Maria Bouchard, of Pawtucket, wearing a cookies tag, found her match with Tom James, of Warwick, who wore a milk tag at Wednesday’s singles night at Whole Foods Market in Providence’s University Heights.

The Providence Journal / Kris Craig

PROVIDENCE

For singles, the aisles of a supermarket have a certain romance to them, with possibility seemingly around every corner display of baked beans.

And for a “how we met” story, little can top chatting over a shared love of kumquats, or bumping heads reaching for a bag of kitty litter.

That gave Bonnie Frechette, marketing director for Whole Foods Market on the East Side, a brainstorm: why wait for that kind of kismet to strike naturally, when she could create it?

Out of that idea came the first singles night at Whole Foods Market in University Heights, which drew about 75 men and women Wednesday for a night of flirting, games and food shopping.

For the singles — mostly women — from their 20s to their 70s, it seemed like a perfect alternative to Internet dating, the bars or blind dates.

“Especially if you’re not into the bar scene, it’s a more natural setting,” said Lori Engustian, of East Providence, who described herself as “in her 40s.” She loved the idea of saying she met a man at the market, and if he shops at Whole Foods, she figured they’d at least share a taste for organic food.

“I’m really health conscious, so you’d think that at least you have something in common,” she said.

Emceed by WPRO (92-FM) disc jockey Kim Zandy, the two-hour singles night drew believers such as Maria Bouchard, 53, who has been divorced for 25 years but wanted to prove to her daughter that she’d put herself out there.

“She sees me as more of a conventional mom,” Bouchard said. “I just figured it’s something different, it’s a weeknight, it’s the middle of summer — why not?”

When singles signed up, they were asked to fill out a questionnaire, and then given a sticker with the name of a food written on it. They were told to find a person with a matching sticker somewhere in the store: chips with salsa, shrimp with cocktail sauce, cheese with crackers.

Bouchard fastened the “cookies” nametag on her chest, and started craning her neck to find “milk.” “We’re targets!” she laughed.

Some came in warily, hovering around the table without signing up. Pawtucket’s Charlene Williams, 50, and her daughter Angell, 24, came to shop, and see if it was worth signing up for the singles night.

Angell thought it was a cute idea. Charlene, who has tried Internet dating without success, wasn’t so easily swayed. Meeting someone in a supermarket, even at a singles night, is the stuff of Hollywood fantasy, she said.

“It’s never happened. It’s never, never happened, let me tell you,” Charlene said.

“That’s not true,” her daughter quickly cut in. “I did meet someone in the supermarket,” Angell said, telling a story of when she met a man in a checkout line at a New Hampshire market.

Her mother agreed to put on a nametag and spent the night as marinara sauce, hoping to find her pasta.

The turnout was so good that Whole Foods planned to do it again in October — but they’re hoping for a little more gender equality. The women seemingly outnumbered the men by 10 to 1.

The skewed male-female ration meant that the few men easily found women to chat up, while small groups of women sat silently on stools like girls at a high school dance, waiting to be approached.

With men in such demand, the organizers issued each one several matches. When Providence’s Walter Bonuta Jr., tagged as French fries, finally met up with his match, ketchup, he was surprised to suddenly see a second ketchup walk up and introduce herself. He was at a loss.

“You’re going to have to do rock-paper-scissors,” he joked to the two women.

The men said they loved the odds. Tony Knight, 56, came from Central Falls because he heard the advertisements on WPRO — and particularly because he wanted to catch a glimpse of Zandy, who he listens to during his morning commute. He was not disappointed.

“I really came to see what Kim looked like. She’s a hottie,” Knight said.

Once that mission was accomplished, he slapped on his hot chocolate nametag, and went looking for his match: marshmallow.

It was not love at first sight.

“Marshmallow was probably 60 to 70. Nuh-uh,” he said, shaking his head. His preferred age range? Anyone younger than him.

“When they get up there [in age] they tend to lose me. They’re too housebound,” Knight said.

Soon, he was chatting up two ladies who seemed more to his liking.

Stacey Sunderland, of North Providence, heard about the event on the radio and called up her friend Francesca Cappelluzzi, of Johnston, to go. The two 30-somethings thought it sounded cute — and if they actually met someone it would make for a wonderful tale to tell her friends.

“I would tell the story. It’s a great story,” Sunderland said.

After an hour shopping and walking the aisles, however, the pair didn’t turn up their matches.

“I think I’ve burned 20 points walking up and down these aisles looking for him,” Sunderland said.

Zandy and her salsa nametag wandered over, and Sunderland asked if the radio host had found her match, chips.

“No chips yet,” Zandy responded.

“But maybe some dips,” Cappelluzzi quipped, sending all three into knowing laughter.

In the end, most went home saying they had fun, but that they hadn’t found a date for Saturday night.

Heidi Morgan, who boasts of earning the nickname “Martini” for her love of the Sour Apple variety, kept her sense of humor about her despite her match being far younger than what she was looking for.

“I’m old enough to be his mother. Can you say cougar?” she said, referring to the term for older women who date younger men. When asked her age, Morgan was less elusive than many of the supermarket singles — she didn’t hide her age, merely obscured it.

“I celebrated the 21st anniversary of my 23rd birthday in May,” she said.

Despite going home empty- handed, she hasn’t lost her faith that a supermarket is a wonderful place for romance. In fact, she even spotted a few prospects wandering the aisles, including one that the SWF hoped might have also spotted her.

She described him as a tall, older gentleman with sandy blond hair, nice blue button- down shirt, blue jeans, brown shoes. If that fits your description, Morgan implored, get in touch, or just look for her in the aisles the next time.

dbarbari@projo.com