E.W. Thomas Grocery Store and DMV - Palmyra, Virginia

M K.

"I've been coming here a long time normally just for the hot food in the back or to do a quick DMV renewal definitely a great place to skip the long lines"

Mike H.

I've been coming here since I was a teen. I'm 50 now. Very few times has this place ever disappointed me or my family. However times are a changing.
Tonight either the chicken was twice cooked or over cooked. So dry and meat on wings legs was tough as leather.. indicating twice fried or over cooked.
The lady who took my order at 3 something said she had to make sure they could fill my order. We all know delie stays open until when? 5 pm.Did you run out of chicken?Another reason twice cooked enters my thoughts. I'm not a happy customer and the deli needs to do better. I'm not aKaren. Im just used to the standards they once had. .

Abel G.

Found this beautiful little gem by accident! Awesome chicken, wonderful variety of desserts, and the friendliest people n service I've seen in a while. Definitely keeping it on my google maps for a place to stop and have a nice little picnic with my wife

Alex C.

Breakfast bang n fried chicken come on hot sauce you know this

Stefanie M.

🍗 The chicken they sell there is a delight

Elizabeth S.

So so so disappointed. Everything costs 3 times what it should, which I can understand for a non chain store, if the quality was there. My milk, hummus and half and half, all purchased here on the same day (that all were within correct date), were all sour or had turned bad. The half and half was so improperly stored it was completely curdled up to the top. I went to grab a cheese ball and there was a dead fly stuck to the packaging. I cannot find or I was not given a receipt, so unfortunately I can’t return any of the bad items. No one answers the phone to make them aware of the issue. This grocery store is less than 2 min from my house but I will be driving 20+ from now on to go to food lion or Walmart where stock is clean, correctly stored and rotated.

Elizabeth E.

folks are super kind, friendly and quick. wish the DMV could do more, but they handle a bunch and with smiling face and very little of a line to wait. like stepping by in time, glad to keep this real treasure of the community alive.

Kenny D.

Come on people, 1 star? 5 stars?...Please.

This is an old school grocery that could have used remodeling decades ago. Stock on some things can be hit or miss.

Yes, their fried chicken is as good as any, but again, hit or miss on what will be available at a given time. If you get lucky, you are there just after they fried a batch and at a time when everybody else is busy or working, because when this place is busy, you could spend a half hour easily waiting for deli and hot food service. The line can be nearly back to the front door. Last time I went for chicken I wanted thighs as always. I was told they didn't have any. No suggestion as to when they might fry some, no offer to fry some if I wanted to wait.

Their sides, etc. are usually pretty good. Not a lot to rave about flavor-wise for me but acceptable nonetheless.

The people working the deli can be hit or miss. Sometimes they are more interested in their conversations between themselves that serving the customer efficiently. Sometimes they are very attentive, like I said, "hit or miss". They still actually butcher meat here and will do custom orders. I wanted pork liver to make boudin. Hard to come by at regular chain grocers, only at these old school places. They ordered some (they do have other customers that will buy it when available) and called me when my specific order, along with specifically cut pork steaks was packaged and ready.

Something I was not happy at all about though, is when I got those pork steaks and liver home, I went to portion the liver for freezing batches. Their scale is significantly off. I checked the pork steaks too...same thing. I cant remember exactly how far off but enough to tell myself to remember to add maybe 20% to my order to make sure I had enough correct weight. The prices are not too bad per pound, but I got a bit screwed by weight. Not that this is OK, but it wont stop me from ordering again, I just know the deal, order a little more than you need so you actually get what you need and realize the price is actually a little higher than shown because of the weight bieng off. Most people, never realize this because they dont weigh food like me. I weigh a lot of my food and know for a fact my scales are accurate.

They also have Hanover tomatoes when they come in. Those are early crop tomatoes from eastern VA that give that vine ripened flavor before the July/August harvest of the other varieties. They bring in produce from the south like Georgia that is ripe before stuff around here is. Specific produce here can be very good, local melons, etc., but some of the produce in the case is a bit sketchy sometimes.

I love this store for specific reasons but glad we have more modern groceries for most of our shopping. This store is that nostalgic "country grocer". I have never found anyone here to be rude as some others have said. A little indifferent to speedily serving customers at the deli sometimes, but not rude.