Aspen Marketplace

I do most of my food shopping here. They have a good balance of affordable products and organic food.
They generally have a good supply of organic chicken breast, beef cuts, and ground meats. The deli section is supple. They have an amazing (but pricey) cheese section. The produce section is always well stocked.
I appreciate their fresh breads and large nut selection.
Things can be a little hard to find in this tightly packed niche store. Don’t be scared to ask the produce guys where stuff is. They are all SUPER friendly and helpful.
Pro Tip: If there is no one in the meat dept (which often happens), don’t be shy about asking some one in deli or produce to find the meat people.
This place may not be the best spot for large packages of paper towels or obscure foods, but their staple products always seem fresh and available.

OK, I’m going to be a little hard on Aspen, but they’re supposedly a gourmet food shop so they should be held to a higher standard.
The problem is the quality of each department varies enormously. For instance, the produce section is one of the best in Hoboken. Not particularly cheap, but very good. Fresh, beautifully displayed, and offering a lot of variety.
Then you have the meat department which, in my opinion, is one of the worst in Hoboken. Half of the tiny department is made up of meat (particularly chicken) that is priced very cheaply, but much of it is unmarked. (The outside packaging is loosely wrapped and sticky. Really gross.) In this day and age that’s something unacceptable. You have no idea where, who or how they raised these animals. You have organic options, but they are enormously overpriced. The people on hand to help aren’t knowledgeable and the displayed meats and fish aren’t very good. All in all, very very bad.
Then you have the deli and preprepared foods. Variety is limited and it’s expensive. The quality is average to poor and the knowledge and friendliness of the people behind the counter is generally lacking. A mess.
The cheese section, however, is pretty good. The Italian dry cheeses are, yes, overpriced.
The bread section — not very good. The breads that are offered are boring and average even though the selection is quite large. It seems to me they are simply getting good deals from suppliers and so they stock their shelves with mediocre product. (Better to go around the corner to Choc O Pain Bakery — extremely good bread.)
The cakes and desserts on hand also look fine but are of poor quality and not worth the effort or the expense.
The staff, on the other hand, are generally very pleasant and very helpful. Not particularly knowledgeable, but that’s OK.
The bottom line is this place could be so much better and just isn’t very good.

This is more of a heads up on something gross I witnessed yesterday. The manager (or someone that I think is in charge because I see him there «running» the show all the time) scooping stuff off of the counter of the hot buffet & mixing it back INTO the buffet food. This isn’t your house, guy. Clean the food off of the counter & throw it away.
Gross.
2 stars because the variety & decently priced rolls are good.
PS — The deli guys deserve 5 stars because they are super friendly!

I’ve already told my man that I cannot live in Hoboken– it’s just not for me. One of many many reasons I just can’t do Hoboken is because, other than the PATH and the light rail, what can you TRULY say is convenient about it? Aspen is a great example. This is one of the MOST convenient grocery stores only because it’s one of the ONLY ones around the heavily trafficked Washington St — and it’s level yuck.
The store doesn’t have a huge variety of anything and nor does any of the other small shops nearby. Super overpriced — $ 4 for 6 eggs? Are these GOLDEN eggs? STAHP. You go to H Mart, get the same quality eggs for $ 1 (or $ 2 for a dozen, and the other week, we got 3 dozen for $ 3). They know they can mark up their prices because we don’t have that many other places to go. Sure, there’s a ShopRite nearby, but when I don’t drive down to Hoboken, that just would be too difficult.
We try to reserve our shopping to weekends at bigger grocery stores, so we really only come to Aspen for fillers — meat, cheese, ham, bread, veggies, and pasta sauce (and yes, they have Stonewall — I upped Aspen a star for carrying this brand). The produce is generally fresh but the markups are insane. The fish — very fishy. I won’t be getting any fish there. The packaged poultry are fine but anything they package seems to lack quality. The buffet for hot foods look mummified (and no, it’s not only at night time).
From the looks of other trusty Unilocalers (and their stellar reviews of this place back in 2012 – 2013), it seems like Aspen has been steadily going downhill — they went from high stars to grave level.

