The Virus Diary: The Fresh Grocer

Mid-week grocery trip?  The lure of the Fresh Grocer called to me and as it was NOT raining (and actually sunny yesterday), I decided to go for it.

Let me back track a bit.  While I am a regular ShopRite shopper (as you know if you've read some of my previous posts), in my town there IS a grocery store, but it definitely high end and even for small items is rather pricey.  In the next town over and within walking distance (if I'm in the mood for a long walk) was a Foodtown.  Being a savvy shopper, I always checked their circular to see if there were any deals on items I might need.  If they had a better deal on something, I'd stop by on my way home from work (again, these were the days when I drove to an office...remember them?)  Back in early March while working on my church's Sunday Supper Program (back when we could make meals in the church kitchen...now we work around that by simply delivering pre-packaged meals that aren't as nice, but still fill a need), the topic of Foodtown came up and the fact that they were being sold to Wakefern (the parent company of ShopRite).  Rumor was that this was going to happen by the end of March.  I didn't give it much thought.  And with the pandemic, I wasn't surprised to see that Foodtown remained Foodtown.

That was until last Thursday, when in my mailbox there was a circular for the Fresh Grocer.  Interestingly enough, the circular was almost (but not quite) identical to the ShopRite circular we also received. (Strawberries were on sale at ShopRite for $1.79; I found them at the Fresh Grocer for $1.97)  Sale items were also ShopRite brand.  The circular seemed to indicate that the store was open and that the sales would start Friday.  (So although I have no hard proof; I'm thinking that the switch over happened on Friday morning.  If you are local and know better...let me know!)  Their week started to Friday and runs to Thursday; ShopRite's week starts on Sunday and runs to Saturday.  My thought being if there was something I really wanted I could run down to The Fresh Grocer and pick it up during the week without too much trouble.  Heck if the items didn't weigh too much, I COULD walk down and get it.

All of this has been circling around in my head, but I didn't do anything with it until Tuesday, May 5th.  What pushed me over the edge?  A friend, in response to my blog post on May 1st told me that I could find French Vanilla creamer at The Fresh Grocer and that I could use my ShopRite Price Plus card there.  That was all the incentive it took.

On my lunch break from work, I "masked up" and headed over.  The parking lot was busy, but there are more businesses in the area than just the supermarket.  I saw no line to get into the store, so I found a parking spot and went to grab a shopping cart.

Observation #1:  The shopping carts are much easier to use.  They were plastic, not metal.  Obviously brand spanking new and easy to use.  I took a smaller one because I didn't expect to purchase much (ha!).  Though the carts were new, the baskets inside were a holdover from Foodtown Days.

Observation #2:  The store is a smaller size grocery store. There's not much you can do about that.  That made things tight at time.  I know they say they limit the number of people in the store, but with it being a small store, every body counts.   The layout of the store has not changed much from when it was Foodtown.  The aisles are still quite narrow (which again makes every body in the store count!) That's a good thing as I knew where most things were. One thing that has changed is the self-check out station area. There are now more and they are now near the entrance; whereas they used to be all the way down at the end.

Observation 3:  The store has one way aisles.  The arrows on the floor were not always obvious.  I did my best to follow the path.  Others did not.  Maybe they just didn't see the floor signs?  

Observation 4:  The store is not yet fully stocked.  I don't know if empty spaces on shelves was due to a run on certain items or the fact that Foodtown brand was being moved out and Fresh Grocery/Shoprite was being moved in.  Probably a combination of both.  The frozen food aisle had not yet unloaded paper towel pallets in the middle of the aisle.  As I have said, the aisles are not wide and with these pallets in the middle it was impossible to go from one side of the aisle to the next.  I was behind an older couple (so much for the request to shop solo), and I could not get around them.  Meanwhile, in addition to shoppers, there were people trying to unload and restock.

Observation 5:  Items that are still difficult to get other than the obvious paper goods (although as I said, the paper towels HAD arrived and just needed to be unwrapped and put on the appropriate shelves) included pasta sauces, frozen vegetables, and   frozen vegetarian meals. (Gardein brand was on sale and I really like their products.  There were none to be had.)

Observation 6:  I used the self-check out station.  I know at ShopRite the limit for self-check is 20.  I didn't see a limit at the Fresh Grocery, but then again I admit that I am not as focused these days as I should be (or would like to be).  The station ARE rather close together.  Surprisingly I didn't have any issues with the "unexpected item in bagging area."  (Is this not the bane of everyone's existence when using self-check?)  I did have some trouble paying with my credit card (which was rejected at first!), but there were employees there to help out.  So all in all the self-check out process was relatively smooth and perhaps smoother than I have experienced in the past overall.  My biggest challenge, and this is the case whenever I go shopping was bagging.  I try to organize items as I bag (so that all refrigerated items are in the same bag) without making the bag too heavy.  I never seem to manage this.  I should NOT apply for a job as a bagger at any grocery store.

All in all my experience was pretty good.  Door to door was about an hour and that would have been cut down in time if I didn't get stuck behind a funeral procession.  (I'm NOT complaining about that...all I could think of as I sat in my car waiting as vehicle after vehicle passed by was how lucky I was and am.  Sitting there was annoying, especially as I was pressed for time, but how blessed am I really?  I'm stuck in traffic; I could be "stuck" attending a funeral. )  

I got home and unloaded.  While I didn't purchase everything on my weekly list (and I didn't expect to), I did cross a bunch of items off.  (Yes, that included French Vanilla creamer!)  And that was my plan all along.  (Because you ALWAYS have to have a plan!) While I will be sticking to my weekly Friday morning trek to ShopRite with a large list; it's good to know that if (when?) needed I can relatively easily get many items at the Fresh Grocer.  When we return to whatever semblance of normal we get, I will probably pop in on a regular basis.

Until the next post (whenever that may be), stay safe and stay well!