A JAM FINE SIGHT

BARBARA MURRAY

When SN visited a Waldbaum's unit in College Point, N.Y., this month, it found peanut butters and jellies in a 13-foot section, including 5 feet devoted to peanut butters.

The section had several fruit butters, such as Medford Farms Apple Butter, at $3.49.

Jam selections included Simply 100% Fruit, spreadable fruit at 40 calories a serving, made with white grape juice but no refined sugars. Smucker's Light Preserves contain NutraSweet and were priced at $2.79 for 12.75 ounces. Altogether there were five shelves of Smucker's.

Master Choice was also represented, along with Wilkin & Sons, Dickinson's Purely Fruit and Simon Fischer Kekvar Prune Butter, no fat, $2.99 for 17 ounces.

Imports included, among others, St. Dalfour, from France (Golden Peach at $3.19 for 10 ounces) and James Keiller & Son Dundee 3 Fruits Marmalade, on sale at $4.69 for a 1-pound jar, at a saving of 30 cents, according to the shelf-talker.

Brands that were dominant on the shelf included Smucker's, Polaner and America's Choice, the national brand-equivalent private label. Welch's, on the two lower shelves, had Squeezable Concord Grape Jelly, the 22-ounce size, on sale at $1.79, a saving of 30 cents, in three facings.

More jams were merchandised a couple of aisles away, in the International section. One shelf each was dedicated to Zentis brand from Germany, and Krakus jam from Poland, in some of the usual flavors, but also in gooseberry and blackcurrant, priced at $1.79 for 16 ounces. The Zentis flavors were sour cherry, apricot, strawberry, black cherry, blueberry, orange and raspberry.