Pathmark

How could they shut this Pathmark down? One of the few parts of downtown that is nice, affordaable, driveable, train/​bus, liveable, green, services at least 20k people, and they shut it down?! From Bergen Lafayette to Shoprite downtown, there is no more supermarkets. Crazy. Been there for at least 15 years, and what more surprising is that they demolished the old Montgomery projects for more condominiums, where the hell are all those new people gonna shop?

Been going here on & off for years strictly due to convenience. Overall quality of products & services fluctuated over the years from being decent to downright bad. As of now, it’s bad. Place is dirty. Produce is rarely fresh. Workers are rude. Hours have been cut. Not surprised that this place is slated to close. But I’m surprised it took this long to be closed down.

Ok, I just have to write this review because they said this location might get closed very soon and I feel sad. Its the closest supermarket to me and I always get something there even though I do my main shopping for the week at trader joe’s. I buy organic baby food there (they often have deals), flour, pasta, bones for soup, tetra pak tomatoes and dried prunes. Its true that their produce and meat section is not that great. But again those bones I buy for my soup are very good. They have a lot of deals all the time. They are open ²⁴⁄₇ (I have to run get some diapers sometimes at 6 in the morning). And their stuff is very friendly. Also not super crowded. If they are gone I’ll miss my good old neighbor. May be not fancy or perfect but kind and friendly.

We bought a rotisserie chicken and realized that someone had either ate a piece or ripped the drumstick off. Gross!

This Pathmark is messy and in bad need of a renovation.
Fruits and veggies (strawberries were rotting) were not fresh and over priced when compared to Shop Rite. Seafood counter did not look fresh either.
Also, sales were not as appealing as Shop Rite. I really wish a whole foods or trader joes would come here instead.

Honestly can’t give this place any more than 2-​stars.
I want to… but I can’t.
At least they finally removed the giant metal bars from the entrance so I feel like I’m not shopping as a criminal.
The main problem is they have a pretty horrid selection of fresh food items. It says a lot when your frozen section is larger than your fresh section.
Every time I make meatballs it’s a chore. They almost never have fresh parsley (but have 15 pounds of cilantro), the fresh garlic is always dry and half-​moldy — same with the onions, they never have fresh ground pork or veal (only the pre-​packaged stuff with up to 20% salt water solution… and that’s if you’re lucky), and the ground beef is hit or miss. No butcher window so you have to be lucky to catch them re-​stocking to ask for a different cut than what’s on the shelves.
Fresh Italian bread? Fuhhget about it. If you’re lucky they have a few loaves of half-​stale French Bread by the entrance… the ones in the paper so they go bad instantly.
They also don’t always have enough people on the registers. I was there on Sunday and they had 2 lanes open. On a Sunday. Also known as the busiest grocery buying day of the week!
If you only need frozen food, milk & eggs, and some strang cheese or somethin’, this place isn’t bad. You can pop in, do the self checkout, and be out pretty quickly.
If you’re looking for good quality fresh meats and produce, I would definitely look elsewhere.

It’s Christmas Day, bah humbug. I freaked cuz I forgot about an item essential for today’s meal. It was 6:30am and I figured everyone’s closed. I’m closest to Pathmark so I checked their website to see if they were open. There was no info there about holidays. I called the store and pressed the option for location and hours. Again, nothing stated about holidays. However, I was surprised to get someone on the phone from the store.
Me: Are you open today?
Store: Yes
Me: Are you open now?
Store: Yes
I was pleasantly shocked. I got on my bike and took a short ride, 1.5 miles one way, in the drizzle. I got to the parking lot and realized I forgot my wallet. So, it’s back home and back to the store again. Meanwhile, the drizzle got a lot heavier and I was pretty wet by the time I got to the store. I locked my bike, and tried to open the doors. Locked! I see no customers. Bad sign. I banged on the door until the manager came. He advised they were not open until 8am. It is now just after 7am. I told him about my conversation on the phone only minutes before. I don’t think he believed me! I pleaded with him just to let me get this one item, under $ 5. He said it was impossible cuz there was no cashier. I told him I’d give him a $ 20 and pick up the change later plus offered to let him hold on to ID. He wouldn’t budge.
This was baloney. Any decent store would have found a way to accommodate me.
I don’t think it’s a horrible store as the sentiment seems to indicate on local lists. But it’s not a place that I would consider going to for anything except if I’m in a pinch. I can’t comment on prices cuz I’m not that savvy. But the store itself is so depressing between the people who work and shop there. Customer service is an alien concept. The term «fresh» takes on a whole new meaning at Pathmark.

Came here the other day out of convenience and was very pleasantly surprised! It doesn’t look like it from the outside, but it is a big place. Walking in, I first found a pretty large produce section. Beyond that, found everything that I needed at reasonable prices. Great sales, too. Everything is very clean, and there’s self-​checkout — something that the Shop-​Rite is lacking. I can definitely say that I think I’ve found my new go-​to supermarket. It’s close to the Paulus Hook area, and not too far from the Jersey Avenue Light Rail stop. I just wish it were 24 hours as I tend to be a late night shopper. If you’re looking for a new home supermarket, definitely recommend checking this one out!

