard and are down to earth. I kinda laugh a little at the people who leave bad reviews here about Lucky's because I'm kind of glad that I won't have to shop with them. I'm a well paid physician and I the ability to shop anywhere I want. But I like that they continue to target the community they are a part of. #NoKarens read more

What a gross and dirty store. I halfway filled up my cart and just left it there. I'm so disappointed I drove all the war from Berkeley to try out this store. I usually love lucky. I will be shopping at my usual Safeway store. read more

Great place to grab groceries or quick buys on the way home when you get in on Bart. They usually have great deals on things here. The customer service is a bit lack luster. And the registers are always VERY slow. Deli counter has very fresh meats and salads always and ladies are very friendly Parking is plenty but it's hard to get in and out of. The area drivers aren't very careful or respectful of others. We read more

I hate giving bad reviews. It's a lot harder for me to say negative stuff. But this lucky sucks. . Lines are always long. Employees are kind of friendly but with a kind of mild neglect to customer service. I'd come to shop here again... If the world was running out of toilet paper and this was the last store to have any. Or if they hired new cashiers that included Jessica Alba, Rihanna, and Eva Mendes, then they could take all the time they want for check out for me. read more

Rude and unhappy employees. Go elsewhere! The store has gone down drastically. I complained to a manager a year ago and threatened to call the corporate office. His response....go ahead, they don't care! What?! read more

Annabelle deserves 5 stars. She was an absolute doll. My boyfriend is very picky with his ice cream consumption and we needed to verify that this location had the flavor he wanted (Tillamook's banana split), we called their primary phone line and within 3 minutes, Annabelle picked up the called, checked stock and confirmed they have plenty of stock. Very happy with the service. So happy. read more

Lucky - My phone call with Annabelle - UNDER 3 MIN!!!!! - Grocery Near Me - El Cerrito, California

Almost every time I visit this Lucky I'm extremely frustrated with the lack of hustle from the cashiers. They are lazy and hella slow, no sense of getting the customers checked out at a timely manner. Because they're union they can take their sweet time in dicking around and having long conversations with the elderly retired or other unemployed customers who have nothing but time on their hands. If you're in a hurry to get in and out Do Not come here to shop, it'll waste your time by at least triple. read more

I have been going to Lucky Pharmacy for years and suddenly they locked up the entire area and you can't get in unless a worker buzzes you in. But guess what... the workers often aren't there and you are standing outside the door forever knocking and calling out for them to let you in. This makes absolutely no sense. Please, please reconsider this as I am just about to change pharmacies, despite the very helpful pharmacy staff. read more

The renovations have made this place worse. And has done nothing to make the store more inviting. It's still drab and depressing, but now harder to get in and out, has less variety, and much higher prices. While sad looking before, at least they had a good selection of items, and an exceptional selection of housewares that are not found at most local grocery stores. Covid hit and they reduced their hours, but unlike other local grocery stores, Lucky's has yet to go back to their old hours. Initially they said it was for the renovations, but it appears their "renovations" are done, yet still they close early. The meat section here is just short of revolting, and the prices have always been inexplicably outrageous, particularly for the quality. I don't know why the meat here always looks so, so bad, but it does. Even before the massive price inflations everywhere, this Lucky's priced bones higher than other stores priced regular cuts of beef. When I mentioned this to one of the meat dept. employees, he sneered and denied that was true. However, I regularly shop for bones for my dogs at a number of grocery stores, and at the time of that conversation Lucky's was pricing some conventional (non-organic) bones higher than Whole Foods. That's insane. Forget eating anything in the bakery. I have never seen an ingredient list THAT long for a cake. Even Hostess and Lil' Debbie products have a shorter ingredient list. And the stuff on that list? I don't think it's meant to be eaten. As for the renovations- what, exactly, did they do? They've created a fortress around the pharmacy and put all the liquor inside that fortress. Need a tampon after 8pm? You have to find someone to let you in to the fortress. And getting someone's attention isn't easy, as the one cashier will certainly ignore you while they are checking out someone for 5 minutes. Rest assured you'll be unable to find help anywhere else in the store. They've also created an obstacle course to get into the store- since covid they've kept open only a single entrance on the south side of the store. Yet once inside the entrance, you'll find they've barricaded all access points to the interior, forcing all customers to walk halfway across the front of the store just to get to the aisles. Why? "Security." Tell that to the elderly, disabled, those with young children, and those in a hurry. Along with the renovations has come a reduction in the variety of goods offered. Many frozen foods and grocery items have disappeared. They've made more space in the aisles at the expense of product. I prefer variety over space in my grocery stores. And finally, though prices are rising everywhere, Lucky's seems to be seeking a quick recoup of its renovation costs (though it's unclear what costs they've incurred since the store does not appear to have had an actual facelift) by raising its prices exponentially. Though this store is conveniently located in a shopping center with Trader Joe's, it's no longer worth even the 2 minute walk over, as it takes more time to get in and out than I want to spend, particularly since the things I used to buy disappeared with the "renovations." I'd rather walk or drive to Safeway on Solano, which though much smaller, somehow manages to have more items I need, including organic foods, at lower prices. read more

