As usual, I begin this review with the disclaimer that I'm from Southern California, where all the produce is fresh and cheap and glorious, and all the supermarkets compete (really) to win your business by having brand identities, being exceptionally clean and generally not looking like the inside of a Walmart. I'm also pretty close to a scratch cook, so I rarely purchase anything that's ready to eat out of a box or carton, or anything that involves a microwave.
Since moving to Massachusetts two years ago, I have been unable to tell you whither I am going to a Stop and Shop or a Shaws. I am unable to distinguish the two, as they smell the same (not great), look the same (florescent light and lime green accents), and essentially offer the same (not incredible) produce and finished goods at reasonably similar prices (not high, but far from the prices you see when food is actually grown locally).
On my visits back to California, I have gone so far as to take video of the produce section of a good, mid-range cost supermarket, just so my friends here will understand how sad the supermarket experience is in New England. I have had numerous dreams about shopping at Ralph's in Universal City back in California, and it's entirely possible that I miss that part of my weekly routine more than about half of my friends back home. There's no Facebook to keep me in touch with the tomatoes I used to eat, after all, or the grass-fed beef I used to bring home for well under $10 per pound.
Roche Brothers is the closest thing I have found to a good supermarket in New England.
Prices are a little higher, and quality is not uniformly better.
That said, I'm a quality Nazi. I also firmly believe that in a capitalist society, you vote with your dollars. If you don't like the world you live in, if you're concerned about things like antibiotic resistance and superbugs, or a few big conglomerate corporations having a stranglehold on our country, don't give companies who support those things or are those things your money. They don't deserve it, and in many cases, their competitors are producing better products anyways.
Regardless of price, if it's crap, or past it's peak date, I buy it somewhere else. Case in point, that $1 bagel in the bakery section mentioned by another astute Yelper. I bought one $1 blueberry bagel, ate it for breakfast the next morning, and was totally unimpressed. I will never buy another.
I've not bought anything from their meat department; most of what they carry is straight from the feedlot, with the exception of a few cuts of very expensive grass-fed beef in vacuum sealed packages. You can buy the exact same thing at slightly better prices at Shaws/Stop and Shop, or just eat less meat. Those vacuum sealed packaged cuts smell absolutely horrible at least half the time regardless, and don't inspire much confidence. If I really want the luxury of meat, I'll make the trip up to Whole Foods in Weymouth.
Cheese here is 50-75% more expensive than at Trader Joes for the same quality- from cows not injected with growth hormone, real cheese, not the shredded stuff that they process with sawdust and other fillers. The cheap shredded stuff is about the same price that you'd find anywhere, as are other packaged essentials that find their way into a crazy cart like mine, including soy milk or baggies or bread. The difference in cost on most items is negligible, twenty cents here, fifty cents there, but if you shop the center aisles, where all the processed food is, I can imagine it would add up quickly.
That said, I've actually found some decent produce here at better prices than the other markets I'll go to- WF, Shaws/Stop and Shop or Trader Joes. I got cherries here recently for $4.99 per pound when they were $6.99 at Shaws/Stop and Shop, or $3.99 for a half pound in a plastic box with two moldy ones on the bottom that you'd only see if you're super careful at Trader Joes.
With the exception of some truly unfortunate stone fruits imported from my homeland, all the produce I've bought at Roche Bros has been a little fresher and a little better than the fare at Stop and Shop/Shaws, even at the same time of year.
Last disclaimer, I went to that Market Basket in West Bridgewater once on a Saturday, and it was so horrific inside that I will never go back. I walked the produce section in my dash through the store, and between the smell and the number of people in that place, all I could think of was the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina. No thanks!
That said, Roche Brothers will be solidly in my rotation, as one of three or so places to pick up essentials as needed. I would not do a big weekly shopping trip here, as that's generally a bad idea anywhere if what you're hoping to have is a good meal every night of the week! Do three little shops and you'll always have something fresh to cook. You'll also know where to buy what to get a good price, and you'll see that not every store carries every item. read more
