Justa Bitch'in about Grocery Stores

1. Squeaky wheels are one thing--it could be worse. My father went into the old Hills store in Maumee one day and pulled out a shopping cart only to get splashed with puke (it was on the baby seat and someone just pushed the cart back into the rack). Nice. He never went to Hills again...

2.) I try not to use the self scanners if I can help it for just that reason. Plus, the person they have overseeing the (usually) 4 self scan areas is always in a crappy mood when you ask for help with THEIR machine.

Sometimes it's just easier to wait 3 more minutes so a cleark can run your things over a scanner in 30 seconds and bag it for you.

3.) What time are you shopping? Most well managed stores only do emergency stocking during the day. If you're in after 9PM, well, that's a different story.

Wal-Mart is the absolute worst--GIGANTIC pallets of crap everywhere after 9-10PM. But, they do a volume business and it has to get restocked sometime.

4.) If it's a good sale, more people buy stuff and in large quantities. Gotta go early to get the deals! If not, get a rain check (good for the same price when its back in stock, even if the sale is over).

Wow, Wish my only worries were

- poorly maintained shopping carts

- Self-scanners that are slow

- slow employees stocking

- sale items out of stock

Shopping carts are on that list, Walmart being th worst.

As for self check-out I kinda like it. I tend to buy light and prefer to get in then out rather than wait in line. Though they can be slow. My favorite is Krogers, was nervous the first time I bought produce but it was simple just put it on the scanner it found weight, click what it is done.

To add to the list:

Having 24 checkout lines, only 2-3 open except Black Friday.
Sucks buying 2-3 items and being stuck behind 8-10 people with full carts because only 2-3 lines are open.

I just don't care much for self-checkout lanes. Unless I have only a couple of items, I'd rather wait in line for a clerk (bonus points if there's a bagger too!).

Though if I'm going to be at a self-checkout, I prefer the ones at Meijer or Giant Eagle, because they have the lanes that accommodate larger purchases. My complaint about the self-checkout at Kroger is that there isn't a lot of room for larger purchases. (Not a huge issue most of the time, since I don't mind waiting for a clerk. But if there isn't a clerk available, going through the self-checkout at Kroger with a bunch of stuff is a pain.)

In general though, I don't have too many complaints about the grocery stores I frequent.

Ive spent the last 35 years working in the grocery business and as many as a customer. All managers give a shit. It's a high paying job with huge demands and little room for error. Idiots can't survive in that position.

1. Poorly maintained shopping carts - specifically wheels that wobble, are stuck, or squeak loudly. PS - do you guys ever power wash these things? I'm sure you have some sort of maintenance contract, right?

No Maintenance contracts. Power wash once a year. Bad wheels on carts are replaced, Often!

2. Self-check out readers that don't scan correctly, and are too damn slow.

Usually operator error. Never had a problem with it scanning incorrectly. What exactly do you mean by that statement?

3. Your knucklehead employees who block the aisle while s-l-o-w-l-y re-stocking shelves.

Don't know what store your in. I'm in many. Knucklehead? I wish all knuckle draggers had to work with the public in a retail environment once. Slowly? We bust our ass, much to do and little time to do it. I love a customer like you who thinks he is somehow superior to the lowly grocery store clerk. Perhaps your superior attitude is as much the problem as any.

4. Sale items out of stock. You DID know you were having a SALE?

Corporate problem. In many cases, store personnel have no control over quantity ordered. Trust me, at least at store level, the goal is to have the product. No out of stocks, on anything, on sale or not. We can't sell air and aren't selling floor tile or empty shelves. We knuckle heads are doing the best we can to keep the product on the floor so you superiors don't have a fit.

Poorly maintained shopping carts - specifically wheels that wobble, are stuck, or squeak loudly

I thought I was the only one who had that problem. Kroger's carts are the best.

