What's up with Ashley Market quality these days?

Have to say I've been having some less-than-stellar Ashley/Eden (we all still call it Eden) experiences lately. Lunch meat that goes bad much sooner than expected, light cream that is spoiled more often than it's not (squeeze the container; if it feels puffy, it's spoiled), limes and lemons in the produce department that look just awful (and a lack of anything resembling local produce -- Canadian tomatoes during New Jersey summer?!), but most frustratingly because it's the most disgusting, spoiled meat.

This just happened to me yesterday, but it's not the first time: I bought a package of bone-out chicken thighs yesterday morning, the 10th, which were dated the 12th. Opened it up in the afternoon so I could marinate them for the grill and immediately got that whiff of death; they were bad. Took them back for a refund, which I've done before more than once with the light cream when I've taken a chance on it (I don't like half and half and most other places don't carry the light cream!) ... but can't help thinking this is happening way more often than it should be, or than it does anywhere else.

Am I just unlucky?

Bought some bakery items the other day. All dry & stale, right into the garbage. That's the end of that.

Ugh, just bought salad greens on Friday with sell by date of 9/19. Opened it last night and it was bad. In the garbage. I don't have the time to go back for a return so unfortunately they don't get the feed back (unless they read MOL).

Gee, I am over there almost daily. They have a new General Manager, Goodman Leventheli who just came in from the store in Hoboken (Aspen). Call him and talk with him. Pretty nice guy.

Meat, Fish; same people and all good for me. Talk to Marty the next time you are in. Perhaps he has a employee that is not up to Marty's standards, or you just got a one off. I find the meat products fresh.

Bakery I am never in unless Kaite and Abby are out of something.

Veg. I use pretty often and have not had a problem. I do not buy summer stuff there as I am in the SO Farmers Market each week and find what I need on the tables.

Later,

George of California in Jersey

Where the Beaches are call Da Shore!

The store is changing the dairy area presumably for better temperature control.

The basic problem is that it does not get enough foot traffic for product to turn over faster. Most people with a car will drive for better prices.
The only reason it has hung in this long is because of the PILOT and it is praying that the opening of Third and Valley will increase business.

We go there often. I always still call it Eden, also.

Yes they seem to be switching refrigerators--a good thing, apparently!

I'm way happier with their produce than that big one over on Valley--which I can never remember the name of--which is only a dad better than the old Pathmark in that section.

Washed packaged produce is always a risk anywhere--at TJ's, Stop/Shop, Kings...sadly I still buy it because I'm lazy. I usually have no trouble with the one that is their mix. Have had trouble with the bigger branded pre-above packaged lettuces.

Don't get thier "specials" in Produce, I find they are simply sub-par. No surprise, really.

on a couple of occasions I have gotten sandwich meat that was made by them that went bad after 2 days, but it was not pumped full of preservatives, so...

I have also very recently gotten meats that are bad same day as purchase. In this case, I've sausages directly to butcher (well, my husband was sent to do this) and got new fresh stuff, no questions asked. It had no sell-by date, which was odd, and could have been why they were still on shelf.

That said, I always get my turkey and other meats from them without ever having any gone at all.

We get bakery stuff there--usually their fresh pain levain. If we are not going to the WF, it's the best that's local. And they have Balthazar, etc... The packaged baked goods we've never had trouble with, and no dairy probs here.

We DO NOT, however, buy the ice cream. No good deal to pass along so is SUPER expensive, and it is often melted-refrozen, which to me says they get last pick from distributors.

If something is ever off, tell them! It's the only way change happens

OMG the spell check totaly garbled my text! Fixed most, but who know about the rest, it's late ... hahahahahhaha

shanabana said:

We go there often. I always still call it Eden, also.

Yes they seem to be switching refrigerators--a good thing, apparently!

I'm way happier with their produce than that big one over on Valley--which I can never remember the name of--which is only a dad better than the old Pathmark in that section.

Washed packaged produce is always a risk anywhere--at TJ's, Stop/Shop, Kings...sadly I still buy it because I'm lazy. I usually have no trouble with the one that is their mix. Have had trouble with the bigger branded pre-above packaged lettuces.

Don't get thier "specials" in Produce, I find they are simply sub-par. No surprise, really.

on a couple of occasions I have gotten sandwich meat that was made by them that went bad after 2 days, but it was not pumped full of preservatives, so...

I have also very recently gotten meats that are bad same day as purchase. In this case, I've sausages directly to butcher (well, my husband was sent to do this) and got new fresh stuff, no questions asked. It had no sell-by date, which was odd, and could have been why they were still on shelf.

That said, I always get my turkey and other meats from them without ever having any gone at all.

We get bakery stuff there--usually their fresh pain levain. If we are not going to the WF, it's the best that's local. And they have Balthazar, etc... The packaged baked goods we've never had trouble with, and no dairy probs here.

We DO NOT, however, buy the ice cream. No good deal to pass along so is SUPER expensive, and it is often melted-refrozen, which to me says they get last pick from distributors.