The one star is for the manager in the deli. She has zero customer service skills. She is rude, dry and has absolutely no personality. When I saw the way she rudely interacted with the other person working in the deli and the way she aggressively tossed what the other person was working on out of the way, I should have taken that as a cue and left and gone somewhere else. I spoke with another person who works here about her and they said " Yeah, unfortunately that's the way she is." Won't be coming back with her here. read more

The employees at this store are very lazy and unhelpful. I had a problem at the self checkout and the guy who was supposed to be troubleshooting in that area couldn't be bothered to even come over to help. He simply yelled unhelpful suggestions from across the floor. This was at 8:30 AM so they were hardly busy. The guy didn't have anything else to do. I don't shop here regularly and this is why! Also their produce is sadly lacking in freshness and quality. read more

Wow. This place is a dump. But it's got a CoinStar if you need to trade your pennies in. I would rather shop anywhere else, even the Safeway down the street. read more

Went to Lucky's El Cerrito Saturday after taking my son and dog to the dog park and purchased a bunch of groceries. On the ride back home I asked my son if he stepped in some dog feces and he said no. I live in Oakland so when I got home I noticed it was the chicken wings that were rancid (the other meat i bought was okay/i think). I drove alllllll the way back to El Cerrito to complain about it. The manager said no problem just go grab another pack and i'll swap it out. Great.... I go grab two more packs and they both smelled rancid, in fact all the packs of chicken wings were rancid. I asked the manager how could this even make it out on the floor??? Your going to get somebody really sick! All he said was I'll give you your money back. No one took the meat that was rancid off the floor. I was furious. I asked the manager hey this is really an inconvenience for me to drive all the way back here is there any way you can make this right? A gift card, gas card, i don't know an ice cream cone lol. The manager said he couldn't do anything and just said sorry. No wonder they get 2.5 stars on yelp. I will never be back to this store and I will be contacting the corporate office ASAP! Sincerely, Jason read more

Lucky's Supermarkets are in dire need of a modern makeover; to include staff. With a couple of exceptions, the staff here is most unfriendly and unwelcoming. Thank goodness for choices! Be sure to check the expiration dates on products, I bought store brand pineapple juice, only to discover that it was past it's expiration date, and had become carbonated and acidic; threw it out immediately. I now see why Consumer Reports rated Lucky's almost at the bottom of ranked supermarkets; 86th out of 96, and my comments concerning staff are rated accordingly. read more

I love this Lucky's! It's nice an clean with large aisles to navigate shopping carts and good selection of ethnic foods. The meat and fish are very helpful and provide great advise on how to prepare many of the items. There is a value section that is worth checking out. read more

Well stocked, and always well staffed - far better than Safeway. However: the bike rack is garbage; there's no way to lock my back wheel and frame to it. The new entrance setup is regrettable too; I used to marvel at the old layout, which made the exits invisible from the outside and guided you to the correct door. The fact that you need giant signs to point to the entrance means you're fighting your own building! I hope it can be changed back soon. read more

I must say that it's one of the cleanest supermarket out there. Everythings is all organized just how I like it. Pro: Got majority of the selection that you come to get whatever that may be. Con: Bit pricey and also there aren't that many selection from all types of what you needs to make some of your home made dishes. Maybe that's why they got certain local market for that sorta items. read more

