Perrine's Produce — Local services in Port Orange

UPDATED REVIEW: It pains me to have to update my review from 5 Stars to 2 stars. Moved back to Port Orange 6 months ago and couldn't wait to shop at this store again. Since then, the quality and quantity of products available is severely lacking. Today was my third bad trip in a row! I try to shop local and not give all my money to the big stores, but it is hard when every time I come to this store they are out of everything that I want. Today, they again are out of pepperidge farm multigrain bread, Kona beer for my husband, no salsa with extra cilantro which is something they sell all the time, no crab stuff mushrooms. I could go on and on. Today's trip was so disappointing! I spoke with a store employee that told me that the pepperidge farm rep shows up whenever he feels like it and not to rely on it. This is the third time I've gone to that store and not been able to get the bread that I want. This is a smaller mom and pop shop so I'm really not sure why the cashiers are kind of unfriendly. They never seem to want to talk to you. When I tried to speak to some of the younger girls it's like they are all social awkward and not interested. There is never anyone at the bakery. Today, my cashier actually tried to put in numerous different codes to make the price of my honeydew more expensive. She complained to another employee that there are too many codes and that I was getting my honeydew for $0.40 less than what I was supposed to pay. Seriously? Also, as a diabetic, it's really hard to shop here because they literally do not have any diet products. No diet soda, no light sour cream, it's almost as if they don't want you to shop there. I'm really disappointed and hope management reads reviews and will try to make some changes. We understand that you like to sell your wine, but people shop for other things as well and I don't feel like there is a good balance anymore. At times, you can't even walk through the skinny aisles without feeling like you're about to knock over a case of wine. Not good at all. Told my husband today that this will be our last Perrine's trip for a while and we need to start going to Publix again....

Walked in not knowing what I was going to experience. Well, now I know and what an experience it is! I first went to the fresh fruit & veggies. I bought peaches, tomatoes, watermelon, green peppers (these look like they were polished), and they appeared to be solid inside. I also bought some baby spinach, butternut squash and the whitest button mushrooms I have ever seen. I then traveled to the meat department. The hot sausage looked divine and I will try it next time. I was actually after a nice NY Strip steak. OMG, they were gorgeous. I was greeted by a very happy butcher who hooked me up with a terrific looking Strip Steak. I went next to the baked goods and got a gorgeous giant croissant. I finally went to a very happy and friendly cashier. Wow! I really think people like working there. Along my travels through the store a couple of workers offered to help me find a few odds and ends. Got everything I went for and then some. I was absolutely surprised at the prices. I thought I had spent about $60, but turned out to be under $30 for all that I bought. I sauteed the spinach and mushrooms as a side dish for my dinner last evening and it was absolutely delicious. Tonight I cooked up the NY Strip and sauteed the rest of the mushrooms to top the steak. Again, OMG!!! The steak was to die for. Two minutes in the pan on each side, browned on both sides and just warm on the inside. I told the butcher that I liked when the steak mooed as I put a fork into it and he agreed it was the best way to eat a steak. Tomorrow I am going to bake the butternut squash but I already am prepared for a great meal with that squash. And the peaches, tomatoes and green pepper were actually purchased by me for a friend. I will be asking how they were as well, but I am pretty sure I will get the same results. Thank you Perrine's for one terrific shopping experience. I will...

LOVE this store on so many levels, and because of their awesome staff find my shopping experience way more pleasurable then at other stores. No, this is not a large footprint supermarket, nor do I see it as such. I grew up in a family business and appreciate what Perrine’s stands for.

But they have started to slack on checking the expiration, sell by, etc dates on their packages. Expired bagels with mold growing on them, and not just specks of mold, but the entire crust had mold on it. Checked the tag and it was way past the pull date o mid May. Looked at seven other packages and various flavors, of the seven, six were expired by a month at least. As I was doing this, a British woman started looking at some type of yeast, six packages had expired in mid June. The gentleman she was with was getting some milk, guess what, expired. At that point I found a staff member and showed them what we were finding. She requested the grocery manager via radio. When he arrived I asked him if he wanted to have a bagel with me. He said no, but asked what was going on. Showed him the moldy package and the others I had found. Then the yeast and milk. He got upset as I would have because someone dropped the ball, even offered to help him out in exchange for gift cards at $17.50 an hour and guesstimated it would take at least two days to go through all the items in the store. He chuckled and said he wished he could but didn't have the budget for that.

I'll be back in a few days for more produce, and hopefully won't find more out of date stuff. Can fully understand a package or two here and there being out of date, but today's find was just nuts.

BTW, yes, when I am at Publix, Target, etc and find items that are expired, I will politely let the nearest staff member know and NOT seek out a manager. Have worked in retail and know how much of a PITA checking dates...