Shopping at the new Shop Rite

This morning I made my first shopping trip to the new Shop Rite on Central. The place was hopping this morning at about 11:00. Even Fly 92 was there. Between the crowd and the having to be back at the house for lunch, I didn't have the time to thoroughly explore the store. And I was just shopping by impulse, didn't have a list together.

The deli ordering system by the door worked very well for me. The order is brought to a cooler by Register 20 and the other end of the store. I had seen that on the ticket and went by the register, saw the line was closed and was a little confused. Once I was directed back to the register (Patricia Cruz and Tom Urtz - who both remembered me and my name from the tour), I found my order immediately. And this cooler is in the perfect place. I walked right past it earlier. Anyhow, you walk in the front door and the machine is right there to enter your order. You go shopping, working your way across the store. And when you get to the far end and start to head to the registers...the cooler is right there. And so was my order. Lovely.

As I said earlier, there was a good sized crowd shopping. There were a handful of things I probably would have taken pictures of, but I'm still a little self conscious of public food pictures and I didn't want to take photos that included random people. But, I couldn't resist this one. Right next to the cheese display, a man was making fresh mozzarella. Behind him, a small CD player was pumping out Italian opera. When I picked up the ball of cheese I purchased, it was still warm.

Even with the crowds, I was able to walk directly up to a cashier without any waiting. Before all the groceries were in the fridge, I had a slice of that mozzarella cheese. The texture was a little rubbery in comparison to the better mozzarella I've had but the flavor was good and there was a nice saltiness to it. It couldn't have been too bad, it was gone before 1:00.

Overall, I enjoyed the trip and will certainly do it again. Once you get the overall lay of the land in a market, shopping is easier. Kind of makes it your home turf. Some prices were better than the other local markets. Some were the same. And some were a little higher. I think the price of the same cart of groceries in Price Chopper or Hannaford would have been about the same-except there were a handful of things you can't buy at those stores. Like the warm mozzarella and those Guss' pickles I spotted during the tour. I'll be back.