NONFOOD STARS AT SHOPRITE ECENT

JOEL ELSON

ELIZABETH, N.J. -- ShopRite, the retail cooperative of Wakefern Food Corp. here, strongly emphasized general merchandise and health and beauty care in a summer promotion running from late last month through the Fourth of July.

Store roto mailers featured a wide range of housewares, small appliances, outdoor general merchandise and HBC items, with some products available at lower prices only with a ShopRite club card.

Six kitchen-countertop appliances priced at $10 and promoted with the ShopRite club card in a Dollar Days Savings event included a coffee maker, food chopper, steam/dry iron, five-speed hand mixer and two-slice toaster from Proctor Silex, and a Hamilton Beach electric can opener.

Other spotlighted Dollar Day Savings items were Aero Plastic food-storage containers priced at $1. ShopRite customers could choose among 3-quart containers, pails, cutlery trays, rectangular dish pans, dust pans, colanders, baskets, stadium cups, pasta containers, canisters, water bottles, ice cube trays, divided plates, show boxes, laundry baskets, water baskets, salad bowls and covered bowl sets.

Also priced at the $1 mark were 200-count boxes of Melitta coffee filters, brown-jersey or white-cotton work gloves, Rubbermaid ice cube trays, and two 10-inch wood-handled steak knives.

The ads also called attention to 9-foot umbrellas at $89.99, Rubbermaid oscillating 16-inch fans at $24.99, Rubbermaid 48-quart ice chests at $18.99, and half-gallon Igloo or Rubbermaid jugs for $3.99.

HBC specials included store-brand sun block (SPF 15 and 30, 8-ounce bottle), aloe vera gel (16-ounce bottle) and oil-free sunscreen (SPF 30, 8-ounce bottle) for $4.99, $3.99 and $5.99, respectively.

Shoppers could buy two ShopRite sun care products and get a free 16-ounce bottle of ShopRite aloe vera gel. Banana Boat sun care products, in bottles ranging from 3 to 16 ounces, were priced $3.99 to $5.99; Coppertone items were priced at $3.49 to $8.99; and Adult Extreme sunglasses were advertised at a half-price special of $3.49.

Club card items in the promotion mix were family summer sandals in various styles and colors marked down $1 from the regular $4.99 to $9.99, a folding resin chaise lounge for $29.99, Fiesta or Patio Master gas grills for $89.99 and 12-pack stackable J.G. Durand glassware sets for $10.