Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Trying to warm up to Fairway Market in Paramus

I went to Fairway Market in Paramus today with a $10-off coupon I had received in the mail. All I had to do was spend $100, which I found easy by stocking up on some favorite items. And by making a list, I spent only $1.29 over $100, in contrast to the first time I tried this and went $10 to $15 over.

I bought seven jars of pasta sauce, on sale at $2.49 each; seven one-pound packages of salted cod, $8.99 each; about six pounds of Murray's drug-free chicken wings and three Murray's leg quarters, $13.45 and $3.50, respectively; a Fairway baguette, 99 cents; and Campari herbicide-free tomatoes, $2.99. Only the baguette wasn't on my list.

With the coupon, my total was $91.29. But I was torn about buying wings, because Fairway prices them much higher than Murray's thighs, legs and leg quarters. I bought the family pack for $2.49 a pound; smaller quantities are priced at $2.69 a pound, a full dollar above the other parts.

After I checked out, I asked a woman who identified herself as a manager why the wings were priced so high. She seemed surprised and said she didn't know. Maybe the chickens put up a bigger fight over their wings than over their other parts. Or maybe it's just a rip-off.

I still don't feel warm all over about New York-based Fairway opening a store in North Jersey, even though I shopped for years at its Harlem store. The Paramus outpost is six miles from my home in Hackensack, in the dowdy Fashion Center, compared to just over a mile to Whole Foods Market in Parmaus and between one and two miles to three ShopRites. And I can't help feel a chill from some of the snooty shoppers and the unhelpful store personnel.

On top of all that, Fairway doesn't have a large selection of antibiotic-free poultry and meats, compared to Whole Foods, and some of the items it does have are priced higher than such competitors as Trader Joe's. I saw three brands of uncured, preservative-free bacon, but they were all 12 ounces, not the 16 ounces sold at Trader Joe's for less.

6 comments:

  1. I feel equally uncomfortable about the snooty shoppers at that store, plus there just seems to be a general feeling that you are "being watched" with all the store security. The personnel at the store are nothing to write home to mom about either.

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  2. It took forever for Fairway to open its New Jersey store and it was an on-and-off thing for a long time. Then they picked an out-of-the-way shopping center. Maybe the rent is cheaper there, but Whole Foods scored a coup by picking the modernized and renamed Bergen Mall. As it is, I go to Fairway once a month, if that. And I still have to go the Harlem store to get goat meat, which isn't sold in Paramus.

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  3. I live about a half mile from Fairway and go there once a month, you are right, the shopping center is very inconvenient but if it was a pleasant shopping experience such as Wegmans, I would probably be there a couple times a week.

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  4. I've heard so many good things about Wegmans, so why don't they open a store in North Jersey? Whole Foods is trying to open another store in Closter; would have been a great location for Wegmans.

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  5. Wegman's is in Woodbridge and Bridgewater, I don't think their business model fits with the high cost of overhead in North Jersey. Their stores are huge, no grocery store in this area can really compare, not to mention a large restaurant area with various cuisines. Their prices have gone up since my first days of shopping there in the early/mid 90s in Johnson City, NY and Dickson City, PA.

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  6. I'll have to make the trip. Woodbridge is not that far away. I could combine it with a visit to the great Indian restaurants in the Iselin section.

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