I almost always use the self-check out lines. That way I don't have to wait behind customers with price checks, questions about purchases, whatever ties up the line.

thank you, bphtol1, my son is the front-end and grocery manager of a Lowe's Foods in NC and your answer covered what I hear from him. He can't order anything, someone orders for them from the main office and he has to store it and stock it however and whereever he can. At a small store he was at, sale items got pulled and sent to a larger store when they ran out...man, did he hear it from his customers. he flat out told them what happened and many of them went away sympathetic. Almost all of the complaints retailers get are from people who just don't know the business. Lots of my relatives have been in grocery, including one uncle who worked himself up to VP from bagger for Krogers, and, man, the stories have been hilarious!! Keep on keeping on, man, we need you!!!

To bad Rich Iot was more interested in politics than running a decent grocery store chain.

1. Poorly maintained shopping carts - specifically wheels that wobble, are stuck, or squeak loudly. PS - do you guys ever power wash these things? I'm sure you have some sort of maintenance contract, right?

You could put a stainless steel 12 pound sledgehammer out for the general public to use and you'd find it busted at the end of the first day. Look, think about the idiots you see on the road everyday, trying their best to teach you patience and raise your insurance rates. I'm surprised the shopping carts work as well as they do.

By the way, where cleanliness is concerned any grocery store shopping cart is guaranteed to carry more germs and communicable disease than a sawbuck in a crack house. Everybody uses the cart, and parents put their sick kids in the kiddie seat. Think about that the next time you grab the handle.

2. Self-check out readers that don't scan correctly, and are too damn slow.

I've seen this firsthand and it drives me nuts. The server gets overloaded, so when you scan an item and nothing happens, you figure the scanner didn't read the bar code and so you scan the same item again. Surprise, now you've scanned it twice.

Add to this the problem of the database not being updated correctly with the current prices, which happens all the time, and the self-check out becomes another stressful irritation that none of us truly need in our lives.

3. Your knucklehead employees who block the aisle while s-l-o-w-l-y re-stocking shelves.

Can't find what you're looking for? Ask the stock boy because they are most likely to know.

Arguably the lowly stock boy (stock person?) is likely not working himself through school, maintaining a 4 point GPA and worrying about acceptance into Harvard Med. However, let us have a little patience here. The job has to get done one way or another, the stock boy is working hard and he's working at a job that I wouldn't care to try. I have enough trouble finding things, let alone trying to find the correct place and arrange the stock. Besides, my nature would overcome my good sense and I would eventually slip a large rubber spider into the bananas.

4. Sale items out of stock. You DID know you were having a SALE?

Yes, it's irritating. Get a rain check, and if none is available complain bitterly to the manager, then follow your complaint up with letters, plural, to the corporate headquarters. Be sure to specify the names of the product, the people you spoke with and your general dissatisfaction. Corporate headquarters has people that live for complaints like this. These are the people that don't have to do the work or interact directly with the unhappy public, yet they get to provide a solution and make someone else's life miserable.

To these four complains I will add that I'm sick and tired of finding long lines at the register due to a lack of cashiers. Unemployment is high. Hire more cashiers.

From BPHTol1: I wish all knuckle draggers had to work with the public in a retail environment once.

So do I, but evidently once isn't enough, as the knuckleheads are retained. My objection to the average cashier or sales person has nothing to do with the problems any customer encounters in retail. Retail sales is going to be full of minor difficulties that make everyone's life a challenge. My objection is that once a problem surfaces, the cashier denies all responsibility and wrongdoing on the part of the store, and will deny being able to provide any kind of solution. Here's an example: I drove up to Cabela's to spend a gift card on ammo. I found two boxes of .45 at $15.95, but the cashier rang them up at $19.95. I told her about the price and she argued. I insisted, so she called Management. Management supported the higher price (over the phone, no one showed up at the register), but I refused to agree, stating that the price was clearly displayed on a sign in front of the display. With an impatient sigh of the truly long suffering, the cashier and I walked back to the display where I was vindicated - $15.95. The cashier refused to speak to me after she'd read the price, and I mean that literally. She wordlessly handed me my change and my ammo, and that was that.

Granted, this is one instance, but I don't shop at Cabela's all that often and that's what happened to me.

