McCaffrey’s Food Markets – Princeton, NJ

We enjoy exploring supermarkets here on NJroute22.com. And we’re thrilled to add McCaffrey’s Food Markets in Princeton, NJ to the mix.

Route 22 serves as the “backbone” or starting point for content, however, many points of interest to the north and south of this prominent NJ road are naturally included.

So other regional areas such as Flemington, Chester, Frenchtown, and Princeton are covered as well.

McCaffrey’s Food Markets is a Princeton Staple

We go to Princeton many times a year for various purposes. It’s a modest 40-45 minute drive from the central stretches of 22, but certainly not stressful. And we discovered McCaffrey’s recently which was in the area we were visiting (see map below).

McCaffrey’s is a privately-owned supermarket company which has seven locations in the SE Pennsylvania / Central NJ area. And they’re really the only game in town, especially for the most-populated parts of this college town.

Sure, you can drive 15 minutes out of town to hit up a ShopRite or Whole Foods – but the convenience factor alone makes McCaffrey’s a very popular place for all your food needs.

But that’s not the only reason they’re popular…

Why we love McCaffrey’s Food Markets (and so should you!)

On the surface – McCaffrey’s is a supermarket. And a liquor store. The average person just gets what they need and goes on their way. We like observing. And there is a lot more to McCaffrey’s than just any old market.

• Impeccable store presentation. The most impressive part about McCaffrey’s is that they do not run “skeleton crews.” The store is incredibly well-staffed. Almost every aisle had an employee ensuring the shelves were neat and organized. We’ve never seen a food store that put this much effort into product layout.
• Wide-variety of food. Almost like a specialty market, McCaffrey’s offers a huge array of not-so-common products, such as cheeses. Their buyers appear to curate an interesting arrangement of products that people want. We were able to get many items that are normally “hard to find” elsewhere.
• Excellently prepared food. The “ready to eat” options were also top notch. We only sampled a few items – but were pleased. We look forward to trying more.
• Friendly staff. Almost every employee we encountered was helpful and had a good presentation of themselves. Important!
• Fairly priced. While this wasn’t ALDI level pricing, it was fair all things considered. They are in a college town, after all. Some things represented a good value, others not so much. You’d just have to be a bit more prudent when buying things like fresh fruit, vegetables, or meat. Not a big deal. They run sales just like everyone else.

If we lived in the center of Princeton, we’d be thrilled to call ourselves regular customers of McCaffrey’s Food Markets. Sure, while we’d also frequent Shoprite for many of our pantry items – because we like saving money – McCaffrey’s would be at least a weekly stop!

About McCaffrey’s Food Markets

Here’s what McCaffrey’s has to say about themselves:

“It’s simple really. Jim McCaffrey III, along with his son, Jim McCaffrey IV, wants to surpass their customers’ every need. It started with a single store in North East Philadelphia in 1980. And then it grew from there. And along the way, we opened a state-of-the-art, central kitchen facility that has been producing restaurant quality, gourmet foods at production levels since it opened in 1996. The McCaffreys want to surpass their customers’ every need.”

And you can tell. The McCaffrey’s obviously have pride in their operation – which is not too common these days. Many corporations are dominated by the lust of greed and domination. McCaffrey’s has a nice manageable collection of stores which allows them to keep the level of execution high.

There are other aspects about McCaffrey’s that we might touch on in the future. But we just wanted to give them a shout out!

Map: McCaffrey’s Food Markets – Princeton, NJ