Shop wise, save cash at The Fresh Market
Shopping for groceries can be irritating. I question anyone who says otherwise. The ritual can be less of a chore and more of an experience, especially when, say, wandering through a sprawling open food market in Paris or Barcelona, plucking crisp cucumbers beneath a canopy of string lights while classical music plays and a medley of diverse aromas — fresh ground coffee and peanut butter, spring flowers, herbs and warm rotisserie chicken — delightfully swirling about the air.
That sort of world-class culinary shopping experience is exactly what the founders of The Fresh Market, with locations in Latham and Saratoga Springs, were determined to bring to American suburbs.
After returning home from a trip to Europe, Ray Berry and his wife, Beverly, were inspired to create a more intimate, personalized, European-style shopping experience for fine food purveyors whose senses would sharpen and eyes widen as they took in the fresh floral arrangements, expansive display of international cheeses, piles of fresh produce and deep barrels of roasted nuts and dried fruits.
Sounds lovely. Sounds exotic. Sounds expensive. Certainly the first two, but not necessarily the latter.
The couple opened the first The Fresh Market in Greensboro, N.C., in 1982. Today, there are 159 The Fresh Market locations in 22 states, each featuring an array of offerings for consummate gourmands, sure, but also price-conscious consumers who value convenience, like yours truly.
In addition to an assortment of epicurean olive oils — the price of most make my frugal bones shudder — The Fresh Market features an array of monthly and week sales, routine promotions, ready-tomake meals and now a brand-new loyalty program that have me convinced the chain is worthy of a once-weekly spot on my grocery store roster.
The Ultimate Loyalty Experience is the chain’s first “sign up and save” rewards program. It’s free to join and members receive exclusive savings on products, digital coupons and a free slice of birthday cake during their birthday month. There are no points to accumulate, just access to weekly deals, many of which are automatically loaded onto a member’s account.
To build the Ultimate Loyalty Experience, the company did their homework, researching the top features and technologies of similar ecommerce programs.
“We took all the best of the best elements from our key learnings and applied them to our brand, our guests and our business model to create the Ultimate Loyalty Experience,” said Kevin Miller, Chief Marketing Officer at The
Fresh Market in the launch press release. “We know that our brand, our products and our guests are special and unique, so we are thrilled that our Ultimate Loyalty Experience has been custom built from the ground up to provide a strong value exchange for our guests that will help us serve them even better — and we have a few surprises for them in the upcoming months too!”
Another component of the program is “The Club Hub” purchase frequency programs. The clubs allow guests to earn free items and dollars off their favorite items. There are currently five curated clubs — Market Meal Kit Club, Artisan Cheese Club, Whole Panini Club, Floral Club and Coffee by the Cup Club — with more to come. The ability to customize and create frequency programs to meet guests’ needs is another unique member benefit, says Miller.
The Ultimate Loyalty Experience is just the latest benefit for value-driven consumers. The key to saving even more is to know when to shop. There are special offers nearly every day of the week. Shop those, but perhaps steer clear of widely-available, regularly-priced shelf items that are often priced higher than the competition:
■ Every Tuesday is $2.99 Tuesday. The store prices pounds of antibiotic-free skinless chicken breast and fresh-ground chuck beef at $2.99, a savings of at least $2 per pound. The deal is typically not available on holidays, and other products are also featured. You can head to the meat case or look in the nearby refrigerated cases. They anticipate a lot of customers and will often pre-package the chicken and chuck to avoid a butcher
shop bottleneck.
■ On Wednesdays, The Fresh Market unveils a new Little Big Meal. Available for seven days and typically priced from $20-$25 the deal offers harried chefs a convenient means of preparing a nutritious meal for a family of four. Options range from Mexican street tacos and ramen noodle bowls to chicken parmesan and gourmet burger meals. All the ingredients are on display near the entrance, making it an effortless way to gather the goods. If you bought each individual ingredient separately, you would pay at least $15 more.
■ Far and away my most favorite weekly promotion is the $5 Thursday deals. I hesitate to share because the deals are that good. But, as a courtesy here goes: Every Thursday several items, including marinated chicken breast, pecan-crusted trout, deli-prepared pizzas, trays of shrimp cocktail, select sushi rolls, fresh chicken roll-ups and more are priced at $5. I can build multiple meals out of these $5 deals.
There are more ways to save, including buy one, get one free offers on Mondays, Surf and Turf Sundays, as well as a myriad of take-and-make meals. Check the website for sales or subscribe to receive daily emails outlining all offers and promotions.
The Fresh Market also routinely offers ready-to-go dinner deals for large holiday gathering. For instance, Easter ham dinners and brunch options are available for groups of two to 10. All orders can be purchased online and picked up curbside. But, if wish to be momentarily whisked off to a market in Budapest or Vienna, maybe pop inside and see if that satisfies.