ShopRite sales, price breaks and other fine print

ShopRite's newspaper flier stated clearly the "sale starts" on Aug. 25, but there are "price breaks" on other items that don't go into effect until days later.

Nature's Reserve free-range, grass-fed beef from Australia was on "sale" starting last Sunday for $8.99 a pound. But there is a "price break" starting on Wednesday, knocking $2 more off each pound. Other items are covered by an "all-week price break" from last Sunday through Saturday.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

ShopRite's sales fliers are getting as hard to interpret as Manhattan parking regulations or the Talmud.

When "sale" appears in a ShopRite newspaper flier, it isn't the last word, and other items may be discounted through "price breaks."

But "price breaks" aren't always available during the full sale period, as I found out on Monday, when I went to my Hackensack ShopRite to buy Nature's Reserve Whole Beef Tenderloin for Filet Migon.

The sale started on Sunday, but the price break on the free-range, grass-fed beef from Australia doesn't start until Wednesday, meaning I'll have to return to the store.

Luckily, I also went to pick up 48-ounce containers of Turkey Hill Ice Cream for $1.97, a savings of $1.32; and Eggo Waffles for $1.47, a discount of $1.20.

Those items were discounted under an "all-week price break" (Sunday to Saturday).

A sign at H Mart in Little Ferry said this 15-pound bag of California-grown white rice is  "free" with a coupon.

H Mart is first stop

Of course, when meat-eating members of my family prepare Korean barbecue, they marinate the thin slices of Australian beef in bulgogi sauce, grill the meat, steam white rice and wrap everything in red-leaf lettuce.

We were out of white rice and red-leaf lettuce, so before I went to ShopRite on Monday, I stopped at H Mart in Little Ferry.

H Mart has been heavily discounting 15-pound bags of Kokuho Yellow Label California-grown rice, normally $14.99.

Last Wednesday, I saw it at the Englewood H Mart for $7.99, but the store had sold out.

At the Little Ferry H Mart, the rice was "free" with a coupon or $9.99 without.

I got the coupon from the customer service counter, but didn't read it carefully enough: 

The rice is "free" when you purchase $100 in other items.

I also picked up 2 heads of red-leaf lettuce for 99 cents each, and a bottle of B.B.Q. Bulgogi Beef Marinade for $2.99, because it had the least sodium.

Tell us more -- much more

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Fairway Market says the cattle may have been sick but the beef tastes great.

The latest Fairway Market flier offers wild Alaska salmon fillet for $9.99 a pound, but doesn't tell you whether it is coho, sockeye or another type.


The Paramus store devotes a full page to its butcher shop and its USDA Prime 21-Day Dry-Aged Beef, but you won't find any discussion of how the cattle were raised.


You can imagine Master Butcher Ray Venezia talking to the people who write the flier:


"OK. This stuff tastes great, because it has more fat than other grades, but it's a living hell for the animals. Hey. That's between you and me, right?


"We don't want any mention of how they are crowded into feed lots in Chicago and other places, and how they're stuffed full of grain, antibiotics, growth hormones and bits of dead animals to get them to grow fast and to turn them into cash.


"Their stomachs are designed to convert grass into protein, so the steady diet of grain can make them sick, and sometimes they collapse and have to be dragged into the slaughterhouse. But again, that's between you and me, right?


"Just call it, 'The tenderest, best-tasting beef on the planet,' and leave the rest to me."


Mama mia


Mama Mexico in Englewood Cliffs was the first fine-dining Mexican restaurant in North Jersey, and it has prices to match.


Rosa Mexicano in Hackensack was the second. If you attended one of its cooking demonstrations, you saw everything was made from scratch using good ingredients.


Now, Mama Mexico is offering 40% off "the entire menu," as well as lunch specials starting at $7.95, through Sept. 5. The coupon was stuck to the Better Living section of The Record today.


Mama Mexico, 464 Sylvan Ave., 
Englewood Cliffs; 201-871-0555.
Web site: High-end Mexican


Bibi'z in Westwood


On June 9, Bibi'z was reviewed in The Record, rating only a half-star away from "Outstanding." Elisa Ung, the reviewer, said all of the food she tried "was fantastic."


Today, a friend whose judgment I trust said, "Don't waste your time."


She said she ordered one of the expensive restaurant's "small plates," and the portion was thimble-sized. 


And she was disappointed in the dish, which was made with chickpeas, even though the Lebanese owner should know a thing or two about them.