Lucky - Cheesecakes, Yummy!!!! My favorite. - Grocery Near Me - El Cerrito, California

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The deli at Lucky needs to be vastly improved. It is serving old and poor quality foods. I bought green bean salad, tuna, and finely sliced ham. The green beans were so tough, they were inedible. I had to throw them away. There were unrecognizable black, stringy things in the tuna, so I threw it away. The ham was cut into small shards, not slices, and was about 25% fat. In some cases there were shards which were only fat. I had to throw all that fat away. Overall the quality was very poor. The deli needs imorovement and some kind of quality control. Avoid it until then. read more

It's the closest grocery store to my house, so I go here a lot. But WTF, Lucky? Do you know how much money is now circulating in SF? Do you know how many opportunities you are missing by not updating your store a bit and started to include some more stuff? The selection is just SO basic. Don't get me wrong, if you are looking for some toilet paper a loaf of bread you are in business, but anything more than that and you will be taking a gamble. I guess I shouldn't complain, but it's just so disappointing to have a grocery store so close but so lacking. read more

This Lucky's is right next to my house. My husband and I are there all the time, at least once a week. I don't really have an opinion, suggestion or comment to say about them. They don't make the food we buy there, so it is just a store we get a groceries from. read more

I HATE SPENDING MONEY HERE! 98% of their employees are SO RUDE. The person that compelled me to write this review is the Asian guy that works in the deli, he needs to work behind the scenes or something, the guy is an ass. I work near the plaza, so my coworkers and I all try to avoid going there, but there are just some things you can't buy at TJ's. Anyway, back to the rude guy. He rolls his eyes at you before even asking what you want, then he walks away without letting you finish and if hes making a sandwich for you he keeps shouting across the deli asking you about every single ingredient even if you've already told him the only things you want on it. At the end, he throws the sandwich at you and walks away. Multiple coworkers have told me about how much they hate going to the deli because they don't want to deal with him. Also, they sold me an expired coconut water. I only bought it because it was on sale. I didn't even want a refund, it wasn't a huge deal, I didn't get sick, I just wanted to let them know it was expired so I told them. That was months ago. They're still selling it (a big display right in front of the store!) and guess what? IT'S STILL EXPIRED! read more

Safeway paper bags did not have handles for years until recently. At Lucky, if you bring your own bags, they will credit you 5 cents per bag that you bring in! The color red does not show very well under some types of fluorescent light so the meat will look brown. If you want bright red meat, shop at Super Walmart and Super Target where they proudly color their meat bright red with carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide is a poisonous gas and adding it to meat is not natural. It makes meat look red even when it is old. http://consumerist.com/consumer/butchers/store+bought-meats-dosed-to-look-red-156237.php Lucky does not treat their meat with carbon monoxide. You have to watch out for other stores that dye their meat red with carbon monoxide. There are tons of preservatives and nitrates. Red color is no longer an indication of freshness. Farm raised salmon is dyed pink. Lots of meat is dyed at many supermarkets. The meat at Lucky looked fine. They have a full service meat and seafood counter for fresh meat and seafood. The store is pretty huge inside. They have a large selection of items and they even carry La Brea Bakery Bread. I love their artisan breads. Lucky offers their store brands of Sunnyside Farms and Bayview milk that do not contain the artificial Bovine Growth Hormone. They also have lots of organic varieties of yogurt such as Wallaby, Stonyfield Farms, and Brown Cow Yogurt. You don't need a Club Card here. They give the sale prices to everyone. Who likes the policy of other supermarkets that announce your name to the world every time you get your receipt? Lucky does not have any of that nonsense. They have great made to order deli sandwiches. The deli workers were very friendly and helpful. There are also 2 Coinstar machines where you can turn your coins into gift cards without a fee for Starbucks, Amazon.com, iTunes, etc. You can also cash in your coins for money to use at the supermarket. It is so easy to use. The machine counts all of your coins for you. There is even a Pharmacy at this store that also has a drive thru as well. Update: 2009: Their paper bags have handles. read more

