SAIPAN — Just weeks after closing its Payless SuperFresh & Truckload retail store, Triple J has reopened the doors of a smaller-format Pay-Less Fresh Market, bringing back certified Angus beef, Tinian produce, and a streamlined selection of fresh foods at the former SuperFresh location.
General manager Charles Cepeda said the new shop is designed around what loyal customers said they were worried about losing when SuperFresh shut down: meat, produce, and dairy. “We downsized the old size to a third and focused on produce, on dairy, on milk that is fresh and cheese, and then our Certified Angus Beef chilled display in the back, cut up by our great butchers,” he said in an interview during Friday’s soft opening.
Cepeda described the turnaround as a fast but thorough reset of the old store. What started as simply putting up a wall to separate units became a full cleanup and repainting to give the space “a fresh new look” while they waited for new shipments of meat and produce.
The market’s meat case again features Certified Angus Beef, which Cepeda said has long been one of the store’s biggest draws. He added that customers have also been asking where they can find Tinian beef, and Pay-Less Fresh Market is stocking both ground beef and cuts prepared on Tinian for dishes like bulalo and adobo.
Local sourcing is a major part of the concept. Cepeda said Tinian farmers continue to send okra, eggplant, cucumbers, dill and the island’s famous hot pepper “almost every other day,” giving shoppers a steady supply of fresh, local produce alongside imported items that will arrive roughly every two weeks.
To match today’s economic realities, the store is operating on reduced hours: Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., including on Thanksgiving, with no Sunday operations. Cepeda said the schedule has worked well for both staff and shoppers.
There was no ribbon-cutting or formal ceremony for the soft opening as Triple J simply opened the doors. Cepeda thanked customers who came out on day one, saying their calls and questions after the SuperFresh closure are what pushed the company to bring back a neighborhood market focused on fresh essentials.
