Food shopping has shifted in the past year or two. For decades Shop-Rite had been my dominant supermarket, by far. While it always attracted me by competitive prices and kosher certification of most packaged goods for which that is possible, its place atop my preferred location firmed further when my former Rabbi made a deal with his friend, the store's franchisee, to dedicate kosher sections for meat, deli, and baked products. No longer did I have to schlep to northeast Philadelphia every six weeks or so to stock my freezer with enough fleishig to feed a family of four. The owner kept the quality of his store top-notch. Upon his retirement, that kosher attraction and reliability had slipped.
Acme always had a place around the corner when I needed something not justifying a drive to Shop-Rite. Super G, in the same neighborhood as Shop-Rite, became my pharmacy. I treated myself to a donut or fritter while picking up my medicine, but I rarely shopped there for staples. Their kosher offerings were negligible at my local branch, though in other places, their regional market had made kosher arrangements similar to the one I once enjoyed at Shop-Rite.
Periodically, I would maintain a Costco membership, either to get a discount on bifocals every other year or at one time to have them process credit card transactions for my business. They sell a lot of food, but in large quantities. While there, I would roam the aisles. Specialty Jewish stuff could occasionally be found, kosher hot dogs, best price on sliced lox, even frozen tiramisu at one time. I would get a few treats to take home. Others with either very large households or less aversion to waste than me would fill oversized carts, enough to fill their car trunks before heading home. Costco really had no role in meeting my nutritional needs.
As Shop-Rite slipped, both in kosher and in customer service, I looked for alternatives. I had not purchased deli there in ages despite my friendship with the man who ran the kosher section. When he opted out, and the store replaced the deli with a cheese shop, I didn't miss it. Same with the bakery. Prices deterred me. With the local kosher certification gone, I still used my best judgment. I always bought from bakery cases since I was a kid, depending on labels to guide what is dairy. I would buy donuts from Dunkin, Super G, a farmers market if the owner could tell me the frying medium. Shop-Rite would not change its recipes or procedures based on a Rabbi or some other Vaad officials who had treated my deli friend rather shabbily at times. I just had no loyalty to that section. Meat, however, makes a difference. That section had also deteriorated. On most visits, only some basic chicken options. The last few visits, they seemed to have abandoned kosher beef entirely. That leaves me with Passover, where no other easily drivable store matches what they offer.
Shop-Rite's experience swoon left me more open to visiting different places for different items. Comprehensive megamarts are really new phenomenon, emerging in my lifetime. Traditionally, people shopped multiple vendors. Collections of food suppliers trace back to Europe or the Middle East, many of which still exist. A town would designate a marketplace, where individual sellers would offer produce, spices, butchered items, seafood, and durable goods. People bought medicines from independent pharmacies. Philadelphia still has its Italian Market, several streets lined with cheese shops, butchers, and houseware stores along the city sidewalks. Atop the sidewalks sit pushcarts, often selling fresh fruits and vegetables. Smaller towns still have residual main streets not yet put out of business by the convenience and economy of scale of big box stores.
My grandmother used to take me shopping with her along Bathgate Avenue in the Bronx. Places for foods of differnt types, with a bakery at the end as a treat for me. Malls tried to consolidate shopping as suburbs grew. Maybe three anchor stores and dozens of smaller franchises clustered for people to sample in an outing. They served a retail purpose, but also a place to interact with people. For decades, they filled with people, only to be largely abandoned not that many years ago. Regional malls never had a big grocery or specialty food strength.
I am not ready to return to shopping that way, but I have begun to parcel out what I buy where, even if it means extra trips. Trader Joe's established itself as my niche store. They have the best loaf breads at acceptable prices. No Wonder Bread or similar squishy white stuff there. Rye is real rye bread, pumpernickel and Italian loafs my new staple. For cheese, they require their suppliers to label ingredients, which Shop-Rite does not. Things that I can ascertain as vegetarian are acceptable to me even without the Rabbi's seal. Usually best price on eggs. They sell produce by item rather than weight. Rarely leave without Roma tomatoes or bananas. And more recently, they have introduced kosher meat. I get my fresh Thanksgiving turkey there. I can usually count on them having a half turkey breast, one of my go-to's for entertaining guests. And they've introduced kosher beef. Only four cuts: ground beef, stew cubes, boneless steak, and seasonal briskets. All better quality than anything Shop-Rite sold from their meat case, with a small mark-up over Shop-Rite's kosher offerings when their beef selection was more reliable..
