Universal Food Markets — Local services in Hackensack

WARNING this place is only good for one thing and one thing only, toilet paper. Outside of that, this place is a dilapidated, overpriced supermarket with nothing but dirty dusty items on shelves that may or may not be held together with duct tape. The freezer and refrigerator aisle items are especially disgusting, as most items have a "taste" of the R134a refrigerant they use to try to maintain their aging,outdated freezers. The butter will taste like refrigerator. The milk will taste like refrigerator.... Anything from the freezer or refrigerator cases will taste like a stale musty refrigerator. During the pandemic, they also hiked the price of meats to about 12$ a pound for ground beef, and similar with poultry products. It's only been recently that they have lowered the price back to normal rates. The ONLY redeeming quality of this establishment , is the fine women who work at the front of the store daily as cashier's. They are polite and courteous. They all deserve a much better place to work in my opinion.

Skip this place...

They are overpriced. You get the feeling when you walk in there that they just want your money. I say that because I can’t tell you how many times I’ve given them ‘just one more chance’ with their produce and got home and cut into something dried out. An apple was brown around the core and gellified inside, last time. For this to be the supermarket in town, it’s so not the place to shop. I swear, I don’t feel like it but I drive to ShopRite or Shop & Stop and even WF. I would love to support CTown. It’s just a few blocks from me but it leaves me no choice. I don’t have money for buying bad overpriced food. Such a disappointment for us locals.

Update: Finally decided to start going back there. My initial review was harsh but truthful. I must say that things are ‘better’ imo, in there. Particularly, the produce - better. Vibe, not too much, though. I’ll be back every now and then only because...

I bought two bags of frozen broccoli here yesterday, and I opened them up today, and in both, the broccoli was mostly brown/rotten and not green. This was really disappointing, and it's something that's never happened to me at other supermarkets, especially with frozen food. I get that C Town is where you come for convenience and not for a great selection or super high-quality food, but this was still really disappointing to me. I would go back to return the broccoli if I hadn't thrown out my receipt. That said, given the convenience for, like, snacks and whatnot, I'll probably be back. I just wish I could get my money back for the broccoli, and I'll be going elsewhere for actual healthy...