Ingles - Cleveland

Wow. this is like a fresh market, whole food and publix, all wrapped in one. the frozen food department is the largest I have ever seen. all departments were immaculate with great looking products. the salatable was crazy, I'd eat green every day if that was in my neighborhood. the bakery has some great items, including freshly baked super crispy cookies that are the bombs. we really had to buy nothing. we had planned a tour in a nearby weingut and needed to kill a little time. so glad that we have entered for a visit.

I love this store. The staff are always so nice except a few older veterans who work in the food cafe. They always seem to be grumpy and just not friendly at all. The store is always clean and organized. I don't like how it is set up though. It doesn't make sense with the freezer section in the middle. I know it sounds silly but for the last two months they have been out of many items we normally buy which is not convenient and forces us to shop at Walmart which I despise. The pharmacy is crazy awesome. The managers I have met have been great as well. The Starbucks is really nice but there is a guy who always makes my drink wrong so if he is working I leave and go to Dunkin for the days coffee. Let me also mention the AWFUL food in the Asian portion of the hot food section and the chicken bar. I've eaten here for the 3 months we have lived here and not once has it been good. I finally chalk it up to it being poor quality because it doesn't matter what time of the day we go the chicken is always hard and tastes like rubber. The fried rice and white rice is literally the only good thing there. We tried all of the bar chicken and it has never been edible. The hot meals in the Asian section are always salty and spicy. I mentioned I was looking for something that wasn't spicy to one of the older members and they laughed in a sarcastic manner and stated If you don't like what we serve you can always cook it at home I was stunned because I have never been spoken to like that by anyone much less from an Ingles. It was very rude.

Review of the Gas Portion Very familiar with Ingles since I grew up in Western North Carolina not very far from where they started. Thanksgiving in Marietta and heading back to Charlotte via Helen Ga. Early morning hours and in this part of NE Georgia, gas stations are either hard to find or not open yet. Not to worry because we had more than enough gas to get us back to I-85 but don't tell that to my wife. Spotted Ingles and I have purchased gas from them in the past. Generally competitive with everything in the area as was the case this time. That was exactly the case this time. Did not get a chance to drop into the store but I'm sure that it would have been great based on past experience. I'm an Ingles fan but the closest ones to me are in Lincolnton NC and Statesville NC. Both are great and are characteristic of the newer Ingles formats

When my husband and I travel and we can find an Ingles we love to shop for the ready made food. The portions are large (we can get three meals out of the one purchase), the quality is good and the bakery in the same department is also great. Wish we had this store near our home. it beats anything we have hands down.

After Irma came through, and before we headed home, we needed to top off our tanks. This was about 5 miles from Helen, Ga and they had gas pumps out in front. We have an ingles advantage card, using that gave us $0.20 off a gallon, so we ended up paying quite a bit less on the gas purchase which is AWESOME.