SPROVE Market Place — Local services in Jersey City

I honestly don’t understand why Sprove gets a lotta hate online. I’ve been living in the area for a while now and I’ve loved the convenience of having this store here - I don’t buy all my groceries from Sprove (of course this is not that kinda place; ShopRite is less than 3 blocks away if that’s what you are looking for!). But on numerous occasions I’ve started cooking something and realized that I still need 1 or 2 more ingredients that I’m running short on - in those moments, i’m super grateful to have this store here and their hours are great too! Also love the Asian grocery sections. Another thing to mention, I saw a couple of reviews about the store refusing returns of expired stuff - personally, I’ve not had trouble returning stuff at Sprove. This has only happened once but from my experience, I produced my receipt and they happily took the item back! So I dunno if these reviews are legit. BUT…. the deli, salad and stir fry sections are probably the MAIN reasons why I love this place. I’ve been super reliant on UberEats / Doordash so this is a great option to have. The staff are always courteous, fun to talk to and special shoutout to Leo at the stir fry counter and the gentleman with the mustache at the sandwich counter during the day. Leo gives great recommendations on the endless stir fry possibilities and permutations/combinations. I’ve walked into sprove to buy eggs/milk and I’ve ended up leaving with a burger or a cheesesteak because this gentleman always smiles, greets you and at that point you just really want to order a burger haha. tl;dr - very grateful to have...

Have been coming here regularly for nearly 5 years as we live right above the store at 90 Columbus, but will not return again as Whole Foods is opening up November 9th just a few blocks away. We have had hopes that Sprove would step up their game but have been disappointed many times - have purchased spoiled meats, spoiled ice cream, expired packaged foods and beverages, no Pepsi products, being charge for items we never bought, and now the 3% additional fee for using credit/debit cards to pay. Their hot bar always served the same items, and were not good as everything was smothered with BBQ sauce. Pros: their made-to-order deli/food counter is good. Their liquor store isn't bad. We are paying extra for the convenience, however, much of their inventory and products are catered towards the Asian population, and those products are not desirable for all Asians (we are Asian). You can find better and cheaper Asian produce a short distance away at 99 Ranch Market. Better wine selections at CoolVines. Sprove had a long time to build up a loyal following from the community, but I think they are doomed - their own doing - now that Whole Foods is opening up NOV. 9th. BTW, we hated having the "PAID" stickers applied to everything in our basket...

-Warning: Selling Spoiled Meat-

We bought 2 packs of raw chicken from the refrigerated meat section at Sprove today. After getting home, my partner checked the "freeze by date" which was for 5/6 (today is 5/8), but we thought that this should still be fine to cook. However, upon opening the chicken, it was clear that both packages had already gone bad. There was a strong odor so we threw them out. We are curious how Sprove stores their meat, as something only 2 days past the "freeze by date" should not smell so bad. We are also unsure why Sprove does not dispose of meat once the dates printed on the label have passed.

We had a similar experience a few years ago with some spoiled raw turkey from Sprove, but we thought that was a one off incident.

This really damages our trust in this store as one would assume a place with higher prices would be holding a higher standard of the quality of their goods. We are so disappointed with our experience that we will not buy raw meat products from...