The place has been going downhill, especially in the last year. It was great a few years ago when it was «Garden of Eden,» all the produce was fresh, and even though it wasn’t cheap, you didn’t mind paying extra for convenience. After it changed to «Aspen,» things started deteriorating. And they have gone from bad to worse in the past year… the fruit is never fresh, and in fact, they continue selling fruit that is overripe, has blemishes all over and spoilt. You hold a pear or a plum, and your fingers sink in… it is appalling that they sell stuff that should be in a dumpster. I bought two pre-​packaged boxes of assorted cubed cheese for a last-​minute gathering last week, and there was mold in it. A tiramisu cake I bought a while ago had gone bad, not sure how long it was sitting there. The other non-​perishable stuff is over-​priced; a jar of pasta sauce was 2 twice what I paid at the organic store next door. I’m surprised at the positive reviews this place still gets, and am beginning to wonder if people who wrote those reviews are regulars, or just shopped there once or twice. Echoing some other reviewers here, the cashiers are very unfriendly, bordering on rude at times. (the guys who work in the cheese/​meat department are very nice though) The manager/​owner who I keep seeing in the store doesn’t seem to really give a damn about the quality of the stuff he sells… needless to say, I rarely go there anymore. I recommend shopping at the organic store next door. Too bad they don’t have a deli/​meat section… if they did, Aspen would go out of business.

This place is disgusting. Hardly anything in the entire store is fresh. They run like a last chance food outlet store — «hey, buy these eggs or bread or yogurt even though they expired last month!» Shop here at your own risk.

Old waterlogged cod. Beef tenderloin head sold as a roast. Not good. Veg selection is great. Good dried pasta and San Marzano tomatoes a plus. Buy your protein elsewhere.

Similar to, and as good as, Garden of Eden stores in NYC. The swiftness of check-​out lines and the upstairs eating area make this my favorite dining place in Hoboken.

I struggle with Aspen. Is it more expensive than your typical supermarket? Yes. Is the quality of their produce good? Mostly yes. Do they have a decent variety of items? It depends. Is it really convenient? Absolutely! For what is available in Hoboken, this is your best bet as far as quality is concerned without breaking the bank. It’s a little more expensive than I would like for my local supermarket, but unless I’m getting in the car to drive to Edgewater, this is where I shop for my groceries.

I’ve been using Unilocal for years but never wrote a review… until now! I decided this year maybe I’ll do more of that.
So when deciding on where to start, I thought I’d go with a place that I’ve been frequenting and enjoying a lot recently. Aspen marketplace has pretty much everything you would need to stock your kitchen and pantry. Fresh fruits, a wide selection of meat, international foods, different types of cheeses – they pretty much have it all. It can be a bit pricey but I wouldn’t say anything is too insanely priced,

Stopped in to purchase some flowers to take while visiting at someone’s house. Never arrive empty handed is always my moto. I selected the flowers outside and went in to pay and was impressed by this market. They had a lot of specialty items and if I lived in this neighborhood I could see myself frequenting this place.
It is a bit pricey but, they do carry higher quality items and you are paying for convenience. The line moved swiftly and I was out the door before I knew it. The parking can be a bit of a nightmare on the street but, that seems to be a common issue in this city.

if you enjoy the feeling of leaving the store with one bag and wandering what you spent a $ 100 on then this is the store for you!
Good selection, clean, and extremely over priced!

I’m giving 2 stars because I’m in a good mood. The cashiers are probably the rudest human beings alive. If you do not like your job, simply quit. Additionally, my partner and I went in to grab a quick snack. So, we browsed through the yogurt section and all the yogurt was warm. I do not mean just not as cold as it could be but genuinely room temperature. We decided to take a chance and purchase them anyway only to take one spoon full and throw it away. We did not even bother to go get a refund, the hassle was not worth dealing with rude cashiers again. If the transaction was more pleasant, I would come back more frequently.
On the plus side, they did have the white chocolate bar with the Rice Krispies that I have been searching for in the past few months.

