Aggressive pricing at Fairway in Paramus

The Fairway Market ad in today's Record shows prices on only eight items, but that may be enough to get me to make a trip to the store, in my least favorite Paramus mall, the Fashion Center.

The Manhattan-based market seems intent on being perceived as the price leader, undercutting the traditionally low-price supermarket, ShopRite. Fairway is offering Maine lobsters for $4.99 a pound from Aug. 1-7 in Paramus, matching ShopRite's lowest price for lobsters this year. I bought two pints of Jersey blueberries this week in Fairway's Harlem store for $4, or $1 less than I paid at ShopRites in Hackensack and Rochelle Park.

Fairway in Paramus also is offering whole Murray's free-roaming, drug-free chickens for 99 cents a pound, cut from $2.49 a pound, and Fairway-made baguettes for 99 cents each. The Murray's sale is rare and Fairway doesn't often cut prices for organic or grass-fed meats. At Whole Foods Market, you usually can count on discounts on naturally raised pork, beef and other items. And ShopRite regularly has sales on free-range, grass-fed Australian beef and lamb.