<p>How close is Berkeley to:</p>
<p>Emeryville?
Alameda?
Kensington?
Albany?</p>
<p>And are the above cities nice and safe? </p>
<p>Secondly, where's the nearest pharmacy at Berkeley? I didn't see any when I was there (CVS, Long's, or Sav-Ons?)</p>
<p>Thirdly, where are the supermarkets at Berkeley? No Ralphs, Vons, or anything?</p>
<p>alameda is a 10 minute drive away, quite safe. of course there are robberies here are there, but that can't be avoided.</p>
<p>All the supermarkets in Berkeley are really expensive. On Telegraph there is an Andronicos and Whole Foods and Berkeley Bowl is close too, but all three of them charge an arm and a leg. I useally shop in Oakland at Safeway.</p>
<p>Albany is like a 5-10 minute drive away. Its just down San Pedro.</p>
<p>There is a long drugs, safeway, and a walgreens on shattuck which is a couple blocks west of the campus.</p>
<p>You can take the 51 down College to Safeway or Albertsons (a little farther down from Safeway). There's also another Safeway on University, as well as a Walgreens/Longs on Shattuck, as the previous poster pointed out. Also, you might want to get stuff from the GBC or the Den using your points instead of buying the same stuff from a supermarket. Because you don't want to end up with 500 points at the end of the year and desperately buying anything in sight to get rid of them, which is basically what's happening to everyone right now. Anyone been to the Den lately?? The place is a madhouse... Haha.</p>
<p>mapquest.com for distance to the cities.</p>
<p>I have no personal experience with Berkeley shopping, but I will add that Andronico's is tres expensive, but has awesome deli foods, particularly the pasta salad. :p</p>
<p>kensington is up the hill (u gotta go through The Arlington (street) to get to it). Kensington is a very wealthy neighborhood. There is this huge section that is all named after ivy league and other elite east coast colleges.</p>
<p>emeryville is pretty crappy (except the mall sections next to the freeway)</p>
<p>Emeryville and Oakland are crap. Safeway is the best place to shop, I would think. Andronico's will rip you off.</p>
<p>Emeryville is pretty close to Berkeley. a LOT of Berkeley students live at Emery Bay or PPP. Pretty expensive, but nice there. Its about a 10 minute drive.</p>
<p>if you have a vons card, it might work at safeway. safeway bought vons a while ago.</p>
<p>Oh yeah. There is a safeway on College avenue. Its about a 5 minute drive from Berkeley. </p>
<p>There is a Costco about 20 minutes away... forgot wut city tho... i think Richmond....there's a food 4 less on university, close to san pablo I think too. anyways, u should ask all these questions when u get here. I really think u should live in dorms though, thats where u meet most of ur friends n stuff...</p>
<p>"emeryville is pretty crappy (except the mall sections next to the freeway)"</p>
<p>My parents own the UPS Store in emeryville near the Marina, the apartments around there are super exclusive, the ones right on the water. Emeryville has its high points and low points.</p>
<p>^ Hey! I've been to that UPS store. It used to be next to that nice ass pool hall that closed down in Emeryville... now all they got is that ghetto one on university and that darkly lit one on shadduck.</p>
<p>Yeah i'm from Kensington, or as we call it, K-town, and its about 4 or 5 miles from the Cal campus. There's not really much to do here though, although we have one pretty good restaurant.</p>
<p>easymack63: albany is down San Pablo, not San Pedro</p>
<p>aim78: oakland and emeryville don't suck. Well, they don't suck any more than berkeley sucks. its an urban area, so one needs to be aware of where you are and what is going on.</p>
<p>as for grocery shopping, Berkeley is the foodie capital of the west coast (and maybe the entire country). There are boutique grocery stores (Market Hall in Rockridge on College Avenue) and Farmers Markets on every day (Oakland, Berkeley, etc).</p>
<p>No vons or ralphs (or gelsons). you can say goodbye to those when you leave so cal. Andronicos, Piedmont Grocery are expensive. Safeway and Albertsons are pretty basic. Whole Foods is expensive and dirty (at least the one in Berkeley). Monterey Market and Berkeley Bowl have very fresh produce which is typically reasonable, but may be pricey for other foodstuffs. Be sure to check out the Cheese Board on Shattuck.</p>
<p>Where I'm from, Oakland's reputation certainly does suck. High poverty and high crime.</p>
<p>A lot of people outside of the Bay Area seem to think of Oakland as nothing but drugs and gangs, but there are actually some nice areas. Yeah, there are ghettos in Oakland and Richmond, but then there are also Point Richmond, Oakland hills, etc... Oakland Chinatown and a few other places are actually pretty interesting to visit.</p>
<p>For groceries, most students end up at the two (three?) Safeways around campus. There's one on Shattuck on north side and one on south(west?). There's a Long's across the street from the Shattuck Safeway. Further down that street, bear right instead of going through the tunnel, and you're in Kensington (not positive about the city lines). Go through the tunnel and Albany should be to your left, El Cerrito in front of you. Head in opposite direction and you hit Emeryville, then Oakland, I think... then the bridge to SF.</p>
<p>A lot of people stock up at Costco in Richmond, near El Cerrito Plaza Bart. There's also a Trader Joe's at the Plaza (I love that place).</p>
<p>usitthegap... pfffft @ 'k-town', haha...</p>
<p>Oh, and Farmer's Markets are awesome.</p>
<p>And... back to cramming...</p>
<p>"A lot of people outside of the Bay Area seem to think of Oakland as nothing but drugs and gangs, but there are actually some nice areas. Yeah, there are ghettos in Oakland and Richmond, but then there are also Point Richmond, Oakland hills, etc... Oakland Chinatown and a few other places are actually pretty interesting to visit."</p>
<p>Growing up in Oakland, I can tell you that as you move farther and farther away from downtown, things get different...</p>