This Passover, many of my seder recipes featured a predominance of fresh produce. Shop-Rite often ran out, did not have sales, or left the most perishable of items to wilt in the display. I needed to get something at Super G. As I walked through their entrance, the lure was fresh multicolored peppers on sale. I took a cart, shopping list in hand, and toured their produce aisle. Everything I could want, displayed more attractively than Shop-Rite and at comparable or lower prices. The parsley and dill had bushier appearances. Beets, a Pesach staple, plump and without bruising. Lettuce needed for the Seder Plate leafy. For things like apples or horseradish root, not very perishable, Shop-Rite gets bundled with other things. For dinner to entertain guests, Super-G makes a better green grocer.
My newest option, one I am still adapting to, has been Aldi. This chain has its base in Europe, though with an expanding presence in America. It follows more of a Trader Joe's format than a true megamart, though the store's positioning of which items line the perimeter and which stack in central aisles approximates placements at Shop-Rite or Super G. Kosher is not on their radar, but manufacturers often see certification as a selling point, so pay an agency to qualify for this seal. That makes shopping there something of a treasure hunt. They offer few national brands, mostly boxes or flexible packaging of things with a proprietary logo. Produce is hit and miss. I usually come home with something. They have the best buy on cinnamon rolls. Bread has disappointed the few times I've purchased any. What I seem to seek out there after acclimating myself to their product selections, are munchies. Some I shouldn't buy. Kettle Chips, Swiss Rolls. Some serve me well: olives, pickles, the generic version of Sugar Smacks, all pareve. They have by far the best price on kosher-certified Greek yogurt. Four containers go into my cart each trip. Ice cream prices undercut Shop-Rite's. Some visits they have special things like kosher certified mascarpone for tiramisu. Other times their supply is unreliable. On my recent shopping adventure, they did not have pickles and the Greek yogurts in the refrigerator case did not have the berry varieties that I prefer. Aldi is also known for a durable goods aisle. Their buyers must get closeouts. One central aisle lined on each side with home goods, mostly stuff I neither need nor want, at attractive prices. Rarely go in my cart, but popular among fellow shoppers.
What I may be experiencing are the natural cycles of supplying homes. Central markets dating to antiquity still hang on. Main Streets and large indoor malls giving way to national retailers with multiple sites. My food world has also shown elements of transition. The dedicated kosher butchers, once plentiful in my childhood town, have closed. Regional megamarts have carved out sections to accommodate kosher consumers. Mine seem to be failing, but elsewhere, including in drivable range for me, others still satisfy that market share.
My easily drivable neighborhood has a lot of supermarkets that compete with each other. Something attracts shoppers to one or another. For most, it is probably economy. For me, it was kosher availabiltiy. Once this tanks, the loyalty fades. I find myself going back to another era, that of my grandmother who took me shopping along Bathgate Avenue. For food, I have a core grocer, still Shop-Rite. My beef source is in transition. I may need to resume driving to a more reliable supplier, as I did when my family was young. While I found driving to northeast Philadelphia burdensome, I often had my pre-Bar Mitzvah son with me. We had time together, a chance to let him get something from the butcher that he liked, much as my grandmother would never take me with her to Bathgate Avenue without giving me the run of a bakery case. Aldi adds an element of surprise, what might I find, similar to what Costco once provided me. Trader Joe's has its place, now expanded to their kosher meat selection. And Super G, where I must go periodically to fill a prescription, now has me leaving with a bagel and a pastry. When I have some special dinners, whether guests, birthdays, Mother's Day, or yontif, a special trip to the Super G produce aisle seems the best way to find the best ingredients.
Perhaps I've cycled a bit, or even resisted current trends. For more than a century, promotions have induced shoppers to find it all in one place. The mail order catalogs of Sears and Montgomery-Ward, now both gone. Another era of flagship department stores identifiable by the cities they dominated. Filene's, Wanamaker's, Famous-Barr, Marshall Fields, et al. Mostly gone. The big boxes, Walmart, KMart, and category dominant stores, most still around though less than their peak. And the megamarts for food, now showing faltering of what once made them attractive. And Amazon, where you really can get everything.
My shopping has changed, some forced upon me by a decline in the Shop-Rite experience, others finding me drawn there by superior experience. Perhaps some of what lures me to Aldi I shouldn't buy. And while kosher beef has gotten harder to acquire, I should ration it. But I see myself more as a consumer now. No longer locked into a situation by convenience.
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