Niskayuna Co-Op

This place is the next best thing in Niskayuna right behind their lacrosse program. The sandwiches on Mastriani rolls and boarshead meat are great! Great selection of very tasty soups daily. They have a solid selection of micro brews (Browns and Ommegang). I’ve only spoken about the deli and brews, the rest of the store has a lot of cool local products. It really has an old school market vibe. The employees are always friendly and has such a neighborhood market charm. Love this place!

Nice little co-​op. Definitely needs a larger selection of organics, and there is no bulk section. Too many ‘corporate name brand’ products, but some local items are available. It’s a co-​op, so I give it 4 stars. But, in my opinion, there is definitely room for improvement.

I love this place, it is convenient and the atmosphere is clean and friendly. The organic selection is good as well as the local produce and dairy. I am pretty sure the prices are around the same as the monster stores. Shop local!!!

This review is more about managers. I stopped by to see if they would be willing to donate to a health fair I was putting on. The employees have me an enthusiastic yes and have me the contact information for the manager. I was told she would give me a step by step of what to do. 4 unreturned phone calls and 3 visits to the store later, I never received a call. The employees were righting notes for me and still nothing. Very disappointed.

I give Nisky Co-​Op five stars because they’re always improving by adding more local vendors and vegetarian grocery and frozen items. In addition, the staff members are always available, helpful and friendly. While perusing the ice cream section one day, a man stocking the freezer told me of a sale poster he was just preparing and I appreciated having the heads up. On weekdays there’s a man selling delicious hot vegetarian Indian selections, a nice way to take out lunch or dinner. I’ve been a Co-​Op member for decades and this is a great neighborhood grocer when you don’t want to do the large supermarket shopping.

This is a charming little store with a remarkable selection of products, especially given its tiny footprint.
But they have a long variety of products from Oscar’s Smokehouse, a handful of fanciful yogurts, grassfed meats, and on Friday’s you can find loaves of challah from New Mt. Pleasant Bakery.
The product mix is a blend of the everyday and the extraordinary, but it is far from precious. That said, nobody is shopping here for the value. It’s not Whole Foods expensive, but most products here you could probably find for less elsewhere.
Of course, there are those foods that the Nisky Co-​op carries which are hard to find anywhere else. And I find the shopping experience here to be far more pleasant that roaming the endless aisles in a massive supermarket.
I would like to think I’d shop here more if I lived closer. But for the most part I’m a Nisky Co-​op tourist, occasionally picking up a treat or two when I’m in the area.

Best deli to get a sandwich in my opinion. Meats are always fresh and are served on homemade rolls from a local bakery. their jambalaya is also very good as a side to a sandwich. Their bakery is very good and they have the best french crueler donuts that taste homemade. The meat department is very good and sometimes they even have discounted meat that is reduced for quick sale and is very cheap. My favorite place to get groceries and i wouldn’t go anywhere else.

Love the Coop — big enough to have most items I’m looking for, small enough to be in and out in 5 minutes if necessary. Everyone is extremely helpful and friendly. Their chili and bakery are especially good!

I used to swing over to the Co Op for lunch for a sandwich almost everyday before I moved. I stopped by today and I cannot complain. It is still the best deli in town.

Yea, the good old Co-​Op is still there, Since 1959. Recently renovated and actually looks like a supermarket. It is not in the race to open more and more stores like Whole Foods, Trader Joes, Central Market, Wegemans,…Walmart. It is just like an Ace Hardware Store, close by, convient, Friendly, and great for the those quick trips.
There are still a few of these type places left in the world and they need to be supported.
Even got myhair cut, what is left of it, at the Niskayuna Barber Shop.

I’m re-​evaluating the Co-​Op in the face of the rapidly changing Capital Region grocery market, with Trader Joe’s opening this weekend and a Whole Foods on the way. I suspect I’ve been unfairly reacting to the small space inside the Nisky Co-​Op; I prefer brighter and airier and less crowded places to shop, particularly for groceries. But having tried the Co-​Op for a number of quick errands, the apparently smaller stock is a bit of a smokescreen, in that the nearby bigger stores (Shop Rite, lookin’ at you) simply have more gigantic piles of the same items filling up the bulk of the store, and nine brands of some things where a few choices will do.
The Co-​Op is not all the way there yet, but you can tell they’re improving their brands, getting more local options, and doing what they can in the limited space to freshen things up. The produce department in its current size has quality stuff but it’s never going to have the variety the bigger stores nearby has. It’s still not one-​stop shopping for me, and the small carts and spaces require a multiple-​trips-​per-​week shopping style which is not convenient (and wastes car time/​gas). But it’s much higher quality per square foot than the other nearby stores.
Now, with Trader Joe’s a distant 20 minutes plus away, and Whole Foods planned for about the same distance, and the expensive The Fresh Market 25 minutes away, there’s going to be both competition on the quality front and yet a continuing advantage for the Co-​Op among locals of being more convenient. If the Co-​Op can continue to work on upgrading its stock and orientation for depth over breadth and the unusual over the mundane and the local over the megafood labels and maybe, we hope, natural and organic over processed, I think it has a shot at being relevant moving forward. Some of these characteristics are more of a wish list at this point, to be sure. But I think my previous characterization of the Coop as a big convenience store was a bit off. It’s a tiny grocery store, but it’s a concentrated grocery store, and as such it’s worth it for us to patronize a bit more than we have been.
I will say I think stocking up on staples may require a trip elsewhere, but if one is shopping for key ingredients for meals, the Coop is as good as or better than the neighboring grocery stores about 75% of the time.
We’re bumping it up a star for now, are going to give it more business, and I’ll update later as we see how things go.

The Co-​op is my favorite place to grab a quick lunch. They have an awesome deli! Also a great place to find local products that you can’t typically find in major grocery stores around the Capital District. Easy to get in and get out and the staff is amazing in finding exactly what you need!
Specifically, they have a great selection of greek yogurt and gluten free products! If you haven’t checked them out lately or ever, go now!

Great place for meats, local produce and fare, and neighborhood grocering.

I love the deli — best sandwiches around. The grocery is overpriced and limited in stock. I only make special stops for rockin’ sale items (I am a paid member). I support small businesses whenever I can, and am rooting for the Co-​op to survive the onslaught of ShopRite. Unfortunately, they’re too often out of my reach.

Its got a good selection of things you probably wont find in your regular grocery store. They have a generally better selection of things that are organic or lacking a million ingredients. I’m probably just thrilled that I found sweet tea that doesn’t have artifical flavoring in it there. Its kind of pricey, and I’ve been in there a few times and they haven’t had what I wanted. But its nice to be able to shop local.

This should not be called a co-​op in practice, but a co-​op in theory.
It’s basically a Stop-​N-​Shop with a disguise to lure heavy-​walleted Niskayuna-​ites inside. Very few organic options, bulk-​foods don’t exist, and there’s barely a focus on local food. Really sad.
That being said, it’s convenient, people are nice, and they carry my favorite hummus.

I am a service member with a federal id AND an out of state drivers license. They still won’t sell me beer. They blame it on the «law» since their little operation cannot buy an electronic license/​id verification. Since when did it become the law to have to swipe id’s to buy beer? The liquor mart next door has never done this. Neither has any other store I have been in. I think they might be breaking the law by over enforcing it!

The best little store this side of the Mississippi! The Co-​Op has been around for many decades and provides a good selection of fresh produce, organic and — inorganic? — veggies and fruit, sundries, a nice deli, bakery, etc. Friendly and economical, plenty of parking.