Grocery Stores in St. Martin: A Complete Shopping Guide

After spending our first hurricane season in Grenada and provisioning throughout the smaller Eastern Caribbean islands, arriving at the large, well-stocked grocery stores in St. Martin and Sint Maarten felt like a luxury.

The hard part isn’t finding groceries here; it’s figuring out which store is worth hauling everything back from when you’re traveling by dinghy instead of loading bags into a car. 

Cruisers will find everything from French cheeses and fresh baguettes to familiar American brands and bulk groceries. There is even a Cost U Less, which is similar to Costco or Sam’s Club but does not require a membership.

The French and Dutch sides offer slightly different products, prices, and currencies, so choosing where to shop may depend on what you need and where your boat is located. We found a stronger selection of French and European products in St. Martin, while stores in Sint Maarten generally carried more familiar North American brands.

In this guide, I’ll cover 12 grocery stores we used during more than five months of visits to the island over the past few years. I’ll explain what each one is best for, share practical tips for getting your provisions back to the boat, and highlight the best options for bulk shopping, French products, quick top-ups, and large provisioning trips before sailing farther south.

Best Grocery Stores for Cruisers

With all of the different options for grocery shopping in St. Martin / St. Maarten, I broke down a quick overview of where the best place to grocery shop is by category:

Map of Grocery Stores in St. Martin and St. Maarten

Tips for Grocery Shopping in St. Martin

Before I get into the ins and outs of each grocery store, I want to share a few helpful tips for grocery shopping in St. Maarten after you have cleared into either St. Martin or St. Maarten:

1. Bring your own bags – Grocery stores in the islands typically do not have grocery bags, or you have to buy them. I recommend bringing your own, including an insulated bag like this one we use for cold items like frozen foods and dairy. Even a short walk back in the Caribbean heat can melt your cold goods and chocolate cereal 🤣fast.
2. Use the cruiser shuttle – On Fridays during peak season, there is a cruiser shuttle from Island Water World that will take you to the Cost U Less and Carrefour on Bush Road. Be sure to listen to the cruiser net when you first sail to St. Martin for details.
3. Consider how you will carry groceries back to the boat – We use a fold up shopping cart like this one for grocery stores walking distance away. A 15-minute walk sounds easy until you’re carrying canned goods, drinks, produce and more back to the dinghy.
4. Check currencies and exchange rates – They use the Euro in St. Martin, and the Caribbean Guilder or US Dollar in St. Maarten.

Grocery Stores in St. Martin

On the French side of St. Martin, we used everything from small neighborhood markets to larger supermarkets for full provisioning runs.

CadisMarket – Sandy Ground

• Location: Sandy Ground neighborhood of Marigot
• Access: They have their own dinghy dock inside the Lagoon, if you choose to anchor in the lagoon
• Best For: Quick stop for 1-2 items
• Best Finds: Quick easy lunches. We’ve grabbed a quick lunch here after using their dinghy dock for doing laundry, that’s just up the road.
• My Experience: It is a small convenience store attached to their gas station, but it is very handy for picking up a couple small items. They have their own dinghy dock, which makes them a super convenient stop.

CadisMarket – Marigot

• Location: Marigot
• Access: The shortest distance is from a dinghy dock inside the Lagoon, but you can also walk to it from the dinghy dock in Marigot Bay.
• Best For: Small grocery shopping trips. It’s bigger than the Sandy Ground store, but more of an Express store.
• Best Finds: Daily fresh baguettes 😋
• My Experience: We would visit this store a lot if we ran out of an item or two like some Coke, or needed something for dinner, like an onion. We also bought a lot of baguettes from here  🫣

Supermarche Monoprix – Marigot

• Location: Bellevue neighborhood of Marigot
• Access: It’s approximately 0.43 miles (700m) / 10-minute walk from the dinghy dock in the Lagoon in Marigot. Beware, as there are loose, aggressive dogs along this walk.
• Best For: Picking up higher end groceries by car (due to the dogs who live between here and the dinghy dock).
• Best Finds: Specialty items such as vegan, organic, dairy-free, and vegetarian
• My Experience: I’ve checked out this French grocery store, as it is near the veterinarian we take Mangaux to, but we haven’t done major grocery shopping here. I’d say it is larger than the CadisMarkets, but smaller than the SuperU and Carrefours.

Super U – Marigot

• Location: Marigot
• Access: It’s approximately 0.75 mi (1.2km) / 15-minute walk from the dinghy dock in the Lagoon in Marigot
• Best For: Routine grocery shopping / provisioning
• Best Finds: French/European products. Definitely buy your French cheeses and wines here.
• My Experience: I have always found Super U well stocked with a good selection of items, once you get used to the French brands and differences from North American products. And if you haven’t seen their selection of chocolate cereals, you must go down that aisle!

Super U – Grand Case

• Location: Grand Case
• Access: It’s approximately 1.5 miles (2.4km) / 30-minute walk from the dinghy dock, if you are anchored in Grand Case
• Best For: Routine grocery shopping / provisioning in the Grand Case area
• Best Finds: In addition to a larger selection of groceries compared to the Super U in Marigot, this store also has a good selection of health and personal care items. I stock up on shampoo and shave gel here as it is much more cost efficient than the pharmacies.
• My Experience: This Super U in Grand Case is much larger than the Marigot location. Also, I have done a routine grocery shopping trip here with my shopping cart, and the walk back felt much longer  😂

Grocery Stores in St. Maarten

On the Dutch side of St. Maarten, we used everything from quick-stop markets to larger supermarkets with North American brands that made full provisioning runs much easier.

