Hampden's Fresh & Green's - 1 Week Later

by Benn Ray

Here we are, one week after the new grocery store, Fresh & Green's, reopened in the defunct Superfresh spot on 41st. St. in Hampden. So I thought I'd post an update on how the store's plan to "expand the selection of prepared meals and natural foods while still providing all the conventional food products and brands you have enjoyed in the past" is coming along. 

This time around, I'll leave the discussion of employees' issues out of it. I've not heard anything new there. I'll just say there were a few familiar faces from Superfresh still working at the Fresh & Green's, and there were a few faces I didn't recognize, so I assume they're new.

The good news is there have been some minor improvements to the store. Fresh & Green's now seems to have a sign (shown above), even if it is just a banner hanging from the front of the store. That's better than no sign at all, I guess.

They also seem to have a logo, but it's only visible on their receipts (even if the receipts don't show the cashier's name like they're supposed to). Note that the spelling of the store name on the receipt is different than the spelling of the store name on the banner. The former is "Fresh & Green" while the latter is "Fresh & Green's". So there's that.

The bad news is that's the only progress viewable from a customer's perspective. Everything else indicates a grocery store still dying.

There is less food on the shelves than a week ago as the Superfresh backstock continues to slowly get depleted and very little seems to get restocked. The only new things I noticed were some prepared salads.

Everything else was pretty much the same only, well, less of it.

More shelves empty. More and more refrigerator units with less and less food.

 
So, if their aim is to provide our neighborhood with more food, they are falling short. And, it would seem, they're falling even shorter as each week passes.

The store is also still not capable of accepting WIC or EBT. And when I was checking out, there was a senior in front of me who was trying to buy groceries with a pre-written check and get the change in cash. That is evidently a Superfresh policy that Fresh & Green's is unwilling to continue.

If Fresh & Green's is serious about being a viable shopping option in Hampden, it needs to start putting food on the shelves soon. It needs to start renovating and making the old Superfresh look like something else. There seem to be plenty of employees there ready to work, if they were only given something to work with.

Fresh & Green's needs to work harder to serve the needs of the whole community. A little food on the shelves, a little repainting, a little rearranging would go a long way.

But right now, Fresh & Green's seems still more like a decaying shell of a grocery store instead of an exciting new hybrid of mainstream/prepared/organic options.

Comments

[James]

This place is a joke. They jacked up the prices on everything and nothing is on sale (at least when I was in there 2 days ago). I hear all my neighbors saying the same thing. Do they plan to publish circulars? I haven't seen any. I have not heard a single positive comment about this store since it reopened. If they think this business model is going to work for them with Giant 2 blocks up the road they're in for a rude awakening. I am not a fan of Giant, they seem overpriced to me, but at least they put a few staples on sale every week

[Shelley Krowe]

I agree it is a joke. Not going to last long in Hampden if this keep up. They should have put a shoprite there. The shelves are empty. Milk is $5.39 a gallon. Nothing on sale (not that there is anything to put on sale). I am not a fan of the Giant either but at least the shelves are full and they have sales. How long does it take to get an order and put out the items. It reminds me a a really big 711 store. Why can't we get a decent grocery store in Hampden?

[me.yahoo.com/a/osWBuA8Lvp9wUe8pZuwr5h_9XU39ILI-]

This is the 3rd Fresh & Green's that I've been in in Baltimore. These places are awful!!!! Superfresh was never my number 1 store but I still shopped there plenty. It was just fine. Charles Center- the smell of bad fried chicken is enough to drive any vegetarian out of there. Parkville wraps browning vegetables in meat packaging that reminds me of somethings you'd find in a lower income neighborhood. Hamden is infested with fruit flies. And I bought some chicken. (It rang up as Fresh & Green Meat, which is about right.) It was slimy and stinky. Back to Fresh & Green's because I'm not paying for it. It's time to start over here. All three stores look like they're closed down anyway. The parking lots are just empty and the inside is trashed. If you can't do something right, don't do it at all. Close it down, work out something with ShopRite and put Fresh & Green's to bed. It's such a joke that it's almost funny. It's worth sticking your head in for a laugh but do stay away if you really need to do some shopping.

[treje]

From my understanding, the larger the food chain, the easier it is to negotiate for sales from vendors. Since this company only has 7 stores, and isn't allied with another group (ex- how Shoprite is a cooperative with several independent stores under the one banner), they probably have a weakened ability to negotiate for sales.

[David]

I agree with all of the above, and would add that I heard this was supposed to be some kind of natural market? Well, it's not. They have very little in the way of natural/organic foods that I could see in my brief perusal of the store, and indeed less stock in general than Superfresh had. Unless they radically re-structure things, I'll be continuing to drive to Whole Foods and even Wegman's for the bulk of my food shopping.

[Lilly]

Two words: Giant or Wegmans. You know where to get what.

[anonymous]

I work for them, they want us to kill ourselves for peanuts. Meanwhile they let old Superfresh managers stay and bring in their old buddies who don't do anything but kept their topped out pay rate! Positions were just created for them so they weren't out of a job!