I laugh at the "dirty cart" theory. Its been years and nobody has died. I did crack up the other day at Kroger. An elderly guy was standing blocking traffic as he safely wiped down his entire cart with those handy sterile wipes they supply now. Not two minutes later I see him scarfing down old ass samples that everybody has touched, breathed on and who knows what else. A bit insane if you ask me.

<i>I wish all knuckle draggers had to work with the public in a retail environment once.</i>

I think BPHTol1 was referring to the the customers who simply want to pick a major fight over any minor inconvenience. Your stuff is out of stock/mistakenly priced wrong/needs to be exchanged/is hard to find in the store? Please don't pitch a fit/yell/use profanities/etc. It never helps the situation. Seems simple to me, but we've all seen people lose their friggin' minds over some minor situation...

Now on the other side of the coin, I've been there with you, madjack. I've had managers walk with me to shelves before to check prices and i usually can simply point out the price on the shelf and they give in with an apology for the error. Never had that kind of attitude, especially at a sporting goods store. A lot of grocery stores used to make those items freebies, but those days are done as far as I know.

However, I think, because so many customers throw a fit/yell/use profanities/etc. over little things, many of the employees and management see any problem as a potential big deal and have conditioned themselves to put on the "I don't care" attitude armor (rather than fight). Probably have been trained to not say anything or inflame the situation for fear of some bogus lawsuit threat. It's impersonal, but I can see it from that angle. Unfortunately, like you found out, that tactic pisses off good customers even more.

Not saying there aren't problem people, but I really <i>really</i> treat everyone with respect until they do something to me.

About the clerks: many of them live in constant frustration. In retail meetings, managers often tell the front-line employees that the customer is always right and to give satisfaction so the customer will return and spend more money in the future.

But the cashiers are under constant suspicion if they change prices at the register and they learn pretty quickly not to make those decisions on their own.

When the manager / supervisor comes out and agrees with the customer (or grants whatever he's requesting), then the cashier feels like the bad guy, the uncooperative one, whose boss had to come out on the floor and make things right. Multiply that by 12 times per shift, add abusive language, shoplifting, and hidden baby vomit, and it all adds up to one crappy day at work.

I have worked with cashiers who felt it was the manager's responsibility to back up the store employees, and to throw out any paying customers who "make trouble" over prices. They don't respect a boss who will not stand up for his employees.

It's hilarious to see anyone claim that the scanners don't scan due to "operator error". They have an ERROR RATE which is indisputable. This ERROR RATE then expands when it meets REAL WORLD conditions ... not-so-clear barcodes, some unmentionable liquid smeared on the scanner glass, etc.

Anyone who defends these scanners completely is by definition a retail shill whose opinion must be rejected summarily.

I work in retail-
I wish everyone could understand that the service industry is comprised of people...not robots.

Our carts are squeaky because customers find it too hard to bring them back into the store & our company expects us to show profit and in our area right now all we can do is cut our expenses. A maintenance contract doesnt exist. We clean the bathrooms & The carts other customers abuse. Its not our messes its other customers! Please put the blame where it belongs.

Some stores devices dont act appropriately because they are overused and abused..we try and keep up on it but again sometimes the bottom line means keeping one of your employees or waiting to get that fixed until its truely dead. A caring Manager will choose the associate, to your dismay.

We can break our backs helping rude customers all day who despite seeing us working knock into the ladders we stand on and call us names when we dont have the products they have no name for.So if we dont move our work because we know we have to get it done before our shift or face possible write ups maybe you could ask one of us "knuckleheads" to grab something for you. We cant clear every aisle and work in them at the same time in all cases.

Out of stock items somtimes are not controlled at a store level and are ordered via computer. The ads are sometimes sent to print 6 months before the sale. This means if our computers see we have 20 it think thats fine no knowing its on sale next week so we will sell 20 in a day. Also the demand at a warehouse could be so high that it is out of stock. Its not the best situation but most times you can get rainchecks or come back during the week. As for the pace...perhaps unloading a truck for hours and stocking it for another 6 makes them a bit tired?

