Supermarket sale fliers abound

Image by Chris Devers via Flickr

You need a calculator when you go food shopping, even at a sale.

The 78th anniversary sale at Fairway Market in Paramus runs from May 6-12, 2011. 

I guess it was the original store on the West Side of Manhattan that opened 78 years ago. On my first visit, maybe 15 years ago, I found the aisles so narrow, impatient shoppers constantly rear-ended me with their carts.

During the Paramus sale, two containers of strawberries will be $4, though the size and brand are not given in the flier; a 64-ounce carton of organic, grass-fed milk will be $2.99; and Murray's antibiotic-free chicken drumsticks, legs and thighs will be 99 cents a pound, but only for the larger family packs.

Fresh, whole porgy and whiting will be $2.99 a pound, but that's nothing special. Mercury-filled Bumble Bee solid-white tuna will be 99 cents a can.

The flier carries a long, loving description of smoked king salmon from New Zealand that seems designed to hide its origin in a fish farm and its artificial color ($7.99 for 4 ounces or almost $32 a pound). This would be no bargain, even if it was wild-caught.

Pathmark is offering shoppers 55 years old and up 5% off on Mondays, if they spend $30 or more. 

The supermarket chain also is having a one-day sale on Saturday, May 7, with a 48-ounce container of Turkey Hill Ice Cream selling for $1.79 with a store card (limit one), and a $5 off coupon on a purchase of $50 or more or $16 off a purchase of $160.

On May 6,7 and 8, Pathmark also will double all manufacturers coupons up to $2, with a limit of 20, even those that say "do not double."

A&P's 5% off coupon for shoppers 55 years old and up is good on Tuesdays, if they spend $30 or more. Driscoll's strawberries are $1.99 for a 1-pound container May 6-12 with a store card.

After I wrote this, I bought the same strawberries at H Mart in Little Ferry for $1.49.

On Essex Street In Lodi, the International Food Wine & Liquor Warehouse has three packages of Earthbound Farm organic salads for $10 through May 17, but the flier doesn't specify the size.

If a 1-pound container of Earthbound Farms Organic Spring Mix is $4.79 at Costco, would three 12-ounce containers of other organic salads for $10 be a better buy?

A 3-liter tin of extra-virgin olive oil -- origin unknown -- is $12.99. Collard greens from Florida are 69 cents a pound. All loose olives are $4.99 a pound.

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.

Brown eggs, oily coffee beans and more

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Peanut butter, jelly or preserves and sliced cucumbers make a great sandwich.

The woman behind me in the checkout lane today at Fairway Market in Paramus put down a dozen brown eggs, prompting me to say that I prefer them, too, but don't know whether they are nutritionally better than white-shell eggs.


Check out this Egg Facts 101 video on white and brown eggs from the American Egg Board, an industry group: 

Chapter 2: The Hen

We also talked briefly about losing weight by cutting down on bread, but she said life is too short for her to give up her bagel with peanut butter. I suggested she try a peanut butter, jelly or preserves and sliced cucumber sandwich.


I drove to Fairway in search of "dry" coffee beans for my built-in Bosch coffee machine, which has a grinder that has trouble with oily beans. They apparently don't go down the chute as easily as dry beans and can get hung up, prompting a message on the machine to "add beans."


But usually, I don't have to add beans. I do, however, have to pull out the sliding chassis, open the coffee-bean receptacle and stir the beans a bit with my fingers. Inconvenient. For the last few weeks, I have been using Jamaican Blue Mountain beans, which are dry, not oily, that my wife brought back from the island, but I'm running low.

First, I went to Jerry's Gourmet & More in Englewood for whole beans, but the store is no longer selling them loose. I have never used the Lavazza or Caffe Kimbo bagged espresso beans from Italy and don't know if they're oily.

Beans in open sacks

I went to Fairway for the beans, because they are displayed in open sacks and it's easy to see which ones are glistening with oil and which ones are dry. I chose a pound of dark roast from Brazil for $7.99.


I also picked up two pounds of Colombian Supremo, Turkish grind, for my drip coffee maker ($5.99 a pound); Fairway roasted garlic pasta sauce ($2.99 for a 32-ounce bottle), and fruit.


My wife went shopping at Costco in Hackensack today, and bought fresh, wild-caught flounder fillets for dinner ($8.49 a pound). 

So at Jerry's, I only looked over the complete $6.99, restaurant-quality dinners still available at lunchtime: stuffed flank steak, grouper or roast chicken. Each one comes with pasta, rice or potato  and vegetable side dishes. Great food at a great price.

Fairway Market, 35 E. Ridgewood Ave., Paramus, 

in the Fashion Center mall; 201-444-5455.

Jerry's Gourmet & More, 410 S. Dean St.,

Englewood, 201-871-7108.

Costco, 80 S. River St., Hackensack.