Great quality, fresh produce, and reasonable prices. You get what you pay for, and I have always been happy with my purchases from Aspen.
Their meats are fresh, too. I have yet to try the seafood.

Really like this place. Fresh produce, great hot food, salad, and olive bar. I often come here for lunch or to pick up some extras for dinner.
Sometimes things are hard to find, and prices are a bit high. But overall great experience, good service, and most importantly good food.

I’m a Hoboken local and am all about supporting local businesses, but aside from the great produce and cheeses, I’m very disappointed in the quality of their fish — paid over $ 20/​lb for king salmon that smelled –and tasted — ‘fishy.’
Anyone who buys sushi grade fish knows it’s not supposed to smell like fish at all.
Additionally, I bought their pre-​sliced grapefruit wedges in a plastic container and I would bet a dollar they don’t package it there, as it tastes like it has preservatives — same as a clueless corporate brand i.e. Del Monte, Sunmaid, etc. To get «fresh» grapefruit from a local market, and to taste the potassium sorbate or benzoate, is pretty disappointing.
I also emailed them about it and never got a reply.
Such is life. Back to A&P for fresh grapefruit slices.

You know those people, those people who prefer their apples unblemished, their avocados at the peak of ripeness, and their baby kale organically grown and pre-​rinsed three times, and they will spare no expense for such extravagances? They shop here. THOSE people.
Those people like organic uncured duck bacon. And marcona almonds, even though it’s like 8 bucks for 17 tiny, buttery, delectable nuts. And aged cheeses made from grass fed sheep’s milk to pair with aforementioned almonds. Those people.
I’m not like them, I swear, even if I buy all those things at this very location, along with wild caught fresh salmon, organic free trade dark chocolate, and these delightful prepared artichokes with spinach. I wear checkered vans and ride a murdered out bicycle. I’m not like that! But I do like my produce perfect and my meats minty fresh, and I’m willing to pay a little extra for the privilege.
Screw it. I love aspen market. They sell quest bars there, too. I give up.

Cons:
That time I picked up a bag of onions and a swarm of fruit flies burst out from underneath it.
The multiple times my roommate and I have looked at the date of the product we just bought to find that it had expired DAYS ago.
That time I tried to return an $ 8 pack of string cheese and the cashier tried to ask me to «just take it» because she didn’t want to go through the whole return process. (I did eventually get to return them)
Pros: Idk it’s right there.

Aspen is a mixed bag with mixed feelings with shopping here.
The good:
1. Excellent and polite service
2. Great avocados and produce (lettuce, etc) in general
3. Well priced and tasty fruit tarte and cheesecake
4. Good butter (and varied)
5. Good humanely raised eggs
6. Fresh fairly priced farm raised salmon
7. Solid and varied and well priced bread
The bad:
1. Olives are good but way too salty
2. The spreads don’t seem fresh (threw one nondairy spread out recently)
3. No well priced ice cream: the Talenti is way overpriced compared with at other small markets in town or shop rite
4. Rice selection sucks and superbly overpriced… I’ll stick to my well priced 10lb bag of delicious Pari basmati rice I get in little India in JC for a fraction of the price and outstanding flavor and quality
5. The cold cuts are not fresh: grow mold in 3 days ESP the fancy organic brands (prob since less turn over)
6. Not much selection of grass fed beef or humanely raised chicken. Shop rite has a much larger and much better priced selection

This is such a fresh and delicious farmers market, I do almost all of my grocery shopping here. They have a wide selection of fresh fruits and vegetables everyday, different meat stations and three different salad bars (hot food, cold salad, and olive bar) with so many options!
The prices are a little high but well worth it! They have some shelf foods as well, but for bulk storage food shopping this is not the place to go.