Meijer in P-burg must keep their self scanners exceptionally clean then because I'm in there 3 or 4 times a week if not more, and that's all I use. Only once have I ever had a problem.

And sorry Guest I am not a decoy that acts as a customer to stimulate the participation of others, just a normal shopper that does 99% of their shopping at Meijer.

Meijer's self scanners tend to be among the better ones, in my experience. (I also give them bonus points for having self scanning lanes with the conveyor belts as well for larger orders.)

I don't care for self-scanners in general, but if I'm going to "have" to use one I don't mind the ones at Meijer too much.

I was gonna weigh in about Meijers scanners, I use them all the time and rarely have a prob and when I have, the friendly employee has been right on the spot fixing it. Also, it has been my expericene with them that if you dispute a price, they take your word and charge what you say. reminds me of a store my mom worked in in St Pete FL who would take back any merchandise for refund, even if they didn't sell it. Now THAT's service!!

Thanks for the input, diabla, it truly is people who have never worked in retail who piss and moan, the rest of us know the truth as stated by you. :)

"All managers give a shit. It's a high paying job with huge demands and little room for error. Idiots can't survive in that position."

I think you misinterpreted retail managers as brain surgeon. High pay =/= 60K a year.

I know about when the scanners are wrong. I bought some 35L plastic containers at Wal-Mart one time. They rang up at $1.00 vs. $5.00. I got as many as I could handle. Ain't computers wonderful!

From Ryan: I laugh at the "dirty cart" theory. Its been years and nobody has died.

Spoken like a true economist.

From OldHomeTown: Never had that kind of attitude, especially at a sporting goods store.

I agree. Maybe she was just having a bad day and this was the straw that broke the camel's back. Maybe she was too embarrassed to talk to me. Whatever.

GZ is right about the error rate. It's likely that the Meijer store in Perrysburg has superior equipment to, say, the 7-11 in the North end.

Actually, JJFad, $60K/yr is high pay for the city of Toledo, where the median household income is about $35K. I don't know the standard deviation for Toledo's data set, but if it's shaped anything like a bell curve -- which is a rational assumption -- then those numbers mean that the $60K earner is making more money than 3/4 of the people in the area. Being in the top 25% means you're in the "high" category. As usual, what makes the difference in being prosperous or clinging, is how much you spend. Those in Toledo making $60K yet spending hugely on luxury items, are effectively poor people.

EGADS. That's correct, and a horrible number considering the surrounding cities of Pburg and Sylvania have a median of 60K. Would be interesting to see the standard deviations for Toledo.

Anyone who says "egads!" is OK in my book. LOL!

The median household income for the entire USA is only $52K (2007 numbers). Regardless of where you live, if you're pulling in that much, half of the people in the nation are making less than you.

Anyone making $60K within 30 miles of Toledo is doing QUITE well and really has nothing to complain about. If they took that income and tried to shoehorn themselves into a $300K home in P-burg, then I have zero sympathy. Zilch. Again, we're back to how much you SPEND, not how much your income is, as a major factor.

Last spring when huge mounds of snow melted in the Central Ave. Wal-Mart parking lot, I saw a half-dozen mangled shopping carts emerge. The overnight plows had scooped them up and compacted them into the snowbanks.

Any store manager who wants to control costs might want to take a look at the parking lot before the snow-removal service gets there.

Speaking of the carts, this is my chance to yell at fellow Toledoans:

GRAB A NEARBY CART WHEN YOU GO INTO THE STORE!

You people are really pissing me off when you leave your carts right by the car when you leave the lot. Thanks, assholes: Now that space generally can't be used. And then, nobody -- and I mean nobody -- grabs that in-the-way cart when they walk by it to get into the store. I do it frequently, but I seem to be the only person doing it.

It costs the store money to constantly police their carts in the lot. We should help out by not only putting them away after loading up our cars, but also by grabbing one when we come into the store. That way, the store doesn't have to spare the labor resources to go out and gather up carts every so often during the day.

