Super Fresh Changes

[rlibkind]

SuperFresh on Columbus Boulevard seems to be making subtle shifts in its offerings. Could the center city condo boom be driving this?

The line of baked goods has expanded and includes a much wider range of bakery-style cookies and cakes.

Also new is bulk chocolate from Belcolade, a Belgian producer owned by another Belgian firm that serves the bakery, patisserie and chocolate industries, both industrial and retail producers. I haven't tried the chocolate, but if it's at all decent it's a bargain at $7.99/pound; SuperFresh had both milk and dark versions, though the cocoa content of the dark was not specified.

I try to stick to seasonal fruits, but the bagged clementines at SuperFresh tempted me yesterday. The three-pound bags from South Africa were selling for $5.99.

[MarketStEl]

Perhaps--but why wouldn't I be seeing similar changes at the 10th and South store, which is a lot closer to most of those condos?

Granted, the Uberfresh is about three times the size of the SuperCruise, but still, the latter probably grabs a higher share of those new condo dwellers.

The last major changes in the 10th and South product mix that I noticed were the dramatic increase in, and grouping together of, natural and organic foods when Whole Foods opened right across the street.

Oh, yes--there was the switch from Dietz & Watson to Boar's Head, but that was chainwide.

But I will keep an eye open on my next trip to see whether anything else is new.

[urbanfabric]

Perhaps--but why wouldn't I be seeing similar changes at the 10th and South store, which is a lot closer to most of those condos?

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Because, unless they can change the smell of that store, there's really no point in adding products.

If you shop there you know what I mean, right? There are some days it really just smells like dirty diapers. In the produce section.

If I were going to make changes to that store, I would start with:

1. making it smell better

2. ending the practice of refilling the empty lemon and lime baskets with those plastic containers of lemon and lime juice that are shaped like the fruits.

3. requiring that cashiers stop yelling at each other and start making eye contact with and greeting customers... the first words out of their mouths shouldn't be "debit or credit?!"

[SteveR]

And the Meat Dept on FIFTH St actually has better selection than 10th St and it's smaller!

Steve R

[MarketStEl]

IME 5th and Pine is also tidier and cleaner than 10th and South. I guess customers in Society Hill are more demanding than us Wash West/Bella Vista/Hawthorne mongrels.

Can't say I've noticed the dirty-diaper smell yet, but yes, there have been times when the SuperCruise is a little fragrant. Not rotting-produce-on-a-hot-summer-day-on-9th-Street fragrant, but un-supermarkety all the same.

There are a few cashiers at the SuperCruise who are pleasant and greet customers. I usually seek out their lanes when they're working. But I find store personnel on the whole businesslike at minimum.

Since we're now comparing notes on the chain, you all might find it interesting to note that when Consumer Reports last surveyed members on supermarkets, A&P ranked toward the bottom of the chains on the member satisfaction scale, with cleanliness of the stores a big issue. Since the range of scores for all chains surveyed was from the mid-70s to the high 90s on a 0-to-100 satisfaction scale, though, you can't really say they disliked shopping at A&P or any of the other chains surveyed.

[TarteTatin]

I know we go to the Delaware Ave. Superfresh specifically for D'artagnan products and, in season, Maine brown clams. (Big bag for something like $6). Also, their lobsters aren't a bad price.

The herbs are pretty good, packaged well, even if they aren't local.