Food co-ops have everything for vegan and organic living, however they’re pricey and some require membership and a service commitment. The Flatbush Food Co-op doesn’t have those rules, and members get a 10% discount.
Trader Joe’s, Fairway, and Whole Foods reliably carry a wide selection of vegan ingredients and prepared foods.
ShopRite stores have a good selection of refrigerated and frozen items, some grocery items, and a growing amount of organic produce. I highly recommend the location that opened in the Gateway Shopping Center (Belt Parkway exit 15) in fall 2014. There I can find both soy and coconut coffee creamers, Daiya cheeses, Tofutti cream cheese, Amy's vegan frozen entrees, Daiya frozen pizza, kosher pareve frozen pie crust, Vegenaise mayo, a big nondairy milk section, and so much more that's hard to find in mainstream supermarkets. The produce aisle is huge and somewhat organic, with all kinds of ethnic items including pasteles paper and string!
A few Key Food locations have started carrying Silk soy coffee creamer, Earth Balance margarine, Vegenaise mayo, and more. Stop & Shop is great for shelf-stable groceries such as Bob's Red Mill grains, beans and flours, and some organic produce but not as much for refrigerated and frozen items. Waldbaums will often have vegetarian cheese and meat substitutes in the produce aisle. I bet there are other supermarket chains that are jumping on the health food bandwagon, I just don’t know about them yet.
Health food stores do have all the ingredients but tend to be out of my price-range. So, for shelf-stable grocery items and nutritional supplements I often get great deals from Amazon's Grocery & Gourmet Food department. For produce, many busy people who don’t have time to shop are happy with organic food delivery services such as Go Organic NYC but I have never tried them. GrowNYC greenmarkets are a fabulous source for locally-grown organics, if you can fit their limited hours on specific days of the week into your shopping schedule.
In southern Brooklyn where I live, I’ve found that Sheepshead Bay Fruits & Vegetables Market (Ave Z between E 17th & E 18th St) carries a lot of organic produce and some health-food grocery, and Fruits-A-Plenty (Kings Highway between E 15th & E 16th St) has some health-food grocery such as 32 ounce containers of Pacific vegetable broth. You’ll have to do some investigating in your own neighborhood to find gems such as these.
If you are in the NYC area and can contribute to this list, please write it in a comment!
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