Icing on the cake may not be the best metaphor to describe a natural and organic food store but that is basically what has arrived at the now bustling Windsor Plaza retail center on Princeton-Hightstown Road in West Windsor.
Mrs. Green’s Natural Market, a steadily growing chain of organic and healthful food stores, has taken 20,000 square feet at the plaza, which has been slowly but surely upgraded since Cyzner Properties purchased the property from the longtime owners whose lead tenant had been the Acme Supermarket.
Founded in Westchester County in 1991 by Harold Hochberger, a businessman who believed there was a demand for organic food that was as pleasing to the eye as it was healthy, Mrs. Green’s Natural Market now has stores in upscale communities in Westchester and Connecticut, as well as in the West Village of Manhattan, Lincoln Park in Chicago, and Calgary, Alberta.
The March 28 opening in West Windsor was part of a major expansion planned for Mrs. Green’s in 2014, with more than a dozen new stores expected to come on line in the Northeast and Midwest as well as Ontario and Alberta. According to reports in various trade publications, the store likes to locate in supportive communities, where it can buy produce and food products from local providers that would not normally sell to the large chain supermarkets.
The West Windsor includes a community room for in-store demonstrations and workshops. One event is already planned for Thursday, April 10. The store’s website includes cooking, dietary, and nutrition information, and the staff includes a nutritionist. At the West Windsor store that role is filled by Kaitlyn Valluzzo, a 2011 Rutgers alumna with a degree in nutritional science.
#b#Checking the Scene At Mrs. Green’s#/b#
E.E. Whiting, a Plainsboro-based writer who still laments the closing of the SuperFresh in her hometown, visited Mrs. Green’s and filed the following shopper’s guide to the new store:
We are used to destination weddings and destination corporate retreats and now we have destination groceries. The newest entrant into the high-end foodstores is Mrs. Green’s Natural Market at the Windsor Plaza. The competition for our food dollars has expanded over the last few years from McCaffrey’s to the advent of Wegman’s, Whole Foods, and most recently Trader Joe’s. Each store has its fans and in some cases, fanatics. Mrs. Green’s adds yet another dimension to the chase for organic and specialized food.
Located at the site of the old Acme Market, the store is sleek and chic. The high-tech looking black freezers are the first thing to grab the eye upon entering, followed immediately by the sense of variety they contain. There is gluten free everything, specialty pizzas and entrees, and a mind bogging array of juices, desserts, breads, you name it. If you have a need for anything special, it seems to be there. Well, almost anything. I needed lactose free milk and that they did not have. But the manager acknowledged the gap and I suspect that will be rectified shortly.
From the practical point of view, the store has only recently opened and any lapses in service or products can be easily be excused. The staff is eager to help and they are throughout the store to assist. Mrs. Green’s is on a much more human scale than the cavernous Whole Foods or Wegman’s. The aisles are good-sized and they have well sized carts that help control the gridlock that make shopping at the other busy stores a contact sport.
I was there on the first Sunday they opened and the store was well patronized with many people clearly comparing prices and variety. In fact, Mrs. Green’s itself had notices comparing its prices, favorably of course, to Whole Foods.
The store’s mission is to be lean and green, a point that is made in various ways. As at most such stores, Mrs. Green’s offers free wi-fi to its customers, handy when you are enjoying a cup of coffee and baked snack in the cafe area. Mrs. Green’s calls the service “free range wi-fi.”
Plastic bags, which draw the ire of many sustainability advocates, are used freely at Mrs. Green’s and are turned into a ecology lesson. As the writing on Mrs. Green’s plastic bags, called “hippo saks,” proclaims, they are double seamed at the bottom and 10 times stronger than normal recyclable plastic bags. The point is to alleviate the need to double bag.
In addition, Mrs. Green’s bags are made with 50 percent green energy, made with a minimum of 30 percent recycled material, generate 70 percent less greenhouse gas emissions than a paper bag, require 91 percent less energy to recycle than paper bags, and generate 80 percent less solid waste than a paper bag. Speaking as the victim of broken bags spilling cans that roll into other parking aisles, I find this a welcome upgrade.
So how are the prices? If your family has specific needs, allergies or is vegan, then Mrs. Green’s is a good destination but is not that much different from Whole Foods. The variety of products such as tempeh, seitan, chia, or liquid aminos is quite large. The emphasis on locally sourced products is evident but it is interesting to note that for the organic milk, for example, “local” is anything within 275 miles.
For a family that does not focus on organic everything, the prices are steep. Gala apples are $2.49 per pound vs. $1.95 currently at McCaffrey’s. Rotisserie organic chickens are $12.99. Boxes of arugala are $4.29. Cereals are especially dear, as they are at most stores but they do not appear to offer house brands that are reasonable, a la Trader Joes. There is a panoply of packaged meats and a modest selection of fresh fish. Produce is more limited than you would find at Wegman’s for example, but everything is pleasingly displayed and looks crisp and fresh. Red peppers will set you back $5.99 per pound and cukes $1.99 though. My personal budget black hole is a ravenous cat and at $1.69 per can I probably will pass on Mrs. Green’s brands, regardless of how long she will live for eating them.
Amenities include a small dining area and excellent house coffee, $1.98 for a medium. Their beverage bar offers a loyalty card that gets you a free coffee after only five purchases and a free anything at the bar after ten. I would definitely return for the coffee. There is also a community room available, similar to other stores in the area.
Parking is so much easier at Mrs. Green’s than at the maze at Wegman’s or the race track at Whole Foods. Having a full, albeit smallish, grocery in West Windsor that is conveniently located on a major road is a dream come true for residents who have been limited to McCaffrey’s or Route 1 since the closure of the Acme and SuperFresh in Plainsboro.
Mrs. Green’s is clearly the cherry on top for the revitalized Windsor Plaza. The upscale strip, moribund after the departure of Acme, is cheery and bustling now with the addition of a full service food store, a vital element in creating a dynamic retail community. For local residents, Mrs. Green’s and those stores will be a welcome destination.
Mrs. Green’s Natural Market, Windsor Plaza, Princeton-Hightstown Road. 609-373-6030. Manager: Patti Demchuk. Store nutritionist: Kaitlyn Valluzzo. www.mrsgreens.com.
