Mary E.
Yelp
STAY AWAY FROM THE MEAT DEPARTMENT.
My family has lived half a mile from County Fair since 1967. It is the ONLY store my 94-yr-old mom patronizes. (NOT ANYMORE: Sorry, Mom!) While I shop several grocery stores, I enjoy the friendly, clean environment at County Fair as well as the convenience, so I still make it part of my rounds.
For well over a decade, the master butcher at County Fair has provided me with ground beef fat for my family recipe Christmas pudding. We've even exchanged pleasantries. I always give him several days' notice and he has always come through.
This last Christmas, 2019, things took a weird turn. The butcher apparently is suffering from some memory loss, because when I submitted my order, he claimed to have no recollection of ever providing ground beef fat for me, or anyone, ever. He was very brusque but agreed to grind up an order and asked that I return a few days later. (This was Memory Lapse #1. )
I did so, and he had forgotten my order completely. (Memory Lapse #2). He was mad that I had shown up--though I was extra polite since it was clear he was overwhelmed with stress--and stomped around grabbing meat trimmings from counters. Then he handed me a package of ground fat/hamburger: it had so much meat it was bleeding. In the past, he has been able to properly provide this, and the ground fat is virtually white with maybe a few tiny specks of red. We had to throw it out--there was too much meat content to even use in our bird feeder, unless we planned on attracting vultures. He also used a profanity when he saw me (the Lord's name in vain) which I found immature and offensive.
I couldn't understand how a butcher who has, in the past, done a fine job with his products would lose his skills so abruptly. This package would have embarrassed an apprentice butcher on his first day of work.
Because of our long relationship with this store, I called the manager the next day to share my experience. I told him I no longer had time to make the recipe and did NOT expect a replacement, but I thought he should know about his butcher's odd behavior.
Imagine my surprise when the manager scolded me for being demanding (my once-a-year request with several days heads-up using scraps on hand). Then he spoke to the butcher and informed me that the butcher did not recognize me (Memory Lapse #3).
This butcher has NEVER done a less-than-excellent job in the past and has NEVER been rude. There is something going on with him, I'm not sure what, but instead of having a concerned chat, the manager wants to punish the customer who was given an unusable product.
The manager even said--this shocked me-- "Are you even a customer?" because "Michael" didn't recognize me. Seriously? How many thousands of dollars per year does my family have to spend at this place to achieve customer status? And wouldn't you want to provide good service and product to even a first-timer so he or she WOULD become a regular customer? Guess not.
I have had mostly good experiences with County Fair and the owners do a lot for the community. One year, I purchased gift certificates for my kids' teachers at Clissold, for the restaurant Joe Bailly's. I did not know that Bailly's was going to close for good the following weekend, and the property had been sold to County Fair. I had purchased $70 of useless gift certificates, at the time a definite sacrifice for us. But when I called the owner of County Fair, just to ask if he knew whether Bailly's had another location planned, he very graciously said he would honor those certificates as store certificates because he didn't want me to give worthless gifts. I have told many people that story as an example of a business owner who goes above and beyond with customer service.
{However, I also admit that I did take a break from shopping at County Fair in the 1980's. I had an apartment in the Pullman neighborhood but still banked at Chesterfield, across the street. An employee named Chris refused to honor my check for groceries (I always paid by check and never passed a bad one) because he "didn't believe that Chicago had a street called St. Lawrence". He was a foreign person so he possibly was not familiar with Chicago streets. The cashier (who DID recognize me) was extremely apologetic, but I refrained from shopping at County Fair until I moved back up to the immediate area. And since then, no problem until this last Christmas.}
I realize that holidays are stressful and that everyone has a bad day once in a while. But to have a succession of bad experiences at this one establishment within a week does not speak well for the business. Maybe these independent grocery stores have had their day, and customer service would be more reliable at a chain that takes pride in customer satisfaction.