Conflicting priorities: Rustic + Wegmans (Buffalo, Rochester: house, university, closing)

[watergarden]

You guys are the best, I love reading your posts. Thank you.

ckhthankgod thanks for the co-op market and other grocery store links! I need to familiarize myself with options beyond Wegmans that might be just as good or almost as good.

Tioga can you tell me about any grocery stores closer to you? For example have you been to the Price Chopper in Owego? (Owego looks great by the way!)

JWRocks mentioned Tops in East Aurora. We visited East Aurora about 10 years ago and we loved it! Maybe that could be a good area to look for a house? I saw that this one seems to be a 10 min drive to the Tops in East Aurora: https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...7_M42341-66275

But that property is a good example of something I am finding as I search real estate. I'll find a house that's the right level of rustic style, the lot looks perfect all trees with little to no lawn, maybe even set back off the road and hidden, some even with a pond or water feature (see my username to guess what I think about that!) BUT then I'll "drive around" the neighborhood on street view and it looks like a nice upper-middle-class suburban family neighborhood with big front lawns. I'm not knocking that lifestyle at all, I'm just not sure we'll get that same joyful relaxed feeling like we experienced in more secluded parts of New York. So basically I'm saying even when the listing photos look ideal I think in reality the location would fall short.

I can see there are some neighborhoods that are completely covered with trees and ALL the houses are hidden within the trees. That's where I feel more sure we WOULD get that feeling of peaceful seclusion. But finding that setting 10 mins from a Wegmans I think is going to be difficult. Not impossible though!

Trust me I am worried about the task of buying in this market. We can be full cash buyers IF we find a property under about $550,000. Since homes are selling above asking price, we probably need to look well below budget to give us room to bid over asking. Yet here I am clicking on stuff like this in Pittsford for $845,000 https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...4_M92789-01090

We are serious about coming up soon to do a major look around. I think it'll be in July-Aug. We are a little puzzled about how to structure the trip to give us the truest sense of each area, but at the very least we will drive around and of course go into the grocery stores.

So far areas on our list to check out:
South of Buffalo - Orchard Park, East Aurora general area and further south to Jamestown area
Southeast of Rochester - Perinton to Victor general area then look around Canandaigua and Geneva.
Ithaca, Corning, Binghamton surrounding areas
Syracuse area- Fayetteville to Fabius general area

[JWRocks]

Since you mentioned Canandagua, I would maybe add Bristol and Naples. Or anywhere around the Finger Lakes. The waterfront homes may be to pricey, but you could be on a hillside with a water view.

[ckhthankgod]

What about something like this in the Fabius-Pompey SD/Lafayette zip code south of Syracuse?: https://www.realtor.com/realestatean...3&from=map-pin

Distance from the Fayetteville Wegmans: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/1373...d43.033319!3e0

Speaking of other grocery store options, this pretty popular, smaller grocery store just south of Syracuse is a bit closer: https://www.greenhills.com/
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/1373...42.9843568!3e0

There are stores in Cortland and Cazenovia that are within 20-25 minutes as well.

[JWRocks]

Some other food options around Rochester

http://abundance.coop/
https://www.lorisnatural.com/
https://cityofrochester.gov/publicmarket/

[Matt Marcinkiewicz]

Originally Posted by JWRocks

If you're talking "high end" groceries, that would be pretty much just Wegmans and Whole Foods. Topps has tried a couple of times to up it's game, but it didn't work out, although I think they still have one of those concept stores in East Aurora.

Back in I believe the '90s, Tops built a couple 'Tops International' stores in WNY--one in Amherst, one in West Seneca. Not sure when they abandoned that concept, but the ex-Tops International Tops at Maple and Bailey has still tended to be one of the nicer locations. Never knew the EA Tops to be a fancier one, although the location would make sense for that

[Matt Marcinkiewicz]

Originally Posted by ckhthankgod

Tops has a bigger store in Fayetteville, a relatively high end suburban area east of Syracuse in the Fayetteville Towne Center: https://www.google.com/maps/@43.0307...7i16384!8i8192
https://corcompanies.com/property/to...yetteville-ny/

Also, Price Chopper includes the Market 32 concept, which is more common in the Capital Region, where it is based and select other locations like this one in Rome: https://www.google.com/maps/@43.2326...7i16384!8i8192
https://www.pricechopper.com/stores/...et-32-206.html

Green Star in Ithaca is pretty good and it largely organic: https://greenstar.coop/departments/

For the OP, look for food co-op markets. So, for instance, this is one in Rochester: http://abundance.coop/

Buffalo: https://lexington.coop/
(and Niagara Falls): https://myahfc.com/

Albany: https://www.honestweight.coop/

Schenectady: https://www.electriccityfood.coop/

Niskayuna(a relatively higher end suburb next to Schenectady): https://www.niskayunaco-op.com/

Saratoga Springs: https://www.fourseasonsnaturalfoods.com/

Plattsburgh: https://northcountryfoodcoop.com/

among others...

The Target next to the Fayetteville Tops looks enormous. Not sure if I'm being deceived by Google Maps here

[JWRocks]

Originally Posted by Matt Marcinkiewicz

Back in I believe the '90s, Tops built a couple 'Tops International' stores in WNY--one in Amherst, one in West Seneca. Not sure when they abandoned that concept, but the ex-Tops International Tops at Maple and Bailey has still tended to be one of the nicer locations. Never knew the EA Tops to be a fancier one, although the location would make sense for that

They had one with a new concept in Perinton, called Walter's. Also, there was a Topps International store on Mt Read Blvd in Greece, and I think Baytown Plaza in Penfield. Topps used to have 3 stores in Greece, but now only the one on Mt. Read that was just rehabbed. There's a Starbucks in the lobby.

[watergarden]

So does Tops vary a lot from one store to another while Wegmans is more consistent??

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by Matt Marcinkiewicz

The Target next to the Fayetteville Tops looks enormous. Not sure if I'm being deceived by Google Maps here

No, it is pretty big and that likely has to do with the location. There are other stores on the other side.

[ckhthankgod]

Originally Posted by watergarden

So does Tops vary a lot from one store to another while Wegmans is more consistent??

This is pretty much the case now. Wegmans used to have more urban locations that were older and even some of the older suburban locations have remodeled over the years. In the case with the John Glenn/Route 57 location in the town of Clay(Liverpool), they built a brand new one next to the old one(I believe where the Chase-Pitkin was located).

Tops can vary greatly from smaller stores to the one example in Fayetteville, with some in between(the North Syracuse and Nottingham Road locations come to mind).