Shop Rite

[Rachel Perlow]

Yes, I suppose it would definitely depend on your local ShopRite. I could totally see doing this in Englewood. Heck, sometimes I can't find things and have to track down and emplyee -- if I specified things in an online order, they'd have to find it, wouldn't they? Obviously, you should check your order carefully to make sure they included everything and gave you the correct sale price, etc.

[menton1]

I don't think I want ShopRite employees picking out my produce... There also seems to be a refrigeration and timing problem--- probably less worrisome in the winter, but in the hot weather this could also be a problem!

[rooftop1000]

I usually do my shopping at the West Milford Shoprite which has an amazing produce dept, OK meat, never get deli (I do that for a living) but if you want seafood you have to ring a bell and someone comes over from deli???????? The fish looks fine but I usually just grab a bag of frozen shrimp and be done with it ( raw shrimp NEVER EVER buy frozen cooked shrimp for the love of whoever)

If I want real seafood I usually stop at their Ramsey store on the way home....lame produce but great seafood and the bakery is to die for never been even remotely dissapointed in their pastries, donuts etc even used them for catering...better than our usual cake bakery.

I cant figure out why the produce dept up here is so good the population seems fairly homogenous and yet they stock some fairly wild carribean and asian produce and there is usually someone there that knows what to do with it. I even managed a lively conversation with the produce guy and some other customers over exactly what is a sweet potato.

both are Inserra stores I think.....nice family from Saddle River ...donated an ambulance to the town last year

T

[Rail Paul]

but if you want seafood you have to ring a bell and someone comes over from deli????????

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ShopRite deli, meat, and fish clerks are in the butcher's union. Checkers, produce, dairy, and stockers are in the clerks union. Under the agreement, only a member of the appropriate union can perform a specific job.

Within the butcher's union, only a butcher can cut a piece of meat. A helper/ wrapper can take meat out of the butcher's display, weigh, and wrap it, but she or he can't cut it.

[bloviatrix]

Blovie tells me that Shop-Rite is having a sale on Tropicana this week -- 2 for $4. Time to stock up!!

[jhlurie]

The World Class product line is world class! (You can have that one for free.)

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I'm kind of partial to the A&P "Master Choice" line, although I like most other things in ShopRite better, otherwise.

[ghostrider]

Blovie tells me that Shop-Rite is having a sale on Tropicana this week -- 2 for $4.  Time to stock up!!

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That's only if you have your Price Plus card. Otherwise it's 2 for $5.

[Taboni]

If you talk to my wife, she will tell you that my purpose in life is the eternal search for cheap Tropicana OJ. 2 for $4 you can get every day at Costco (actually its 4 for $7.99). In my world buy 1 get 1 free is cause for excitement. Call me Ponce de Leon.

[jhlurie]

If you talk to my wife, she will tell you that my purpose in life is the eternal search for cheap Tropicana OJ.  2 for $4 you can get every day at Costco (actually its 4 for $7.99).  In my world buy 1 get 1 free is cause for excitement. Call me Ponce de Leon.

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The competition, Pathmark, has Florida's Natural brand (which in my opinion may be better than Tropicana) for that same 2 for $4 rate this week.

[Taboni]

I agree regarding Florida's Natural, but the Mrs won't drink it (she is a nightmare of a picky eater) She also doesn't get the fact that certain sizes of things may be on sale (eg the gallon of OJ for 4.99 as opposed to the half for 3.59) The few times she actually goes shopping with me I constantly have to walk behind and replace items she has already put in the cart. You can imagine how much she loves this. My wife isn't allowed to do any grocery shopping..she just doesn't get it.

[Rachel Perlow]

Florida's Natural and Tropicana regularly take turns at being the loss-leaders in the circular. I simply won't buy orange juice at regular prices anymore, as I usually buy several at the $2 per half-gallon "sale" price.

[Jason Perlow]

Florida's Natural is a competing co-op to Tropicana that basically grows the same exact stuff. I think a good amount of the growers may originally have been part of the Tropicana org in some way and then parted ways. The difference is that the growers own the land and the trees and shares in the company, whereas Tropicana is owned wholly by Pepsico.

http://www.floridasnatural.com/history.htm

There is another major brand of OJ that goes on sale pretty often that is horrid, horrid stuff though, it has the nastiest aftertaste -- Tree Ripe. AVOID!!!!

