Kings Food Markets — Attraction in Hillsdale

Full and fair disclosure: This review applies to the two Kings locations I went to (Cresskil and Hillsdale), so I will be posting the same review for both (for anyone who catches the fact that I copypasta'd).

I normally shop at another grocery chain than Kings. However, I was given a $100 gift card for them. Catch me turning down free money, right?? So I went to Kings with an open mind - I'd never been in one meaningfully before this. I'd been BY them, but not in them.

I'm on the fence about the stars. If I had gone here and paid using my own money, it would be 3 stars ('It's okay'). However, I was shopping with free money, so yeah, 4 stars ('I liked it'). Just know that I won't be back using my own money.

The layout seemed unusual to me, but no deduction for that. After all, I'm used to a different chain entirely.

The stores were clean, and the selection was reasonable. I say reasonable because even at my favored chain, there are still what I perceive to be supply chain issues. Same thing here: Some empty spots where items should be, here and there, around the store. Nowhere near the panic-buying pandemic level that every place had a few years back though.

The main issue I have, the issue where 1 or 2 stars are deducted, is price. I looked at some staple items I normally buy to see how they measured up price-wise. Everything was more expensive! Plus, certain things (canned chunk light tuna springs to mind) were double in price, whether name brand or not. I'm comparing non-sales price to non-sales price here, mind you.

Otherwise, I used the gift card, which almost covered the dozen eggs I bought - just a little joke. The eggs were definitely expensive, but this was at a time where eggs were expensive everywhere. I got a number of items I was running low on, like eggs, and toilet paper, and milk, etc etc. I wound up paying about 80 cents over the card, but I got restocked on some bigger ticket items that last over a longer time than, say, produce.

I won't be back (why would I go there just to pay more money? I didn't see any benefit to going there other than the Hillsdale location being 1 mile away vs. the closest 'favored chain' store which is 2 miles away), but I will say, if you get a gift card for Kings market, it's definitely well...

First time I'm ever posting a review of a supermarket, but I have to say the quality of the "fresh" produce here is not only disgraceful, but the management leaves rotting fruit out for days. I should have taken a picture to document the pile of so-called limes today, 95% of which were yellow (limes, not lemons), with a few disgusting soggy brown ones at the very front of the pile. My wife saw this same sorry display 2 days ago, except there were no green ones at that time. Fortunately, today there were about a dozen mostly green limes at the very back of the pile, from which I was able to find 2 satisfactory ones. (At $1.49 each, mind you). The disgrace of it is that the management and stock people saw fit to leave these horrible rotting fruits out for at least 3 days, if not more. I expect more from Kings, which is supposed to be a "gourmet" supermarket with "fresh produce." Nah. Not anymore. ShopRite for me, next time!

And I’m back, August 2025, to confirm what’s already known - that King’s is obscenely overpriced. For the same item: Meredith Dairy marinated sheep and goat cheese. $10.99 at Super Cellars/Ridgewood Cheese Shop $10.99. $15+ at King’s. Same item, same size. Shame on...

I am fed up with this store. Kings is essentially a boutique grocery store however the service here no longer reflects their astronomical prices. Having spent thousands and thousands of dollars here since moving to Hillsdale, I can no longer justify shopping here now that Wegmans is up the street. The employees at Kings have become unfriendly, they still smoke out front and there seems to be a bit of entitlement over there. Kings is an Unpleasant experience these days and offer a subpar selection when compared to the competitors in the area. Wegmans service, selection, prices, produce, cleanliness, ample parking, massive stock and especially their friendly, knowledgable and courteous employees and the chains years of experience is far superior to that of the Hillsdale King‘s location. Thankfully we now have choices and With changing times such as these, it pays to shop where the customers are...