At ShopRite's pre-Can Can Sale, avoid Colonna sauce with corn syrup

Three 24-bottle packs of Poland Spring Water are only $9 with a Super Coupon from the ShopRite flier, as long as you spend $10 on other items and have a store card.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

ShopRite's Can Can Sale isn't as great as it used to be, so now the supermarket chain has come up with a "Can't Can't Wait" promotion to entice shoppers.

At the ShopRite in Paramus on Tuesday, I used a Super Coupon from the store flier to buy three 24-bottle packs of Poland Spring Water for $9.

That's about what I'd pay per 16.9-ounce bottle at Costco Wholesale in Teterboro.

And a 5-pound box of clementines from Spain or Morocco was only $3.99, a discount of $2.

I also picked up three half-gallons of ShopRite 1% Lactose Free Milk for $2.99 each, the regular price.

The Paramus ShopRite is at 224 Route 4 east.

A 5-pound boxes of Roxy Clementines from Spain, as well as others from Morocco, was $3.99 with a store card.

If you buy 10 jars of Colonna Pasta Sauce, you'll pay only 77 cents each. But the Traditional Pasta Sauce, above, contains high-fructose corn syrup, an ingredient you don't need.

Colonna Vodka Sauce is made with lots of artery clogging heavy cream. Victoria Vodka Sauce, which is not on sale, contains no cream.

A breakfast of Organic Eggs Marinara served over Organic Whole Wheat Penne with Salted Codfish and Black Olives, below. All of the ingredients are available from ShopRite.

I used Victoria Marinara (no added sugar), adding a few ounces of red wine, a can of drained and rinsed anchovies, and extra-virgin olive oil. The Luigi Vitelli-brand Organic Whole Wheat Penne from Italy is available at ShopRite for $1.25 (1-pound package).

A few good buys at ShopRite's Can Can Sale and at Super H Mart

At the Super H Mart in Ridgefield on Sunday, king whiting, front, and red snapper, both wild caught, were $3.99 and $4.99 a pound, respectively. Whole porgy (not shown) were only $2.99 a pound.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Now you see it, now you don't.

That seems to be the nature of sales in such supermarkets as ShopRite in Paramus and Super H Mart in Ridgefield.

At the Paramus ShopRite, the second week of the Summer Can Can Sale doesn't offer the same deals as last week.

On Friday, I used a Super Coupon I clipped from a flier to purchase three 28-bottle packs of Poland Spring for $10 with the store card and the purchase of $10 in other items.

My other purchases were Bing Cherries from Washington State for $1.67 a pound, two 1-pound packages of Luigi Vitelli Organic Whole Wheat Fusilli at $1.25 each and a 3-pound bag of Organic Sweet Potatoes for $5.99. 

We used a second Super Coupon to buy three more 28-bottle packs of Poland Spring for $10 at the Englewood ShopRite.

The Summer Can Can flier that came with Sunday's paper no longer offers the Poland Spring deal.

And the Paramus ShopRite last week didn't repeat the deal on six pints of New Jersey Blueberries that I purchased for $6.99 on July 10.

H Mart -- a week later

On Sunday, I found the usually good prices on fresh fish at the Super H Mart in Ridgefield.

I bought two wild-caught whole king whiting that weighed about 2.5 pound each ($3.99 a pound).

My wife cut them into about eight pieces, and seasoned, floured and pan fried them.

Whiting is a mild-tasting fish that flakes beautifully, and the central spine is just about the only bone you have to deal with.

Baby Mustard Greens or Gaichoy were 88 cents a pound, a discount of 10 cents a pound, and two heads of red-leaf lettuce were 99 cents or half-price.

I wanted to buy another large, heavy watermelon like the one I got a week earlier for $6.49, but all of those I saw were smaller and the price went up a dollar per melon.

The produce section of the Super H Mart, the Korean chain's biggest store in Bergen County.

Super H Mart makes its own cabbage kimchi and sells several bottled brands, but I prefer to go to Arirang Kimchee, which specializes in cabbage, cucumber and other kimchi, at H&Y Marketplace, Ridgefield, not far from Super H Mart.

Details

ShopRite, 224 Route 4 east at Forest Avenue, Paramus; 1-201-291-4180. Open 7 days.

Super H Mart, 321 Broad Ave., Ridgefield; 1-201-943-9600. Open 7 days.

Arirang Kimchee, 1 Remsen Place, Ridgefield; 1-201-313-7975. Call for hours.

Early Can Can Sale at ShopRite brings good news and bad news

Golden Pineapples are on sale today for only $1.99 each at the Paramus ShopRite, 224 Route 4 east.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The good news is ShopRite isn't waiting for January to kick off its winter Can Can Sale, which usually brings deep discounts on hundreds of items.

The bad news is there aren't that many great deals, at least judging from the Can Can Preview Sale at the Paramus ShopRite.

And store employees seemed to suggest bigger price cuts are still to come.

This morning, I picked up two Golden Pineapples for $1.99 each, the lowest price I've seen at the Paramus supermarket.

Friendly's Ice Cream in a 1.5-quart package was $2.59, a discount of $1.49, but Turkey Hill was only 50 cents off.

BPA-free Ziploc plastic containers for storing leftovers also were only 50 cents off. Two 9-cup containers were $3.49.

The ShopRite-brand was less, and the label said BPA, a chemical called Bisphenol A, isn't used to make the plastic in the containers.

Smart Balance spreads are great butter substitutes, and sometimes they are half-price at the Paramus ShopRite.

But not today, when the price for Smart Balance in 15-ounce containers was cut by just 50 cents.

A 4-pound bag of California Navel Oranges was $2.99.

The Can Can circular that came with the newspaper included a Super Coupon for Poland Spring Water in 16.9-ounce bottles.

But at $9 for three 24-bottle packs, the savings per bottle over Costco Wholesale is less than a half-cent a bottle.

It's not clear whether the sale prices on pineapples and oranges are part of the Can Can Preview Sale, and you need a store card to get any of the discounts.