Robinson Market District

Today we decided to make a trip to the new Giant Eagle Market District store that opened in Robinson Township.  We had received some pretty decent coupons, and even though it's about a 20+ minute drive, we were intrigued by what we've heard.  Two stories, a cooking school, a restaurant, six-packs (at a grocery store!!!), and just fancy-pants everything that you could imagine. 

The is NOT the Robinson store - I couldn't get the picture off of the Market District website

We went during the third quarter of the Steeler's, the only time of day on a Sunday when our regular Giant Eagle is completely empty.  We love it - it's AMAZING to shop with on one there, and it makes it better than we didn't have to go at midnight to get that experience.

However, we knew it was going to be rough right off the bat when there was traffic just to get into the parking lot, and the parking lot was FILLED.  We couldn't believe it.  It was this busy during a Steeler's game, what was it like the rest of the time??? 

It was a montrous and impressive building, but unfortunately it was SO congested that after 10 minutes of trying to get through the produce department (which was very impressive, I will say) we were both ready to leave.  We didn't see the bakery, the restaurant, or the six-pack shop.  We didn't see the cheese section, which is supposed to be particularly impressive and where Dave usually picks up spinach dip, or the deli.  We didn't see the "crepes bar," which sounded delicious.  We didn't even find out how to get to the second floor, or what was up there.  We didn't see any of that, because it was too crowded to move and we were miserable. 

Fortunately, we were able to pick up enough to spend the $30 required for us to get $5 off, so at least we felt like the trip was worth it.  But we were sad that we didn't get to experience everything that we wanted to.  After years and years of living in the city, and dealing with long lines, congestion, and crowded grocery stores, we're starting to feel like true suburbanites when we get angry over crowded areas, or having to wait forever in a check-out line, even when we're experiencing this in a tried and true suburb.

I'm glad that the new store is doing well, because with a property that size, I imagine that they need to do quite a bit of business in order to remain successful, and they were certainly raking in a lot of cash.  We also realize that this was the weekend before Thanksgiving, so that might have had something to do with it.  But for now, I don't think we'll need to make the trip to the Robinson Market District again any time soon.