A&P Fresh

Located at: 1261 East Putnam Ave. Riverside, CT 06878

Hours:  Monday-Saturday 7am-12am, Sunday 7am-9pm

The Riverside A&P Fresh, conveniently located in Riverside Commons, is comfortably sized and very well kept. The lighting is noticeably dimmer in A&P, but instead of feeling dingy and depressing, it comes off as high end and gourmet. The angled arrangement of the produce and the low level shelving also added the impression of great-quality food.

Though the ambience is pleasing, the pricing is less so as the cost of most basic foodstuffs at A&P Fresh is slightly higher than their competitors. The aisles are quite narrow and the refrigerated aisle on the far left feels extremely cramped. The aisle is broken up by bins in the middle making it difficult for carts to pass each other and for shoppers to move about. In general, the variety of food is decent, but we were particularly impressed by the amount of international foods given the size of the place. The bakery is fairly well stocked and the assortment of freshly baked bread was notable. We agreed that the meat selection is somewhat lacking however. There aren’t a whole lot of organic options available, and where some supermarkets have 4 or 5 varying degrees of leanness in their meats, A&P has no more than 3.  Their seafood variety is also deficient, but relative to the size of the store, it is by no means a deal-breaker.

A&P can however, boast of having an attached liquor store as well as coin and can machines. A&P also stays open the latest and is surrounded by other shops and restaurants (CVS/Pharmacy, DiMare, Starbucks, Verizon, CoCo Nails, the United States Post Office, and Staples).

h

Pros: ambience, convenience, liquor store, coinstar, can recycling, self ceck-out, hours

Cons: price, size, variety of produce, bakery