Same chain, same 15-pound bag of rice, so why is it double the price?

The H Mart in Fort Lee displays bags of rice just beyond the checkout counters, because the staff says there isn't room for them anywhere else in the store. Today, this 15-pound bag of rice was selling for twice what I paid on Saturday at another H Mart.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

We shop regularly at stores in the H Mart chain for prepared Korean food, Asian greens, fresh wild-caught fish and free samples on the weekends.

Today, I drove to the Fort Lee store, where I found a box of 16 Ataulfo Mangoes from Ecuador on sale for $9.99 with a store card -- a discount of $5 -- and two heads of Red Leaf Lettuce for only 99 cents.

After I checked out, I saw a sign for a 15-pound bag of Kokuho Yellow Label Rice for $19.99, twice what I paid the day before at the Little Ferry H Mart, 260 Bergen Turnpike.

In Little Ferry, the California-grown rice was $9.99, a discount of $10, according to the sign there.

This isn't the first time I've noticed different prices for the same item at stores in the H Mart chain, but I haven't seen anything as dramatic as the prices for rice in Little Ferry and Fort Lee. 

Squeeze play

At the Little Ferry store, I also picked up a 5-pound box of Bagu Clementines from Spain for $4.99, a discount of $3; and a package of Stewed Alaskan Pollack for $7.99.

The clementines rang up at $7.99, but I told the cashier the sign said they were on sale for $4.99. 

She went to get the sign, scanned the bar code on it to give me the lower price, but didn't return the sign to the display of clementines.

In Fort Lee today, a 5-pound box of clementines was $6.99.

Whole sea bass, which my wife seasoned and fried in olive oil, were $6.99 a pound on Saturday at the Englewood H Mart, 25 Lafayette Ave.

A Korean Finger Roll or Kimbap is even tastier when you add a couple of pieces of kimchi to it and wrap them in a lettuce leaf. A package of rolls with Korean pickles was $4.79 today at the Fort Lee H Mart in the Linwood Plaza shopping center.

Before I went food shopping today, I joined two friends for breakfast at the Rochelle Park Diner & Grill, 222 Rochelle Ave., Rochelle Park (201-843-0068), below. My tasty three-egg Florentine Omelet, with spinach and feta cheese, was $7.25, including potatoes and toast.

At the Rochelle Park Diner, the umbrella stand and clock are eye-catching, above and below.