Top 13+ Things You'll Only Find At A Southern Grocery Store

Fill up the cart with all your faves.

When my sister visits from California, the first thing we do is go to the grocery store together. A sea of buttermilk options, endless supplies of cheese straws, and Cheerwine tell her: You're back in the South.

There are a few hyper-regional favorites of ours that we can only find at our hometown Food Lion, like Carolina Treet and Neese's Extra Sage Country Sausage, but this is a list of the items that just about every Southern grocery store is guaranteed to have.

Cheese Straws

Cheese straws aren't just only available at Southern grocery stores—they are a cornerstone of the establishment in its entirety. Forget the produce, the milk, and the eggs, and show me to the aisle of regional snacks. There, I survey the selection of cheese straws—and much like pimiento cheese, it's a specialty item the varieties of which tells you a lot about the community.

No cheese straw is the same, and every bag a new possibility. While you can make your own cheese straws at home, I'd personally rather visit a random Southern grocery store and try out a new one for myself.

Buttermilk

It’s not a hard and fast rule, but chances are that if you look for buttermilk in the dairy aisle outside of the South, you'll come up short. In the South, though, finding buttermilk in grocery stores is never a problem, and there’s always at least one or two brands from which to choose.

With more options, there's also the chance to choose between low-fat and whole buttermilk, and every Southerner knows whole buttermilk is best for classic recipes like buttermilk biscuits, cornbread, and more.

Blue Bell Ice Cream

Blue Bell might be Texas-based, but it's all over the South and Southern grocery stores. We'd recommend its classic chocolate and vanilla flavors for something like a classic Ice Cream Cake, but regional classics like Pecan Pralines and Cream and Buttered Pecan are year-round flavors that you can't find anywhere else.

The Best Mayonnaise

More than a one or two of our favorite makers of mayonnaise are only found in the South. Of course, there's Duke’s, which was originally developed in South Carolina, but now distributes to more grocery stores across the country. Niche brands, too, like Bama (which is actually made by C.F. Sauer, the same company that distributes Duke’s) that you can only find in the South. Blue Plate mayonnaise is also a regional favorite, originating in New Orleans.

Sister Schubert’s Dinner Rolls

There's a reason why our Cinnamon Roll Casserole calls for Sister Schubert's—they're simply the best prepared frozen rolls in the game. Patricia "Sister" Schubert was known for her Parker House rolls, selling out of her home, then a bakery, and then eventually perfecting a recipe that distributes a frozen version on a wider scale. While you can technically find Sister Schubert’s rolls across the country, you're guaranteed to find them in just about any Southern supermarket.

Cheerwine

This rich, fizzy, cherry-flavored cola has been a favorite of North Carolinians since 1917, and its distribution extends beyond the state—but it’s still a Carolina classic. Look for the bottles or cans in their signature burgundy packaging on the shelf, and you'll even find it on tap at Southern fast food spots like Cookout.

Camellia Beans

Based in Texas and US-grown, Camellia Beans are a go-to Southern staple for dried beans, lentils, and peas. While they're available in many conventional supermarkets outside the South, you're likely to find an excellent assortment in Southern stores only.

Look for their red beans, black-eyed peas, and cannellinis in their iconic translucent packaging—it's a nice perk to see the quality of the beans before you by them.

Self-Rising Cornmeal Mix

Whether you're whipping something quick up in the skillet or making muffins, Martha White’s Self-Rising Cornmeal Mix is one of the best quick cornbread options. But since cornbread in any form isn’t as popular outside of the South, you might have a hard time finding this particular product anywhere but Southern groceries and supermarkets.

MoonPies

Did you know that MoonPies were developed by a traveling salesman? The legend has it that when a Kentucky coal miner asked for a “snack as big as the moon” from a Chattanooga bakery, their salesman developed the sweet, round "snack" we know today. It still doesn’t get more Southern than a MoonPie—right down to the selection of grocery stores that serve them.

Steen's Syrup 

Steen's makes pure cane syrup and molasses out of Abbeville, Louisiana. You’ll spot its iconic yellow packaging in most Southern grocery stores, but it’s also hitting more and more shelves each day.

Pimiento Cheese

Whether you're serving pimiento cheese as a appetizer for dipping or spreading it onto a sandwich, there's no denying it's a staple in the South. That's why you'll often find at least a few varieties of packaged pimiento cheese in Southern grocery stores along with the refrigerated pickles and cured meats.

McKenzie's (Frozen) Creamed Corn

In the South, you can shop creamed corn frozen as well as canned. McKenzie's Frozen creamed corn comes in charming cob-shaped log. It almost looks like it could be packaged sausage meat, but trust us: It's a vegetable.

Golden Flake Potato Chips

Golden Flake originally started in Birmingham, Alabama, and despite being distributed by Utz today, its influence is felt as far South as Texas and as far north as Maryland. While crispy thin, quintessentially crunchy and—dare we say—flaky potato chips are their mainstay, the brand distributes pork rinds and other regional snack delicacies across grocery stores in the South.