If something is ever off, tell them! It's the only way change happens

I have to agree. I get why people say their prices are high, but as far as their produce is concerned, I think it's much better quality than shop rite, stop and shop, and cheaper than kings and whole foods. As far as meat is concerned, I have returned meat/ chicken that went bad to Eden, trader joes, and whole foods.i find that between trader joes, Ashley and a monthly trip to costco or shop rite I can meet all my needs. However, if Ashley went out of business, I would be very disappointed. Nothing is perfect, but I think it serves the community well and I am very grateful it's here.

I was just talking with Marty, the Butcher at Ashley's. He has been in the Butcher business since he was a kid. (Marty ain't no Kid now) As I understand it, you have two Meat products. In Store processed items and Vendor supplied pre-packaged. This Summer a change in Vendor supplied products caused Marty a lot of grief in that some deliveries of the packaged products were going bad while on the shelf.

When discovered, that Vendor was dropped and Marty refunded or in some cases refunded and replaced the product to any customer that he spoke with.

As always, should you have a problem, and over time something will go wrong with any market you use, talk to the Manager. In this case, Butcher, ask for Marty.

All will be researched and solved.

Later, George in Jersey

I hate to say it, but I rarely shop at Ashley anymore for most of the reasons mentioned above. I used to shop there almost exclusively, but now split my shopping between farmers markets, Whole Foods and Stop n Shop. I really want this business to succeed since I consider it a critical retail anchor in SO. But the quality just isn't there anymore and they really don't offer unique products I can't get anywhere else. It's a shame.

very few grocery stores stock "unique" items, but i find that ashley's stocks more than most.

hot and cold food bar. sushi. fresh made roast chickens turkey/brisket/corned beef. gourmet coffee's. good butcher and fish market. good deli counter. gourmet cheese counter. mediterranean/olive bar.

sure, you can get a block of cheddar and a dozen eggs anywhere, but i think ashley's has for more "unique" stuff than the competition.

i don't do my main shopping there, but we do use them A LOT. would be crushed if they went under cuz i was here for the bad old days before they got here.

I really like the salad bar at Ashley and also have liked their rotisserie chickens. I find their produce to be better than Shoprite and better priced than Kings or Whole Foods. I also like that Ashley seems to be a calming shopping experience as far as grocery shopping goes. I love Trader Joe's but I feel like I need to either take a yoga class or have a strong drink after I deal with the crowds. If you're unhappy, then I would talk to the manager. As another posted stated above, it would be really sad to see an anchor store go under.

We go fairly infrequently now, reducing our patronage often to ctrzdaughter hitting the salad bar with friends after school. They do make things right when the inevitable screwup happens, but when they start reimbursing me at a premium for my time, and for the inconvenience, I'll consider taking a more frequent chance again. But never again when I'm buying for that evening except for Marty's meats (which I do think are quite a sure bet).

Posting in my own zombie thread because it looks like the most recent on the topic -- took a long time to get to this point, but I'm not sure how they're even still open. On top of everything else (the bread section always looks like there's a blizzard in the forecast and they don't seem to have fresh-baked rolls and donuts like they used to, all pre-bagged, etc.), there's also no more fresh-sliced deli meat; it's all pre-packed. I avoid that, but thought cheese would probably be alright. Well, the half pound of provolone I grabbed yesterday, 7/11, which I belatedly realized was dated 7/15, turned out to already smell awful and have green mold spots on it when I opened it today, 7/12. 

Still convenient for produce you can carefully check, and the spoiled light cream problem they used to have did go away (guess they replaced/fixed the dicey dairy fridge) -- and the fact it's always pretty empty is nice in the COVID era -- but feels like it's really circling the drain. I suspect the problems feed on themselves -- fewer customers due to quality issues means more items going bad before they sell -- but the convenience factor is fast evaporating nowadays. 

Ashley has gone downhill IMO and I too am somewhat surprised they've held on this long. There are lots of weird empty spaces throughout the store that are papered over with random products. And the fish counter, meh - was good when Freeman's was there years ago, but after that the guy who was there always seemed grouchy, and it got way expensive even before inflation. Like salmon for $18/lb when it was like $12 elsewhere. Wouldn't think of getting fish there now, given the lower turnover.  

I feel bad for them as the store was a great addition to downtown. Even the Above restaurant was pretty good for a few years, back about a decade ago. Convenience off the train was always the ace up their sleeve, but with WFH a surprisingly enduring thing, they just don't get the foot traffic they used to. For me, Stop& Shop has more selection and is cheaper for grocery items; Whole Foods is considerably better overall, and no more expensive. And now that I WFH, I have an extra 12-15 hours per week that I didn't have 3 years ago, so I can go to those stores.  

What is in the Above space these days?  

Just an empty space I believe. After Above it was 1 South for a year or two but that didn't take. 

I didn't realize Ashley was still open. I thought it closed a while ago.

The spouse and I once went to Above (or 1 South) a long time ago and it was not a good experience.  It's a shame that space remains empty.