Holiday Market

ColForbinBC

New Jersey

4.35/5  rDev -1.6%
quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4 | $$$

A specialty grocery store with a damn impressive beer selection.

Walking in, I immediately surveyed the produce section only to find the beer section is located to the extreme left, along the front of the store.

Two rather cramped aisles, 1/4th of which is in the cooler, but damn, what a selection. A wide array of locals, ranging deep and far. 4-5 different Short's, 6-7 different Dark Horse, along with the vast array of Bell's and Founders. Arcadia was also well represented.

I walked in only looking for Short's. I have Founder's, Bell's and Arcadia locally, so Short's was the only thing on my mind. I picked up a sixpack of Huma Lupa and a single each of Uber Goober and Cup a Joe. It took a tremendous amount of self-restraint to only purchase these. It was a Saturday when I was here, and I was picking up enough for tailgating at the Lions game and a couple for afterward.

Overall, I would recommend this place to anyone. We were staying not too far away and the town of Royal Oak proved to be a place we kept coming back to.

12-19-2010 02:02:41 | More by ColForbinBC

TheBlackMallard

Michigan

4.5/5  rDev +1.8%
quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Told Ashley I'd re-review.

I stop in Holiday quite a bit due to the fact that it's less than 5 minutes from my house. Gotta love convenience.

The beer department at Holiday has come a long ways. I can't even remember the last time I've stopped down the street at Cloverleaf or even thought about it.

Prices are average, which is cheaper than Merchant's now. Currently they even have Bell's Oracle in stock for cheaper than Champanes. Nice selection with a good amount singles and the staff is very friendly.

09-03-2010 16:16:40 | More by TheBlackMallard

Bung

North Carolina

4.2/5  rDev -5%
quality: 4.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

This place looked like it would be a great place to shop for food, wine and beer. Large selection of all and a quality selection of food and brews, didn't check out the wine much.
Warm and cold selections, singles and sixers.
Organized mostly by brewer. Local, Michigan, Midwest, National and International all well represented. Shorts is always the thing out of towners are looking for, they had a bunch. I found Harpoon Leviation Baltic Porter, which I found interesting that I have never found this in North Carolina where Harpoon is readily available.
I preferred this place to the Clover Leaf, though that place is rated higher. They had more ambiance, but this place has the selection, at least of things not viewed more champaigne like- sours, Belgians.
I would just stop here in the future since they have more space to keep more things year round.

07-11-2010 00:50:13 | More by Bung

Yetiman420

Ohio

4.2/5  rDev -5%
quality: 4.5 | service: 3.5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Made a quick stop while in Detroit on business looking for Bells batch 9,000. They had it in the cooler and I picked up two six pack. I think they were $15.99 each plus bottle deposit.

This place is a wonderful grocery mart first with a world-class beer selection. You'll find plenty of the great Michigan breweries here including Shorts and the off brands from Jolly Pumpkin (the Hawaii-named line which escapes me).

Well-organized selection including singles (which I picked up a Short's Soft Parade). Nobody was working the beer section as this was around 8:30 on a Wednesday night.

03-21-2010 20:49:10 | More by Yetiman420

WeedKing4

Ontario (Canada)

4.35/5  rDev -1.6%
quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4 | $$

Stopped in here after Cloverleaf's as its just down the street. Lots of selection here. Tons of Michigan beer as well as California, Colorado and others. Almost any kind of beer style you can think of, they have it. Lots of six packs and single bombers. I went with a 6 pk of Victory Yakami Twilight, two bombers of Stone Ruination IPA and one Southern Tier Mokah. Decent prices here and very knowledge able service when were here. They even brought a 4 pk from the back of Founders Backwoods Bastard for my friend. I sure wish we had this selection back home.

01-10-2010 04:13:56 | More by WeedKing4

crossovert

Wisconsin

4.7/5  rDev +6.3%
quality: 5 | service: 5 | selection: 4 | $$

THis is a great grocery store and beer store as well. There is a Whole Foods just down the road near Birmingham and this one kicks the crap out of it, especially in beer selection.

The beer aisle is in the liquor section to the parking lot end of the store. There is an aisle side of warm beer, and one of cold, plus an end area with a few cheap pieces of branded glassware and winter seasonals. There was a pretty immense selection, but not enough singles.

The worker that helped me out was incredibly knowledgeable about many of the domestic beers and especially the Michigan only brews. They had full lines of Short's, Brooklyn, Jolly Pumpkin, ect.. plus other stuff like Dragonmead. The selection of imports was also pretty good though not the largest I have seen.

Overall this is top class beer store and def worth a stop for people in the Detroit metro area. It is also very close to a number of brewpubs.

01-02-2010 00:29:11 | More by crossovert

DrDoitchbig

Michigan

4.34/5  rDev -1.8%
vibe: 4.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Major Edits on 7/24/11. The original review is nearly worthless given my rookie status in 2009.

