At least the expired food problem is not just limited to the Berkots in Manteno. I just read this:

http://www.manteno.org/56/expired-food-at-the-manteno-berkots-grocery-store/

I read that yesterday and wanted to do a little searching on Berkots. It turns out that they are guilty of selling expired food at all of their locations. I think that Berkots should be shut down for doing this. I bet hundreds of people have gotten sick from their food. Jewel is a much better option.

I like Berkotts fried chicken!!

Very known for expired food lately. If it's on sale, better check the date. They had orange juice on sale for $.99....pretty cheap! I grabbed two and then noticed that one was gross at the bottom. I checked the date and saw it was expired. I went back to the section to grab another one and they were ALL expired. No wonder why they were only $.99. I just bought canned soup on sale there and it was expired. Canned goods are normally good for a couple of years...how long was it sitting on their shelves?

I rarely shop there anymore because of the large number of expired/stale dated products I have found especially such things as lunchmeat and dairy. The sale products are the worst for this and it takes too long to shop if you have to read the expiration date on everything you put into your cart. I do drop in for select items if I am nearby and would shop there more if they would give some attention to this issue.

I often have my kids with me when I shop. I love that they have double seats for the shopping carts so both my 1 yo and 3 yo can sit in the cart. They almost always have the "car" carts as well. My 6 yo like the kiddie carts to push around. Berkots definitely has better meat than Jewel or Target. The store feels smaller to navigate which is always a plus when shopping with kids. I like the friendliness of the staff there and that the kids get lollipops while waiting for the checkouts. My only complaint is they rarely have enough Horizon 2% milk in the gallon size.

Berkot's is famous for expired food items. In the past I've bought foccacia bread to get it home and find mold on it, same thing with pizza crusts. Final straw this week was a dairy product with an expiration date of 8/5/11, two months expired. I wanted to exchange it, but they all had either an early August expiration or early September expiration. I will not shop there again.

Best fried chicken around. However, Berkot's prices have steadily increased since they opened and most things I find there are no less expensive than anywhere else. Also, they have less product choices and their produce section, although they have improved it, still doesn't have great products. I go there for my meat as it is better quality than Jewel, but I don't get much else there anymore.