Mid-Michigan Dining

• 2301 E. Grand River Avenue
• Lansing, MI 48912
• (517) 482-3900
• Website

Westlund's Apple Market on Grand River Ave. in Lansing

J and I had both seen the recent commercials for Westlund’s Apple Market touting $1.69 ground beef.  She doesn’t eat ground beef that often, but I could live on the stuff, so on our way home from Howell, we decided to check it out.

Westlund’s in on Grand River a few blocks from Frandor.  I don’t know why, but I was expecting it to be out towards Eastwoode.  I thought my GPS was screwed up when it turned me left on Grand River from US 127.  J kept assuring me that is was the right way.  She could remember driving by it, but I couldn’t picture it. 

It was a snowy day and it was hard to see the parking lines in the lot, so I just made my own space across from a car thta was already parked.  We made our way in and I got a little nervous when I saw signs on the door that said (these are paraphrased) only one student in the store at a time unless with an adult and  leave all backpacks in the front of the store.  Signs like that just don’t make me feel all that comfortable and that’s not what I was expecting from a neighborhood grocery store.

When you enter Westlund’s, you come in behind the cash registers.  Keep walking and you run into the produce section.  We glanced there, but didn’t need anything.  It wasn’t huge, but if you can’t make it to or don’t like the hypermarkets, they have everything you need.  Before we got that far though, we ran into a display of chocolate chips.  We just picked up half a dozen bags from Kroger because they were on sale, but Westlund’s had white chocolate chips on sale and I’ve been wanting to make white chocolate fudge.  Since they were 2 for $3, I picked up two.  They won’t go to waste.

Westlund's Apple Market. A great example of a neighborhood grocery store in Lansing

Westlund’s stocks Spartan products and that’s what most of the sale items were.  We made our way down the bread aisle and found Aunt Millie’s bread on sale and I just finished up the last loaf, so I grabbed one of those as well. 

We finally made our way back to the meat department to find the beef on sale.  It was probably a good deal, but the $1.69/lb only applied to the family packs which came in about 7 lb bundles, so I didn’t grab one.  I looked over the rest of the meat case and even though they had a butcher shop on site, I didn’t really see anything that looked tempting. 

After passing through the meat department, we followed our noses to the deli department.  They didn’t have a huge selection, but they had a few lunch meats and prepared salads.  The smell was coming from a little farther down where they had fried chicken.  Again, we looked, but had leftovers in the car.

There was only one check out line open, but we noticed the customer service section which was the 12 items or less. We only had three items, so we went there.  The bread, two bags of chocolate chips, and a bottle of Coke Zero came up to $6.  I had a preloaded Visa with $6.25 left on it, so I used that and basically got out of there for free. 

The thing J noticed today was just how many neighborhood grocery stores are left in Lansing.  In Peoria, we could only really name one that wasn’t a butcher shop with a few pantry items.  We’ve been to a number of stores in Mid-Michigan where you can do all your shopping and never have to set foot in a hypermarket.  Where we’re from, chain grocery stores are the only options, so it’s nice to still see the locally owned, neighborhood grocery stores like Westlund’s still going strong and serving their communities.