Holiday Market has by far the largest beer selection I have seen in one single store. It is absolutely massive. That being said there are some negatives. Their selection of singles compared to how many beers they have overall is highly disappointing and the singles they do have seemed to be marked up a little more than I'm used to.

Edit: The selection at Holiday Market remains one of the best in Oakland County. Docked this half a point because I have seen better at this point but not by much. The singles selection has vastly improved in the past 2 years otherwise I would have put selection at 4.

Proper storage is also not their top priority for example there was a slew of Oktoberfest beers sitting out on the shelves probably beginning to collect dust. Speaking of dust there were beers here and there with a layer on them. I understand there are a lot of beers here, but what's the point if you aren't going to take care of them?

Edit: Once you've been around the block a few times you realize it's damn near impossible to carry a selection like Holiday Market and maintain perfect rotation. Once in awhile seasonal stuff is going to stick around on the shelf, especially in a singles section. That being said they've also stepped their game up and the amount of old stock has definitely diminished. Part of this is probably due to the upswing in craft popularity. Bumped quality up 2 points.

I didn't ask for any help but I will say there seemed to be one guy working the alcoholic beverage department and he seemed to be more concerned with the people in the next aisle looking to purchase some expensive liquor and wine. Overall that's the whole vibe I got from the place. That despite having an extensive collection of beers it's not really their top priority.

Edit: This was the one category that I absolutely had to change. My rating was criminally low. Of course at the time I hadn't met the beer manager Ashley. It's always a pleasure chatting with him about beer and he always knows about the new releases and is happy to show me what just came in. If you need to special order a keg or a case he will get it done. I would have upped this to a 5.0 if he was there every hour they're open.

If I had to choose I would definitely drive a mile down the street to Cloverleaf where they seem to truly care about their beer and also from my experience seem to be much more knowledgeable. Not to mention everything is in singles and their prices are better. You really can't lose at Cloverleaf. Holiday does have some things they don't, but honestly I'd be worried about how long some of those low abv brews have been sitting around on shelves. That really irked me.

Edit: Wrong. Holiday is the superior store. Cloverleaf has raised their prices since 2009 while Holiday's have remained about the same. Cloverleaf has one plus over Holiday and that is their storage conditions. The treat each style of beer exactly how it should be treated but the selection is quite a bit smaller, the beer knowledge isn't there and they don't have the pull to get any decent amount of special releases. Don't get me wrong it's worth stopping by once and awhile because they have some oddball stuff that Holiday doesn't carry but aside from that I don't bother.

11-04-2009 18:24:57 | More by DrDoitchbig

steebo777

Michigan

4.85/5  rDev +9.7%
quality: 5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 5 | $$$

I can't believe I never reviewed Holiday before as I have been going here for quite some years. I'll start with the beer/wine section. There is quite a large wine selection with a great layout to find what you need. The two wine guys (Brian and another guy I forgot) are always helpful if not slightly pompous. However, the beer section is where it is at. Ashley runs the beer section and is always there to help and a good conversation about beer. Ionly rated service a little lower because the guys other than Ashley can be a little snobby sometimes. Quality is top notch and product is constantly coming in and fresh. Price is always a little higher than I'd like, but it is Royal Oak and expected. Definitely the best beer store in the area.

Now for the food sections as they are the best in the area, bar none. Amazing cheese, meat, bread, bakery and pretty much anything else you can think of. When they devote an entire huge cooler section as well as people for a wide variety of cheese form around the globe, you are in for a treat. For all meat, I head here as well for the best choices in the area.

09-22-2009 16:58:03 | More by steebo777

gotweid

Michigan

4.25/5  rDev -3.8%
quality: 5 | service: 3 | selection: 4.5 | $$$

Overall, the most impressive selection of beers that I have seen accumulated in one place. A wonderful choice of both chilled as well as shelved. Singles, mix and match, 4 and 6 packs and styles are abundant. Felt like a kid in a candy store. A bit pricey, but you can't beat the selection. Available also are many brands of wine along with the hard stuff. A family market, the also sell many groceries and have a fine selection of meats, fish, veggies and fruits. Fresh breads are also abundant. A well lit, heavily stocked place to shop.

02-28-2009 03:01:52 | More by gotweid

allergictomacros

Ontario (Canada)

4.5/5  rDev +1.8%
quality: 4.5 | service: 4.5 | selection: 4.5 | $$

Basically a gourmet grocery store with a considerable liquor section - beer, wine, hard liquor. Prices are OK, but there are cheaper places in town. Lots of employees milling around, some of which know more stuff than others.

The number of beers available is enormous, but mostly multi packs and bombrs. Only a limited selection of 12 oz singles. Apparently the employees are allowed to break out sixers and place them in the singles rack if it's too empty, but there's only a small rack. Worth going to for the selection, but not so much for sampling different brews. There are better places in town for that.

09-02-2008 16:50:42 | More by allergictomacros