It is beyond me why I ever go into this store. I maybe go once every 6 months, swear I'll never return, only to forget what a miserable experience it is. Their prices are excruciatingly bad. The only store that can rival them would be an Andronico's. I don't understand it. Nearly everything in this store is $1-$2 more than you could get at a Target, Safeway, or Trader Joe's. Even items that are typically very inexpensive such as bread, are about double the price of anywhere else. Whenever I accidentally have to shop here, I wind up spending 15-20 more than if I went to Target and Safeway. On a bizarre note, the layout of the store makes no sense at all. Items that you would expect to be close together aren't even close. Why are butter and eggs almost 5 aisles from all other dairy. Why is peanut butter, jelly, and other breakfast items about 4 aisles away from cereal? Why are the two aisles of wine separated by a huge florist section? It's all baffling, and only adds to aimless wandering. To only worsen matters, their staff is woefully ill-equipped. They've never seemed to have a grasp on lines, regardless of times. Their baggers have absolutely no concept of square-bagging, weight distribution, etc. Any questions asked of the floor staff are reacted to with indifference or annoyance. Basically, there's no reason to ever come to this store. Just drive to the Safeway 2 miles up San Pablo. You'll be glad you did. read more

i am so ashamed that i am lazy enough to still come back from time to time rather then make the effort or leave that much earlier to make it to Safeway... but due to a busy life there are unfortunate times i am forced to with a groan come here for last minute grabs. I have not had one visit where i have come in and had a smooth experience including my item being in stock, the quality being worth buying, the price being reasonable, the lines not being horrendous, and customer service remotely decent. my 2 most recent groans were the pre-sliced variety cheese tray i get at Safeway and Trader Joe's for $4.99 being $9.99 here.. really why the high prices and second the only chocolate cake in the whole store at 8:45am being put back on the empty bakery shelf after clearly being dropped. Manager Please Note!... your store has commonly begun to have a bad reputation, whenever i mention this store to others they have some complaint to make. a simple reminder to your staff to smile occasionally and try to make eye contact rather then avoid it would help A LOT not to mention being polite at the least during check out (mostly referring to self check out), if they don't want to be friendly and helpful at least polite would be good. sorry for the bad words and venting, i am just SO fed up with living in this amazing location yet having to drive to Richmond or Berkeley for groceries. read more

The only thing this place has going for it is its size. It's huge, which means you've at least got a shot of finding everything on your list. The problem is that this store has gone downhill from when it was Albertson's. It just seems like most of their merchandise is so mediocre, a step below Safeway and closer to the generic brands you'd see in a discount supermarket, and the store is getting dirtier and more neglected. The deli in particular is just sad, unless mass-produced cafeteria-type potato salad and those weird gelatin desserts are your kind of thing. If you need basic staples, come here. For the stuff you'd actually look forward to eating, do yourself a favor and go to Trader Joe's across the plaza (which unlike Andronico's and Whole Foods, really isn't that much more expensive, and it's not like Lucky's is all that cheap anyway). read more

Yes, this pharmacy is located inside the Lucky's Supermarket, but it in no way takes after the store. This is literally one of the BEST pharmacies I have ever dealt with. They are polite, efficient, careful and helpful. Sometimes I have a little problem understanding cause of their accents, but they make up for it with their quick service. They always do what they say they will do! As in: call my doctor for a renewal, call me back when the order is ready, let me know if there are any problems, call other pharmacies to find what I need if they don't have it, etc. They also have a drive-up window which can be real handy. The manager there always remembers me and is very warm, friendly and communicative... what else can I say? They go the extra mile all the others don't! read more

Formerly the Albertson's, this massive store has everything you'd expect from a full-service, major supermarket: full deli, including hot bar; bakery; butcher counter; pharmacy; video rental; flowers; beer/liquor; and the now-ubiquitous Starbucks. (The latter despite a stand-alone Starbucks about 6 doors down the strip mall.) The staff are fairly friendly and the manager was responsive when I got shorted once on my change. The pharmacy actually has a drive-through, so I imagine you can call in your prescription. The CoinStar machine is still there, so you can empty your wallet AND piggybank while filling your fridge. read more

The store is ok because the people that work the check out and bag are so unfriendly and rude. No smiles and just no warmth at all. That alone will make me never return!!! read more