Carrefour – Cole Bay

• Location: Cole Bay
• Access: This Carrefour is located behind the Port de Plaisance Marina. As of 2026, they allowed cruisers to use their dinghy dock for access to the grocery store.
• Best For: Everything! I love stocking up here when we are in the Lagoon. To me it’s the best grocery store near Simpson Bay Lagoon.
• Best Finds: They have a great frozen food section, and a good mix of European and North American products. Also, and randomly, it’s the only store on the island where I could find small (2L) garbage bags for our heads.
• My Experience: This is probably my favorite grocery store on the island for its mix of European and North American brands, and its easy accessibility. It’s about a 10-minute walk from the dinghy dock, through a big parking lot with little traffic. I have heard you can pay the grocery baggers to drive you back to the dinghy dock if you buy a lot of groceries, but we never tried it out.

Market Garden – Simpson Bay

• Location: Simpson Bay
• Access: You can get here from the dinghy dock near the IGY Simpson Bay Marina (however, this dinghy dock is often very crowded), about a 5-minute walk, or the dinghy dock at the Simpson Bay Yacht Club, about a 10-minute walk. We often used the Simpson Bay Yacht Club’s dinghy dock and walked a little extra to avoid the crowded dinghy dock near IGY Simpson Bay Marina
• Best For: Specialty items you love from the USA that are hard to find in the Caribbean. They also have a great hot food bar, and bakery section.
• Best Finds: For a treat, we would buy Stacey’s pita chips, cottage cheese (hard to find in the French stores), and other USA-brand items we loved to eat when we were in the States.
• My Experience: They are a bit more expensive than the other St. Maarten supermarkets. With that said, we found ourselves here a lot to grab chips not found in the other stores.

Greens Market – Cole Bay

• Location: Cole Bay
• Access: About a 5-minute walk from the Budget Marine dinghy dock
• Best For: A no-frills grocery store with a great selection of food and reasonable prices
• Best Finds: They have a great Asian selection of items and a big produce section
• My Experience: We would come here to go grocery shopping if we were looking for produce and other basic staples. We would end up doing bigger shopping trips at Carrefour or Super U.

Carrefour – Bush Road

• Location: Over the hill, as the locals say. It’s between Cole Bay and Philipsburg
• Access: Bus, Rental Car, or Cruiser shuttle that leaves from Island Water World
• Best For: Meats and produce and all-around provisioning from the cruiser shuttle
• Best Finds: Full meal planning can be done here. If you are like me and create a meal plan, then a grocery list off of that, you should find everything you are looking for. You may need to mix it up between North American and European brands, but that is the fun of it!
• My Experience: Shopping in Carrefour is as close to shopping in a US grocery store as you are going to find in the Caribbean. We stopped here frequently when we had a rental car when our boat was hauled out for repair.

Cost U Less – Bush Road

• Location: Over the hill, as the locals say. It’s between Cole Bay and Philipsburg, and across the street from the Carrefour
• Access: Bus, Rental Car, or Cruiser shuttle that leaves from Island Water World
• Best For: This is the go-to place for stocking up before heading south down the island chain. Best priced Jack Daniels in the Caribbean.
• Best Finds: Bulk items like paper towels, toilet paper, nuts, beef jerky and other snacks.
• My experience: This store is a great find! There are other bulk stores on the island, but I believe this one has the biggest selection of things. I feel like I’m in a Costco without needing a membership. I never sail south without stopping here for my giant containers of cashews and beef jerky! 

Getting ready to sail south? Before we leave an island, we work through our pre-departure checklist so we don’t forget anything important before getting underway. You can grab a free copy of the checklist here.

Maho Market – Maho Beach

• Location: Maho Beach
• Access: We have taken a bus and rental car to Maho Beach and this market is just across the street.
• Best For: Quick pick up items like drinks and snacks
• Best Finds: Beer, wine, cheese, crackers, and other snack food
• My Experience: Our friends visited us one season and rented a house near here. We stopped here for snacks on our way back to the rental house. We made some great charcuterie boards (with great wine, of course) from this store.

Fairway Mark It – Philipsburg

• Location: Philipsburg
• Access: Rental Car or bus
• Best For: Grocery shopping in the Philipsburg area
• Best Finds: Its location in Philipsburg. You can do a full grocery run in this one store if you are anchored or moored in Philipsburg. 
• My Experience: We stayed in Philipsburg when our boat was hauled out for repairs and stopped here on a few occasions. It’s not as big as the Carrefour or Super U markets, but much larger and better stocked than grocery stores on smaller islands.

Where I Would Provision in St. Martin

After visiting more remote islands like Bequia and Dominica, it’s like a dream finding everything you are looking for (or the French equivalent) at one store, and with such a wide selection to choose from.

We love Cost U Less for a major southbound provisioning run, Carrefour in Cole Bay for day-to-day provisioning from the Lagoon, and Super U for specialty French products.

I love that I can buy in bulk at Cost U Less, and I can find American brands like Kirklands and Charmin.

Overall, we find the prices to be reasonable, compared to smaller islands or grocery shopping in Grenada, which helps when buying lots of groceries.

If you are planning your trip to St. Martin, and trying to decide where to anchor, check out this anchoring guide for St. Martin. Many of these grocery stores in St. Martin are accessible from these great anchorage spots.

Articles Related to Sailing in St. Martin / St. Maarten

• Sailing to St. Martin: A Complete Guide for Cruisers
• Clearing Into St. Maarten by Boat: Customs, Fees and What to Expect for Both Sides
• How to Get Around in St. Maarten
• Entering Simpson Bay Lagoon: Bridges, Fees and What to Expect
• Anchoring in St. Martin: Best Spots & Tips for Cruisers
• Grocery Stores in St. Martin: A Complete Shopping Guide