Which scale is supposed to come first?

Image by Joe Lencioni via Flickr

Fairway Market in Paramus usually has a sale on a pound of coffee beans for $5.99.  Not too many months ago, the sale price of a pound of beans was $4.99.

I have been buying whole fish for years, but encountered a first the other day at Fairway Market in Paramus.

This branch of the New York-based supermarket company has a great fish counter, but prices also are among the highest. I saw one woman pay $11.99 or $12.99 a pound for flounder fillets.

However, whole whiting and whole porgy were being sold at a low $3.99 a pound on Monday. Knowing my wife and son were planning to eat beef for dinner, I asked the fish monger to clean one porgy for me, leaving the head and tail on.

Usually, the whole fish is weighed first, then scaled, gutted and cleaned. But he went straight to the cleaning counter. When he weighed it and packed it up, the sticker said $4.03.

So, here I am thinking I was getting away with not paying for a heavier, pre-cleaned and pre-gutted fish. But when I prepared my dinner, plated half the fish and began eating, I discovered that he had done a poor job of scaling, and I had to pick about a half-dozen scales out of my mouth. That's no bargain.

I guess you could call my dinner, "Porgy and Mess."

I drove to Fairway to buy four liters of the store-brand extra-virgin olive oil from Italy at $4.99 each (regular $8.99). Unlike ShopRite's extra-virgin olive oil from Italy, this one isn't "first cold pressed," just "cold pressed."

I also picked up two pounds of French roast coffee beans and had them ground ($5.99 a pound).

Organic ground beef

My food purchases at Costco in Hackensack on Monday included a pound of organic spinach ($3.99); two pounds of herbicide-free, Sunset-brand Campari tomatoes ($5.49); and three, one-pound packages of Verde Farms organic ground beef, with 15% fat content ($12.99).

The Verde Farms package says "no added" antibiotics and growth hormones, so I've e-mailed the company for clarification. The beef comes from the U.S., Canada and Australia.

Two pounds of domestic pistachios -- shelled -- were $19.99. I couldn't find the ones in the shell I usually buy.

I also exchanged a pair of Sketchers exercise shoes my wife found too small ($49.99 for women, $46.99 for men).

Whole Foods' chicken feet

My wife prepares soup with chicken feet and has been relying for years on the mystery frozen chicken feet sold at ShopRite and Hackensack Market. But last year, we asked and found that the butcher's counter at Whole Foods Market in Paramus stocks frozen feet from organic chickens -- sometimes.

More times than not, unfortunately, the Paramus store is out of chicken feet, which also is a popular item in Chinese cuisine. I don't recall the price, but my wife and son say they notice the difference in taste between the organic and conventional feet.

Puzzling pricing

My wife picked up four, one-pound packages of Barilla thick spaghetti at ShopRite in Paramus for 77 cents each on Tuesday (limit of four) -- far less than during the recently concluded 40th anniversary Can Can Sale.

Bar Keepers Friend

I ordered a dozen cans of Bar Keepers Friend cleanser for the Calphalon stainless-steel pots that I've had trouble cleaning, but when they arrived on Tuesday, I told the UPS man to return them to the company. I felt buyer's remorse over the $11-plus shipping charge for about $18 in product.

My wife bought a 12-ounce can at ShopRite for $2.69, but couldn't find one marked "Cookware" that has a grease-cutting ingredient. Still, I cleaned one of my trouble pots this morning and, finally, it looks clean.

Shopper stands up for her rights

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I met a River Edge woman who recounted how she made ShopRite executives honor a low price on Progresso soup during the 40th anniversary Can Can Sale that ended recently.

The supermarket chain was selling 10 19-ounce cans of Progresso soup for $10 -- or $1 each -- but shoppers were required to clip and bring in a coupon, as well as present a store card.

The woman purchased lass than 10 cans and they rang up at $1.19 each. She pointed out the coupon didn't say shoppers must buy 10 to get the deal. Store executives were unmoved.

She said it took a good deal of work, including calls to consumer agency officials, to get the Paramus store to honor the coupon, but eventually, she was able to buy five more cans of the soup for $1 each. Good for her.

Free-range beef on sale

The ShopRite sales flier that came with the paper today is offering free-range, grass-fed beef from Australia for $5.99 a pound with a Price Plus Card ($7.99 a pound without the card).

The whole beef tenderloin for filet mignon usually weighs four to seven pounds and requires trimming. But you can cut into small steaks or thin slices for marinating in Korean sauce, grilling on the stove top and eating wrapped in red-lettuce leaves with garlic, rice and other garnishes.

The Australian beef -- sold under the Nature's Reserve label -- is raised without antibiotics or growth hormones. There is a limit of one package during the sale, which runs from Sunday (Jan. 30) until next Saturday.

Also on sale is Barilla pasta at 77 cents each, with a limit of four. That's less than during the Can Can Sale, when $4 bought you three packages and $10 bought you nine packages.

I was looking for a Fairway Market (Paramus) flier in today's paper, but didn't find one.

The Dented Can Can Sale

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I shopped the first day of the 40th anniversary Can Can Sale at ShopRite in Hackensack this morning, but I don't think I came away with such great bargains. And I was disappointed -- again -- to see no big discount on canned, wild-caught red salmon from Alaska.

My biggest purchase was three dozen cans of Adirondack seltzer at $1.99 a dozen. I also bought three cans of Progresso soup at $1.19 each or 10 for $10. Air Wick air freshener was only 65 cents each, and I picked up nine cans.

Bumble Bee-brand Alaskan red salmon was $4.99 for a can of about 14 ounces, compared to the usual price of $5.49. At long-past Can Can Sales, it was $2.99.

A lot of the stuff I buy at ShopRite wasn't being sold at a discount. Bottles of sparkling, 100% juice from Spain weren't on sale, and, in fact, there were none on the shelf. The oversize, bronze-cut pasta and the extra-virgin olive oil, both from Italy, also were regular price.

Barilla pasta was three for $4 or nine for $10. DeCecco pasta was knocked down to $1.50, from $2.49, not to 99 cents, as I wrote previously.