One of the first people I met up with was Shonnie Barer, who was shopping with her husband, Ben, and their baby daughter Ava.  “I am glowing, I am so excited we have another supermarket in Baltimore,” shared Shonnie. “The atmosphere is great and the music is great, and it seems like it is going to be awesome.” Ben added, “I love coming here as a family.”

Tzirel Steingroot was shopping with Yocheved, her 4-1/2 year-old niece from Passaic, New Jersey, who was excited to pick out a few sour pickles at the pickle and olive bar. “It just seems so nice here,” remarked Tzirel. It is wonderfully overwhelming. There is such a nice variety and an abundance, as well. Hopefully, it will be good for Baltimore.”

Linda Meyd, of Owings Mills, shared, “I think it is very fresh, it is very gourmet-like. Very impressive.”

Elizabeth Karpa, a resident of Pikesville, said, “I think it’s fabulous. I couldn’t wait for it to come. I think it is a welcome addition to the community…The people here are fabulous, the store is just fabulous, and I wish them the very best. Walking through the doors is like being at home. You feel so warm and welcomed with people coming up to you every few seconds asking if they can help. Now, of course, that is normal in any new opening of a store, but it’s different this time. You have to come here and you have to experience it, yourself.”

Shlomo Dovid Rifkind, a bachur who will be a senior, this year, in Yeshivas Ner Yisrael’s mechina, was pushing his cart down the snack aisle when he stopped to tell me, “It is an amazing store. They have some very good prices on the meat.”

Sonia Ostrow of Pikesville, who was shopping with her husband, Harry, concurred. “$7.99 a pound is a really great price for steak---six of them cost about $22.”

Genie Lewin, of Pikesville, mentioned, “I think the store is beautiful. I think it has a nice selection of things that we didn’t have in Baltimore and I think that it is going to be refreshing to have more competition in town.” Rebecca, her 10-year-old daughter, added, “It’s really pretty and it’s really good.”

One shopper anonymously shared, “Our family has been waiting for Seasons to come to Baltimore for a very long time; we are very happy that the store is here. We go to New York often to visit our family and friends, and every time we go, we just love going to the Seasons, there. We love the variety of food, the deli department, and the hot prepared foods. Everything looks so pretty. We especially like the checked fresh broccoli and cauliflower that they have, so when I make those yummy salads for Shabbos, instead of using those checked frozen vegetables, you have a fresh, crunchy salad. You are enjoying what you are eating…It’s a beautiful store and it’s not that big, so you can go in and out.”

Between speaking to the very excited shoppers, I had a nice chat with Seasons’ grocery buyer and manager, Sam (Bezalel) Perlman. He told me that The Meat Maven, the store’s outside meat vendor, just told him that they had never had an opening like the one Baltimore’s Seasons had in any of its locations.

The 15,000-square-foot Baltimore location is Seasons’ seventh full supermarket; an eighth is in the planning stages in Cleveland. At this point it is the largest chain of kosher supermarkets. Seasons’ locations include those in New York (Lawrence, Manhattan, Scarsdale, and Queens), and Lakewood/Clifton/Passaic. The Seasons Express locations are more like a large 7-11. The Baltimore Seasons’ outside vendor concessions include: Shloime’s Bakery, Ossie’s Fish, Rollmasters Sushi, The Meat Maven, and Primak Flowers.

Sam shared some impressive stats and other general information with me. “We have 40 feet of just yogurt and we also have another 16 feet of an assortment of packaged cheeses. This is the first Seasons to have its own deli, rather than a concession run by an outside vendor; the produce department is our own, too…We brought in a lot of products that aren’t necessarily in any stores and aren’t necessarily in other Seasons. We also try to concentrate on getting organic items. Seasons has a gluten-free section that it is presently expanding. These products are intermingled with other gluten products, so you can see, for example, all the types of flour we have, in one place. We try to carry a lot of items--heimishe, regular, organic, and generic brands.”

Other facts that Sam mentioned regarded home delivery--with the goal of delivering orders within two hours-- and a checkout system similar to Trader Joe’s, but instead, where the bagger unloads your cart and also bags it after the cashier rings it up.

“It’s all about speed,” says Sam. “We want to get people out very quickly, so they don’t have to wait. If someone is in a rush, and they want something delivered, they can leave their cart and go; if we have their information saved on our system, it is delivered to their house.”

Sam also said, “We are doing something that is very green. We are using plastic delivery containers and after unpacking them, we take them back. If someone wants cardboard, however, we use it.”

I had the pleasure of meeting Moshe Schonfeld, the manager of the Ossie’s Fish concession, who reported that a lot of raw salmon was sold on opening day, at $8.99/pound (it is on sale until a week from Friday). Another best seller was steam bags that you just throw in the oven, as he puts it. Some of the more unusual fish that Ossie’s carries, include: fresh bass, sole, sushi-grade maguro (Japanese for tuna), halibut, and red snapper. He also has an assortment of value-added products that are oven-ready, such as Lemon Pepper Brondini.

Jay Chu manages Rollmasters Sushi, the exclusive sushi concession at Seasons. Between 10 a.m., when Seasons’ doors first opened on Tuesday, until 6:30 p.m., when I met up with him, Jay noted that he and his seven or eight employees made around 1000 sushi rolls, without a break!

“The best seller, so far, is Spicy Tuna Pizzette—six pieces for $12.99—made with guacamole and crispy rice,” notes Jay.

My last stop, was the deli counter, where manager Tzvi Landau was expertly carving delectable 24-Hour Smoked Brisket for a line of customers. While I waited to speak to him, I checked out the inventory in his case—Salisbury Steak, Chicken Marsala, Chicken Lollypops, Southern Fried Chicken, Mediterranean Chicken, Brisket Pinwheels, Schnitzel Israeli, deli roll, and a variety of salads and grilled and roasted vegetables, among other goodies. I also checked out the neighboring self-serve fleishig Hot Food Buffet that was filled with Sesame Chicken, Fried Rice, Beef and Broccoli and Pepper Steak. This was adjacent to the Olive and Pickle Bar, which was adjacent to the pareve Fresh Salad Bar, across from Shloime’s Heimishe Bakery that showcased very unique, artsy New York-style creations.

“Thank G-d, the community has been so appreciative; they’ve loved every piece of food we’ve put out,” mentioned Tzvi. “We appreciate the people hanging in with us. We are doing the best we can to bring the freshest and most exclusive ingredients and cuisine to Baltimore. We are trying to build a new market and we are hoping that they’ll give us a chance.”

On my way out of the store, close to the eight checkout lines, hanging over Primak Flowers’ very full and attractive flower bouquets, I noticed two clocks—one on Pikesville time, one on Jerusalem time. Like clockwork (no pun intended), Avraham Fried’s “Yerushalayim SheBalev” was playing, and my mind wandered to Yerushalayim. It was Tani Michelsohn who brought me back to Pikesville when he concluded, “I just walked in and it’s Seasons Baltimore—not Seasons New York—so I think it is going to have a more casual vibe and it’s going to have a more modest Baltimore spirit to it, but we’re Jews and we can always eat, so I’m excited!”