ShopRite cuts price of lactose-free milk to near what Costco charges

ShopRite in Paramus is offering Jersey Tomatoes that are "locally grown and shipped from nearby," which sounds redundant to me.

Editor's note: Food prices go up and down. Here, I discuss  a few I encountered on the down side.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

I'm mystified by the price roller coaster at Costco Wholesale and other food stores.

On Thursday morning, on the way home from the gym, I stopped at the ShopRite in Paramus to pick up lactose-free milk, because I had run out of the half-gallons I've been buying at Costco Wholesale in Hackensack.

Costco introduced Kirkland Signature 100% Lactose Free 2% Reduced Fat Milk early this year. 

Three half-gallons are $7.99 or about $2.66 each, compared to $3.49 a half-gallon at ShopRite.

But on Thursday, ShopRite's Lactose Free Milk was reduced to $2.99 for a half-gallon, and that isn't a sale price.

ShopRite does have more variety: Lactose Free Milk is available as 1% and 2% reduced fat, and as whole milk. 

This week, the Paramus ShopRite also had a sale on cantaloupes for 97 each with a store card.

Kirkland Signature 100% Lactose Free 2% Reduced Fat Milk at the Costco Wholesale in Wayne.

A 3-pound net bag of Jersey Sweet Potatoes were $2.99 each at the Paramus ShopRite, but on Tuesday I found two that weighed 3.5 pounds and nearly 4 pounds. Meanwhile, a 3-pound bag of Organic Sweet Potatoes was $6.99, a dollar more than before. I enjoyed a baked sweet potato with an egg-white omelet, kimchi and homemade coleslaw.

Great wine in Wayne

After running an errand in Clifton today, I headed for the Costco Wholesale in Wayne, the only one I know that sells wine under the Kirkland Signature label, the house brand.

A best buy is the 1.5-liter bottle of a delicious 2013 California Cabernet Sauvignon -- the equivalent of two bottles -- for only $7.99. I bought two.

Another good value is Kirkland Signature Prosecco, a sparkling wine from Italy, for $6.99.

And I also picked up a bottle of Kirkland Signature Champagne (Brut) from France ($19.99), as are the bottles of Veuve Clicquot displayed next to it at more than twice the price ($44.89).

At Costco Wholesale in Hackensack on Thursday, large, heavy seedless watermelons were $5.49 each, above and below.

While her husband went to get the car, a woman and her children guard what looks like a couple of dozen packages of Bounty Paper Towels from the Hackensack Costco.

In Wayne, Costco sells its French champagne, right, for less than half the price of Veuve Clicquot, below.

More than three dozen drivers lined up at the Costco Wholesale gas station in Wayne, where regular was selling for $2.09.9 this afternoon. But I've seen that price at non-Costco stations, and can't figure out why they would want to wait on a long gas line.