Our local grocery store sucks. I don't want to be unprofessional and go naming names but let's just say that the name of the grocery store rhymes with
Pisstedes. Sure, I may have been known to say, in the past, that
other grocery stores are the worst but I am much more learned now. Now is time for the truth. Our local store sucks worse than all others.
Some Reasons why our
Gristedes local grocery store is the worst grocery store:
Expired ProductsSure, it happens. You can't catch every expired product. I don't expect any store to do it. I normally check the expiration dates on nearly everything I buy. However, I have on two separate occasions purchased expired peanut butter from this store. Peanut butter, for the record, normally has a sell by date at least a year after you buy it. In January I purchased some peanut butter that had expired the previous September. Then, in May, I again purchased peanut butter that had expired on the same date in September the previous year, leading me to believe it was from the same shipment. I shudder to think of how long these jars of peanut butter had been in the stock room. Now, I must resort to regularly checking the expiration date on a product that should easily last over a year without spoiling.
Mislabeled FoodEverything in the store is mislabeled. Coffee is labeled as "frozen," cereal is labeled as "produce," apples are labeled as "dairy." I can deal with that except that the prices are usually mislabeled as well. This makes for an interesting game of guessing how much your groceries will total to at the register. Normally, if given a calculator, this should be an extremely easy task. However, a calculator will do you no good at this particular store.
It's not that they're trying to trick people into spending more money. Having seen every other aspect of the store I know that this is not the case. Even if they wanted to scam their customers they would lack the sort of organization to do so. Instead the prices vary between being too high and too low. It is for this reason that I suspect simple incompetence and negligence that causes the prices to vary so much. They are far too disorganized to run a normal grocery store, let alone scam anyone.
Today I noticed that the 100 bag box of Lipton tea was $2.99. That's not too bad. However, the 48 count box was priced $3.29. This runs counter to everything I have known to be true about retail pricing for my entire life. Needless to say, I purchased the 100-count box but the savings were evened out when I paid $4.49 for a tin of coffee that was labeled $3.29.
Customer ServiceIf someone at this store looks you in the eye while checking you out then that is a small victory. If they say a single word to you ("Debit or credit?" not included) then that is a colossal victory. If they say either "Hello" or "Have a nice day," then you are living in some sort of fantasy world or are delusional... or both.
It is a standard occurrence to have your cashier check their cell phones while ringing you out. On several shopping trips I have watched a cashier look at their cell phone to see who was calling as it was ringing loudly with the latest annoying ring tone undoubtedly sung by Avril Lavigne. On many other trips I've seen them simply check their cell phones for messages because, perhaps, they were being professional that day and had the phone on vibrate. On one occasion a bagger actually stopped bagging my groceries half way through because he took a call on his cell phone and just walked away. Seriously.
Rotting ProduceEarlier this week they only had one kind of fruit: peaches. There were no other options. If you wanted apples, you were shit out of luck. Want grapes? Not a chance. In fact, I don't know if I've
ever seen grapes there. Of course grapes are a pretty exotic fruit that you'd be much more likely to find at some sort of fancy specialty store. When they do have more fruit than peaches, it's all rotting. Their apples are bruised, their potatoes are soft, their onions are sprouting green stalks, their lettuce is wilted and their carrots are limp.
Singing FruitThere are mechanical singing fruit in most locations of this market. This may sound like an entertaining diversion that would serve to take your mind off the fact that you're paying $4.99 a pound for carrots that you'd have trouble giving away in a third world country during a famine but it's much more annoying than amusing. In our location they have opted to have the fruit sing about the glories of their salad bar. "We have fruit and vegetables," the little papaya sings in an annoying tone. It is worth mentioning that there is no salad bar in this store.
DirtThis grocery store may be the dirtiest building I've ever been in. The hand baskets are so dirty that one can't even tell what color they were originally. They're actually caked with mud.
Mud. It's a city grocery store. These things don't leave the store. There is no parking lot. There's nothing but pavement around the building for five miles in every direction. I'm not sure where the mud even comes from. Maybe they import it from New Jersey. Either that or they simply take it from the dirty, mud-crusted lettuce that they have in the produce section.
Expensive PricesNot only do you get expired products, poor customer service and a dirty, dirty location, you also have to pay the highest prices I've ever seen even by New York City standards. It's located right next to a hospital, which for some reason compels them to charge $6.19 for a box of Cheerios.
For the most part you'd be able to go to a hoity-toity grocery store like
Dean and DeLuca and spend the same amount of money. However, since you live in a sketchy part of town and are not surrounded by rich assholes, you have to pay the price by having inferior products for the same price because the non-English speaking community in the area is too polite to say anything and/or be taken seriously when they complain about the state of their rotten Yucca (which, incidentally, tastes like soap when purchased at our store).
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I work in retail and I always think it's funny when we get our "Mystery Shops" and we used to score above 90%, now, we've resorted to hiring just anybody and our mystery shops are sitting in the 20's. A lot of it has to do with the carelesness of our employees. A good number of them are straight out of highschool and they have no self respect. No parent has ever beaten them. They don't respect anyone else, they're just looking for a fling. Same with all the Wal-mart employees under the age of 30. (sigh) The demorilazation and the prevailing of apathy. All these kids need is a beating to get them off of their arrogant pedestal. When humbled properly, they just might take some care and pride in their work.
