I hope this isn't a thread duplication, but I haven't found anything devoted to this specific topic. I'm in the market to upgrade my panniers, and wonder if anyone has any advice for me.

I want something that will hold a shirt, pants, book, etc in the main compartment; my cellphone, wallet, etc. in an outside pocket for easy access; and a separate outside pocket for my citadel lock as I do errands to and from work. So I also want a pannier that will hold grocery items, fruit, beer, and whatever. I do a lot of errands by bike. Maybe I need to get a different one for that? Water proof isn't a big deal, water resistant is fine. It would be great to take my computer, but not essential, only need to occasionally.

I see a lot of options online, but you can't tell about this kind of thing unless you actually see it and try it. The stores here in DC have a very limited selection of commuting panniers, even though commuting to work is taking off here. So I'm kind of stuck.

Any ideas?

This may not be what you're looking for:
I use military surplus packs of different sorts. Some have more than one pocket, others do not. Even the plain canvas ones qualify as water resistant, and some of the packs are actually waterproof--I have some East German combat packs which will hold water. The advantages of using this sort of thing are the following: They're usually under $10.00. They're very sturdy, better than most bicycle specific panniers, I would guess. They're also useful as backpacks.
I usually use toe-clip straps to attach them. The backpack straps can either be tied up or in some cases removed.

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I bought the Axiom Appalachia bags three and a half years ago. It was dirt cheap at $30. I got them as I wasn't sure how much I'd commute. Now that I've been commuting with them for 3.5 years I can say that I a VERY pleased. They still look great, and with a once a year application of some water proofing spray things stay remarkably dry even in a downpoor. The set is more like a saddle bag so it hangs over your rear rack. Not a bag to comes off in 2 seconds like some nice Ortlieb or Arkel bags... but then these cost 1/5 as much. I've haulled all sorts of stuff. The bags have one outside pocket on each side that nicely hold some stuff. One the one side is a spare tube in the box, the other side has my cable to be used in conjuction with the U-lock and some extra bungie cords. Certainly this is not an advanced bag, but for me it has worked great.

Happy riding,
André

I have the Axiom Kootenays. Larger than what I needed them for, but they have all sorts of straps to cinch them up. I've heard good things about the Nashbar bags. I simply looked at the the cubic inches of the bookbag I was using and used that as starting point for the size panniers I wanted.

Not cheap, but check out the Woodward from North St. Cycles. (More pics) The pannier-only model is a hundred bucks or so, and the convertible backpack is considerably more.

For the money, you get a hand-made, water-proof pannier with external pockets (including one that works as a lock holster, it has a water bottle in the pic, but it will fit a narrow-shackle U-Lock) and a lot of interior room.

I'm probably going to order one in August, as a berfday present to myself.

You have a pretty broad list of how you want to use it. IMO, a good commuting pannier doesn't make a good grociery pannier, and a good grociery pannier doesn't make a good touring pannier. For commuting, I use the Novara Commuter Pannier. You can read my review here, it addressess most of you questions:

https://www.rei.com/product/780448

For things like grocieries, I'm more inclined to put a folding basket on the bike, or maybe a softside basket style pannier.

Ack! That's a $100 for one pannier? You can get a pair of Ortlieb panniers for $121 including shipping from Wiggle.

In features and construction, it's similar to a Carradice Bike Bureau, only with more pockets and custom colors. To my eye, it's a more attractive piece of luggage than the Ortliebs, more voluminous and with more utility, having a number of external and internal pockets, including a notebook sleeve.

And if you want to play the "How Low Can You Go" game, Nashbar's house brand has everyone beat in terms of price.

Comparing Nashbar and Ortlieb is like comparing a Yugo to a BMW. I definitely wasn't playing "go as low as you can go". I was saying that $200 for a set of panniers is high. The Woodward may have pretty racing strips but it has a pretty low end bare-bones mounting sytem not something I would expect for that price.

PBK is cheaper still.

so, i've got some nashbar garment panniers. they are nice. have a clip to put up to 6 hangers for clothes, and it also holds a gallon of milk(although it'll throw off the balance of the bike)...but i love it.

Thanks everyone for the ideas. i'll check out these iyt, I was looking at the Bontrager commuter bags. They may work for both groceries and commuting as one bag has a lot of small compartments and another is big and open, for grocery. But I haven't seen it yet. Anyone know anything about them?

You got a backpack? Get you a basket (or two) and be done- at a whole cheaper price. Lock goes in basket, pack on top of lock when riding. Then for your grocery run, put the pack on and grocery sack(s) goes into basket(s). Easy peasy.