Hitting pre-Thanksgiving sales at ShopRite and Target

Boxes of imported clementines and domestic sweet potatoes were on sale today at the ShopRite supermarket in Paramus.

Editor's note: Today, I discuss items I bought on sale at ShopRite and Target, so-called natural peanut butters from Jiff and Skippy, and promotions at Bel Posto Restaurant and Sushi World in Hackensack.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

The ShopRite in Paramus isn't my favorite, but I save gas by stopping there on the way home from the gym.

In fact, I can see the store through the window of the gym as I pump the pedals of a recumbent exercise bicycle.

This morning, I picked up clementines, sweet potatoes, plastic snack bags, lactose-free milk and toothpaste -- all of which were on sale.

A 5-pound box of clementines came from Morocco, not Spain. 

They were $4.99, a savings of $2, and the clementines and box weighed about 5.75 pounds when I put them on a store scale. Limit one.

I baked the sweet potatoes at 400 degrees for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until the sugar came out of them, above. I ate a small one ad it was delicious with nothing added. 

A 5-pound box of sweet potatoes was $2.49 or $1 off, but I was limited to one box. ("Sweet potatoes" appears on the box, but "yam" shows up on the receipt.)

The sweet potatoes will be part of our Thanksgiving menu, which isn't set yet.

Arm & Hammer toothpaste was on sale for $1.99, a savings of $1.50, and I had a $1-off coupon for one tube. Limit four.

Lactaid 1% milk also was on sale for $3.49, the same price ShopRite charges for its own lactose-free milk.

Plastic snack bags were $1 for a box of 50.

A sign at ShopRite in Paramus drives home how the phrase "all natural" is thrown around by food processors. Amick Farms chicken from South Carolina is raised with harmful antibiotics and the wrapper doesn't even claim they are fed a vegetarian diet. That could mean they receive animal byproducts -- bits of dead animals and food scraps.

At Target in Hackensack, so-called natural peanut butters from Jiff and Skippy contain added sugar, palm oil and other ingredients you won't find in Kirkland Signature Natural Peanut Butter from Costco Wholesale (100% Valencia Peanuts and sea salt only).

Jiff natural peanut butter also contains molasses.

Sparkling cider at Target

At Target in Hackensack, bottles of Martinelli's Sparkling Cider and Sparkling Apple-Pomegranate -- both made from 100% juice -- were on sale today at two for $5.

Using a coupon for $10 off a purchase of $50 I found in a sales flier and a Target credit card, I bought 20 25.4-ounce bottles for $38 -- or $1.90 a bottle. 

Using the Target card gave me an additional 5% discount.

That compares to about $2.22 a bottle at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack (four bottles for $8.89); and $2.99 a bottle for a similar cider at Trader Joe's in Paramus.

The Martinelli's sale started on Sunday, so I found only two bottles of Sparkling Cider at the Hackensack Target.


Bel Posto promotions

Bel Posto, the fine-dining Italian-American restaurant at 160 Prospect Ave. in Hackensack, is offering several promotions, according to a weekly newspaper's dining and shopping guide.

Lunch specials on Tuesdays through Fridays are $19.95, and sunset dinner specials on the same days are $24.95.

Specials include choice of salad, chef's daily specials, three entrees, dessert and coffee.

From the sushi bar, on Thursdays from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., a Ladies Roll special includes choice of any three rolls with wine, beer or soda for $20. 

Update

I returned to ShopRite the next day, again on the way home from the gym, to get a refund for the snack bags, and bought a box of the bigger sandwich bags, which was what I wanted in the first place.

They also were on sale. A box of 50 were $1. But the 100-bag box cost less per bag at the reduced price of $1.88.

I also bought another b0x of sweet potatoes ($2.49) and a second box of clementines ($4.99).

The clementine box carried the same brand name as the box I bought the day before -- Roxy -- but this citrus fruit is from  Spain, not Morocco.