The Fresh Market (Boca Raton, Aventura, Coconut Grove, Coral Springs, Fort Lauderdale, Miami Beach, Orlando, Pembroke Pines, Tampa, Vero Beach, Wellington)
The Fresh Market, 20409 State Road 7, Boca Raton, Florida 33498, (561) 479-4845.
The Fresh Market…think Whole Foods Market (www.wholefoodsmarket.com—overpriced national “specialty” supermarket) and you got the whole (pun intended) concept in a nutshell. The Fresh Market is a publiclly traded company and as of June 2, 2011 had 101 stores in 20-states. You can check www.thefreshmarket.com for store locations/and other stuff.
Last week I stopped in the newest- The Fresh Market which had “just” opened on State Road 7 in Boca Raton. The space was previously occupied by an Albertson’s store. Like I said before, squint your eyes/and you’ll think that your in a Whole Foods. For those of you who don’t know what a Whole Foods is—specialty grocery retailer. Anyway…I absolutely love fresh orange, grapefruit, tangerine juice. To make a long story short, went to the the juice “area” and found fresh orange and fresh grapefruit. There were 2-brands Kennesaw and a Signature Collection. There was also a sign that in essence said that that Signature Collection was made by Kennesaw especially for The Fresh Market. Being a “good” shopper, I checked the “SELL BY DATE” on the product and low-and-behold I found a number of both the orange-grapefruit (Kennesaw-Signature Collection) quarts to have dates that had already-come-and gone. NOT GOOD!
Imagine—A specialty food market selling “expired” products?…or for that matter, any supermarket selling dated-expired stuff.
Sorry, I can’t comment on the fruits, vegetables, baked goods, prepared foods, candies…didn’t try them. I came for juice and found a store that couldn’t even handle the simpliest of tasks-having fresh products.
Jeff,
I tried that new Mission store last week. The prepared bbq ribs were flavorless. Same for the chicken salad, roast chicken. The bran muffins didn’t taste like bran and I’m still trying to figure out what they were. I also got a cibatta bread that had no flavor. I seriously doubt that the breads are made in house. They looked like frozen goods that were thawed or reheated.
On the fruits, Publix has better fruits and much lower prices.
Whole Foods is much better.
Just wanted to comment that Stiles Market on Oakland Pk. Blvd. in Lauderhill is apparently offering fresh vegetable fruit juice, I mean really fresh. You pick your own produce and then take it to a juicer. I’m not a big juicer so haven’t tried it, and I don’t think they specialize in pesticide-free products, but anyway, I thought I’d mention it.
We shop at the east Boca location and find it to be a great place to shop.Excellent juices, the best cold cuts (no Boars Head here). Great prepared food including sandwiches and restaurant quality sushi at Publix prices. Bakery is terrific.
Environment very pleasant. Neither a Whole Foods nor a Publix. In a league of its own.
Maybe East Boca is a better store. The Mission store is very poorly layed out. In addition as I pointed out the food wasn’t very good. Jeff’s juice story says it all. POORLY RUN STORE!
Give it time. The store on Camino Real is really terrific. Have not been to the Mission store.
Not really a “fresh” market for you…….. I like the Fresh Market for their specialty products, but too have had issues with items that do not turn quickly.
It’s a cardinal sin to sell products that have expired dates.
For argument let’s say that a juice has a Sell By Date of July 12 on it. That means that the store probably has had that juice sitting in its cooler for something like 10 days. July 12 is the last day to sell it and on July 12 it sure has a much shorter shelf life than it did on July 2.
There is no excuse for having dated products.
I would imagine the only excuse a store like that can use for having expired dates on the shelves is that they just didn’t have enough employees to do the job. A sad commentary indeed.
Was in the west-Boca store on Saturday. The checkout area is ridiculously small. You can’t even get a cart through it. Whoever designed this store really should be ashamed of themselves. The aisles are also very narrow.
On the food front, I bought a banana loaf cake and chocolate loaf cake. They weren’t very good. No question in my mind that they had been previously frozen.I also bought terayki wings. Talk about MSG over seasoning strong.
On their pricing its like Whole Foods.
The Boys Market is the best around. Whole Foods and Fresh Market are no match.
I live in Mission Bay. I tried Fresh Market last week and have to say that Whole Foods is much better. The store which just opened across the street from my neighborhood is very poorly designed with a ridiculously narrow checkout area and very narrow isles. For what’s worth Fresh Market gets roughly the same prices as Whole Foods but Whole Foods has much more product.