[menton1]

Orange Juice has slipped radically in popularity apparently due to the low-carb barrage out there, and getting people to eat the whole fruit, rather than the juice. That's probably why they are having all the price cuts. That being said, all processed OJ tastes lousy! Nothing beats the fresh squeezed, sometimes available at Jerry's in Englewood, and always available at Zabar's. Once you get used to the fresh, you just can't drink any of the processed stuff.

[Jason Perlow]

Fresh OJ is still too expensive in any quantity, though. Some of us are still on budgets. :)

[Rachel Perlow]

I don't think that's the reason the price is regularly low. It's called a "loss leader." They want you in there so you'll buy some of the regularly priced stuff too.

[ghostrider]

If you check the "Sell By" dates on the juice containers (and I really advise doing this), you may discover another reason why a particular batch is on sale during a particular week.

[Rachel Perlow]

I understand your suspicion, but the sell by dates don't seem unusually close. I would think that would happen more with in-store specials, but these are company-wide sales, they are planned for more in advance than a getting-rid-of-excess-stock sale would indicate. Besides, don't you think having OJ and Soda (Pepsi products are 5 12-packs for $10 this week, that's less than 17 cents per can) be loss leaders is reason enough?

[bloviatrix]

Florida's Natural is a competing co-op to Tropicana that basically grows the same exact stuff. I think a good amount of the growers may originally have been part of the Tropicana org in some way and then parted ways. The difference is that the growers own the land and the trees and shares in the company, whereas Tropicana is owned wholly by Pepsico.

http://www.floridasnatural.com/history.htm

There is another major brand of OJ that goes on sale pretty often that is horrid, horrid stuff though, it has the nastiest aftertaste -- Tree Ripe. AVOID!!!!

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Since when did Pepsi buy Tropicana?

BTW, a half gallon of Tree Ripe recently made it's way into the house. I also thought it was pretty nasty stuff, but I think they may have made some changes. It's actually drinkable now. But then, maybe my taste-buds are off.

[Jason Perlow]

Tropicana was purchased by Pepsico in 1998 from Seagrams. Ocean Spray actually started a lawsuit over it in an attempt to block the sale, but failed and ended up dropping it.

In 2003 Pepsico moved its Dole and Tropicana juice operations to Chicago as part of a restructuring/consolidation effort in order to cut costs.

[ghostrider]

I understand your suspicion, but the sell by dates don't seem unusually close. I would think that would happen more with in-store specials, but these are company-wide sales, they are planned for more in advance than a getting-rid-of-excess-stock sale would indicate. Besides, don't you think having OJ and Soda (Pepsi products are 5 12-packs for $10 this week, that's less than 17 cents per can) be loss leaders is reason enough?

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I just think that all these things factor into it. My local SR is unloading a bunch of Trop that expires 1/20/05. In the past I've seen them sell batches that expire a week after the sale ends. I agree that the loss-leader strategy is probably their primary motivation, but all the same it never hurts to check those dates.

[Jason Perlow]

For the most part expiration dates on heat pasteurized Orange Juice is a bunch of baloney. I've opened cartons of premium OJ that were two weeks expired from sitting in my fridge and they were perfectly fine. Once you open it is one thing, but I think you could go a month past that expiration date and still be fine.

[ghostrider]

My experience is that, the closer the juice is to the sell-by date, the more bitter it tastes.

This may not be true in general. I know from other experiences that my dinky little ShopRite does not have an adequate refrigeration system, and I'm probably tasting the effects of that.

[ghostrider]

Opened the container of 1/20 Trop this a.m. Freshly opened, the damn stuff has that fizzy aftertaste. It's going back.

Hopefully the 2/10 carton I got at the same time (it was the last one left on the shelf, a clear sign that a lot of other shoppers take the same precautions I do with this dump) will be in better shape.

We really do have a lousy store (Rutherford). If they weren't the only game in town, they'd have gone out of business ages ago.

Their produce shelf is a disgrace. And you don't even want to think about buying meat that's anywhere near the sell-by date at this place.

[Curlz]

Have to agree with you about the Rutherford store, Ghost...have you tried driving all the way over ( ) to the Lyndhurst one yet? Much nicer!

[Wiener]

re: orange juice. My yearly order of Cushmann's honeybell oranges arrived today to my surprise. They are the best-tasting oranges you will ever have and one orange usually makes a decent sized glass of juice. I have been buying from them for about 6 years and have never had a problem. Only thing is, after they are gone, it is almost impossible to go back to the oj in a carton. They do have a website and the oranges are only available for a limited time. I did see them in King's in Upper Montclair a year or two ago.