I realize it’s a bit strange to rate a grocery store, but considering how terrible this is, I thought it was worth the review. We got meat from here twice, and both times, it came home entirely bruised. The frozen aisle doesn’t always have the most «frozen» foods. And I’ve already seen them selling expired yogurt. I really wouldn’t recommend this place. Go to ShopRite. Or order your groceries online.

I come here when I need to pick up something quick since its on my way to my boyfriends house. I like that it has a huge parking lot and I can usually find anything I need here the only reason I don’t like it as much is that the people that come here can be on the ghetto side.

I actually live this store. It’s a whole lot better than the little dingy stores near my apt. I come here to do the big food shop for the month. Seafood is a bit expensive but sales are great and seems to be neat and clean to me.

Essential need to knows:
Not as scary as it looks
Bigger than Key Foods
Waaaaaay less chaotic than Shop Rite
Produce looked good — chicken was suspect
Overall good selection of food.
Approved.

I had lived in the neighborhood for over a year before I dared to venture into this grocery store. My husband and I trekked to the Shop Rite or even to Wal Mart in Seacaucus for our groceries! Man, we were STUPID!!!
This place is surprisingly clean, well stocked, and not crowded! You can park fairly close and quickly get in and get your groceries and get out!
They have nice security and police often stop by if you are afraid of the area. The prices are fair and the tax is low!
The one negative is you can’t bring your cart to your car so you either have to pull it up to the front (annoying) or try to carry all of your groceries to your car (also annoying). This may also be a sneaky positive because the the carts are always clean, dry, and not denting your car in the parking lot!
Don’t be skurred! This place is aight!

Well, how about that. You can’t judge a book by a cover. This rings true to this Pathmark. I’ve always dismissed this grocery as super ghetto; it’s kind of in the middle of nowhere, always seems kind of dumpy, yada yada yada. But, to my surprise, this place was surprisingly very bright and clean, it did have a bit of a weird smell, but overall doable.
Now, onto comparing the two major groceries in the downtownish area of JC though I admit Pathmark is not very downtown but go with it. First, Pathmark has the best flavors of seltzers which Shop Rite never seems to have and I love me my seltzer. Second, the place was empty which Shop Rite never seems to be and lastly, the produce looked fresh and cheap, something that I’ll never say about Shop Rite. Can you see a theme here? The place I so readily dismissed may be the better option! What is going on here? My world is being rocked by a grocery.
Wild Cherry Seltzer and cheap groceries, here I come.
*** B of A is all up in this spot too, so if that’s your bank, score.

I only come because it’s the closet supermarket to my house, so it’s convenient. So, if I am in the mood I usually just avoid it and go elsewhere.

I pass by this Pathmark sometimes and it never looks busy, so I finally decided to grocery shop here to check out the selection. It is big and has spacious isles which is a plus. The selection was similar to ShopRite, but it wasn’t quite as good. I thought the prices were a bit higher, too. My main go to is fresh produce and they didn’t have much variety.
There were a couple good sales going on. There were announcements on the loudspeaker every 5 minutes about different promotional prices which was pretty annoying. It felt like you were being bombarded with sales pitches to visit the meat department.
My biggest complaint was the check out process. There were hardly any registers open, and the lines were slow moving. It took the cashiers forever to look up the codes for the produce. So even though it was less busy than ShopRite, I feel like the lines took just as long. Probably won’t be coming back.

When I attended my private highschool in downtown JC, you couldn’t come in here without a grimey posse to watch your back. It was mad scary. Typical prices akin to foodtown and shoprite.
When I went away to college, you could come in here during daylight hours, alone… kinda.
Now that there is an influx of whitey into the nabe, its like totally cool to hit it up, solo.
I even saw some «organic» ish being sold here these days.
** Thanks whitey **

It is not scary.
It is convenient.
Strangely, it has a much better selection than the Shoprite on Marin. The produce and protein departments are much cleaner, nicer and have a wider selection.
Only negative: you cannot bring carts to your car because they have metal guard poles in the ground outside the doors on the sidewalk.

As far as grocery stores go, this place isn’t the best. I keep going due to proximity to my apartment. Life would treat me real well — if they knocked this place down and put up a Trader Joe’s.
I think many of the frequent shoppers reside in the public housing areas, they could benefit from learning about fresh food and organic eating from Trader Joe’s too.
The produce in this Pathmark can be hit or miss, you really have to check everything thoroughly. I would stay away from the meat, doesn’t look fresh. Same goes for Seafood.
But as far as toiletries, canned, non-​perishable good — I always spend less than heading to ShopRite.

After reading other reviews, I ventured to Pathmark with a bit of fear in my heart. However, upon arriving, it was mostly unfounded.
Is this place the best? No.
Is it scary? No.
Is it dirty? No.
Is it a bit run-​down and worn? YES.
Is it a bit awkwardly laid out and lacking a large selection? YES.
The staff ranged from very helpful (as I signed up for the store card to save some pennies on my shopping) to dismissive, rude, and very unhelpful (the gal monitoring the self checkout lanes when I had a non-​scanning item).
As Pathmark is owned by A&P, the store brands are the same as at A&P and many of the specials are the same on those types of items. This store is not anywhere near as nice, as large, or having as much selection as the A&P however it’s a far closer walk for me and it’s open quite late which means I know it’ll be good for those evenings when I just need something little NOW.
Since the selection isn’t very large (especially in produce), I can’t see coming here to do a big shop. But it’s just fine for the little fill-​in shopping.