I tried Fresh Market’s bran muffins. Horrendous. They had absolutely no taste.
Its fruits and vegetables are no better than those at Publix but much more expensive.
Like Jeff I also love fresh juices. I also noticed that many of their juices have dated products that were a day or two from expiration. That shouldn’t be.
The best market going is Boys in Boynton Beach. It is a bit too far to get to on a daily basis so Publix, Whole Foods have to do. Fresh Market isn’t for me.
this boca store is very poorly run.
went there yesterday to pickup some fresh grapefruit juice, but they didnt have any. they had orange but no grapefruit. a worker told me that something happen to the shippment so they didnt have any. wouldnt a well run store made sure to have gotten another shipment?
not to pile on but the cakes and baked goods in fresh market are lousy.
i recently bought a plain pound cake. it had absolutely no tatste.
same for bran muffins.
i also think that these were all previously frozen and then thawed out for sale.
no question in my mind the baked goods come in frozen and then are left to thaw out and put on display.
bad stuff.
Picked uo a bbq chicken last night. Decent enough. But the $3.99 whole seedless watermelon had more seeds than you can imagine. Somebody better get this act in order.
Jeff, bbq chicken, teriyaki wings and sweet & sour wings very good.
orange juice delicious.
amazingly like someone else mentioned no grapefruit juice in boca store.
I’m very disappointed with the store at Mission Bay. Many of there “fresh” items are frozen. I bought deviled eggs that were frozen! Yuck! I tried the salad bar, it looked awesome….but when i took a bite of the grilled chicken they offer it was frozen also…..I bought a tiramisu cake to bring to a friends house….it looked wonderful….but was cheaply made….no taste with substituted ingredients… it was all whip cream and white cake! Publix has this store beat! Whole Foods is sooooooo much better!
nobody can beat whole foods.
in mission bay store today.
get the distinct impression that most of the baked goods are frozen and thawed out.
oj good.
the boys are better.
The Mission Bay loc. in Boca is bad news. Last night I called the store at 7pm to check if they had a particular item. The phone must have wrung 30 times and no one picked up despite my being sent to almost evry department. So I went to Whole Foods and was done with it.
was in boca the other day, didnt have one quart of fresh grapefruit juice. this store is very poorly run.
Store in boca gat $3.79 for a qt of tangerine juice. Same qt at boys mkt is $2.50.
Very overpriced.
not even close to whole foods, joseph’s or doris’
Agree.
Poor execution.
Ok mkt but not as good as whole foods.
ok mkt. i get fresh orange and grapefruit juice there.
rest of stuff isnt anything special.
Im not fooling around here. I’m dead serious.
I really enjoy fresh orange, fresh grapefruit and fresh tangerine juice.
I shop in the Boys in Boynton, Whole Foods and Joesph’s for these 3 items.
Every so often when I’m in the Mission Bay Shopping Center in Boca Raton I’ll stop in Fresh Market for these juices.
EVERY TIME I HAVE BEEN THERE I HAVE FOUND JUICES THAT HAVE EXPIRED SELL BY DATE in the refrigerator.
Today June 27, 2012 I found at least 1/2 dozen graefruit juiceswith 6/24/12 sell dates on them.
The mgt of this store is doing a lousy job and the mgr of the fruit/juice dept if there is one isnt doing a good job.
Good market.
Not as good as whole foods.
The Boca store is very poorly setup,
No match for Whole Foods.
Just left the Boca store.
Orange juice dates 9/27 and today is 9/30.
Mgr doesn’t run this store right.
Was in Boca store this morning. All fresh juices had good dates on them.
I was in boca store today and found some really delicious BBQ ribs and roast chicken.
good selection but not as good as whole foods
I am willing to bet that most if not all of the baked goods in this chain are delivered frozen and then thawed in the store. These guys aren’t making anything fresh in store.
Was in Fresh Market in Boca on 441 this morning at 8:45am.
I wanted to buy fresh quart grapefruit juice and found none in the store, In looking at fresh orange juice at least half of the quarts had sell by dates that had already come and gone. This store is very poorly run.
Same thing happened to me.
Many of the juices have passed dates on them.
Very poorly managed store.
Bought fresh flounder there.. came home opened it up and it smelled up my kitchen… two pieces of small fish cost over $13. Have purchased quiche and chicken pot pie and threw them out… now the fish. For theprices they charge that should not happen. They pay more attention to the looks of the store than what they sell in there
Was in store on Military Trail in Boca yesterday and at least half of the fresh oj and grapefruit containers had expired dates on them.