I couldn't agree more. I grab a random cart and if none are available I take one out of the corral outside. The same people that are too lazy to put a cart away are the same wastes of meat that put stuff back on any shelf they see fit at the store. I will never understand how it is humanly possible to be that lazy.

GZ--that's why I shop at Aldi...I hardly ever see stray carts because everyone wants their quarter back!

If there's a random cart near me on my way into the store, I grab it. (Though Giant Eagle and the Kroger at Sylvania & King seem to keep the lots fairly clear, so I don't always encounter stray carts.)

Also, I always put my cart into the cart corral when I'm done putting the groceries in my car. There's a ton of corrals all over the parking lot, you're never more than a few steps away from one. Yet so many people don't seem to bother. Sigh.

I don't typically grab one as I'm going into the store during winter or rainy months, but I will always put mine back in the corral and grab one or two loose ones along the way. I've also offered to take a cart off someone's hands right after they've emptied it.

I do see too much of stuff in the store just left on shelves. The cold stuff, too ... it's just left out in the store, where it goes bad. I've even seen ice cream left out. What drives that sort of laziness or hubris?

One thing I do at any store is "nest" the carts in the corral so there is room for more. That takes 30 seconds to do, but most people just push them willy-nilly into the corral.

Is there some kind of suggested etiquette on taking your cart back into the store? I've just been putting mine in the corrals for years. I mean the stores pay people, usually younger - but sometimes a little older - relatively fit guys to haul them back in. It's a convenience for customers. And how much savings would that really translate to if everybody returned their own carts, and these jobs weren't needed? I don't think it would even be a penny per item.

And how much savings would that really translate to if everybody returned their own carts

No, that would be a substantial savings to the market. The highest cost to a supermarket is labor. Bag boys likely spend a few hours out of a 24 hour period collecting carts. Not that you'd see prices drop or anything, but productivity would rise as the labor is now able to stock shelves or clean the place rather than handle grocery carts.

Maybe it's just where I shop, but they hire people specifically for the purpose of collecting carts, and helping people load heavy items if needed. Then they hire separate people for stocking, and there is no such thing as a bad boy anymore where I shop either, because the cashiers bag the groceries themselves.

From lfrost2125: there is no such thing as a bad boy anymore

Maybe not now, but there sure was when I was growing up!

See that's why I shouldn't post when I've been up all night. I meant bag boy.

What IS the deal with a-holes who refuse to walk their carts 10 steps to the nearest corral? "Oh I'm too important/in too big a big hurry/it's not my job to walk my cart 10 feet."

For the record I don't grab carts on the way in -- well, hardly ever -- anymore because I like the hand sanitizer wipes more and more stores are providing. But on the other hand, I've never EVER left a cart floating in the middle of a parking lot, either. This peeves me off every time I see it, which is every time I go to the grocery store. It's lazy, inconsiderate and arrogant.

I don't know if this is the place to post but on the subject of grocery stores near downtown: here is San Marco's Super Marketo which seems like a neat addition.

Here's one. How many of your grocery stores have cops in them? Mine does! Kroger's at Miracle Mile always has an off-duty Lucas County Sheriffs officer in there after 4 p.m. or so.

The Kroger on Navarre had an officer in a black uniform. Would that be Wood County Sheriff's Office? That was about 5:30 PM Friday.

olssendbrdy, That Kroger is in Lucas county not Wood county.

Personally i've never seen one.

Perhaps it was Oregon Police Department uniform that I saw.

I've never seen police at either of the Kroger stores near my house (Sylvania Twp). However, I've occasionally seen a Sylvania Twp officer at the Giant Eagle entrance.

My Kroger must be like the Wild West, with the Lucas County patrol them parts! I know the Kroger on Alexis and Lewis has a Toledo cop inside.

There's one in the evenings at the Kroger on Glendale at Detroit.

Well, obivously there better be a cop at that Kroger! I just found out that the Kroger in Spring Meadows closes between 12 and 6 am! WTH? Is it in that bad of an area that they have to close? FYI, Starbucks in Krogers is a WONDERFUL idea! They need to put them in Target stores like those in Ann Arbor!