If prices were the only issue, I'd be giving a much higher rating to the Price Rite market in Paterson, NJ. Because this supermarket in downtown Paterson (301 Main Street, in the Center City Mall) offers some very good prices. This week, for, for example, you could buy chicken drumsticks on sale for just 49 cents a pound. You could pick ears of corn-on-the-cob from a bin, priced at four-for-a-dollar (just 25 cents per ear). You could buy a dozen large brown eggs for just 99 cents. And I paid just one dollar for a can of Campbell's Tomato Soup--a staple I can always use. So there are some good bargains to be found. If cost is your only concern, they had some ground beef on sale for $2.49 a pound. But it's rather fatty ground beef--80% beef, 20% fat. I'm health conscious, and my doctor has me a low-cholesterol diet. If I'm buying ground beef, chicken, or turkey, I want only the leanest possible meat. This isn't the store for that. I might also note, the store charges for shopping bags. And the store does not have free parking. If you save five dollars on groceries but spend five dollars to use the Center City Mall Parking Garage, there go your savings.... I was glad when this store opened a few years ago, because a low-priced supermarket in the heart of downtown Paterson seemed like such a positive addition. And in some ways it is. But I'm disappointed. Lines at the check-out can be very long--much longer than I find acceptable. On a recent visit, buying just a few items, I stood in one of the "express" lines; but that line, too, moved very slowly--partly because some people on the line had shopping carts loaded with items and no one at the store directed them to an appropriate line. Those shoppers didn't belong in the express line, but no one from the store stopped them, so the whole purpose of the express line was defeated. And at the cash register, I found that the cashier was not even properly masked. Her mask did not cover her nose, so it offered us no protection. For me, that's the last straw. If--a year into the pandemic--management does not even care if supermarket workers (dealing with the public all day) are properly masked, I'd rather shop elsewhere. read more
