X G.
Yelp
Customer of nearly 30 years that will never return again.
The place has become increasingly unhygienic over the years, the aisles more crowded and compact, but the biggest issue is the incomprehensible rudeness of the staff. At least the rudeness of the staff was incomprehensible until I reached out to the now owner Jason Bander to make him aware of an issue in the store. Not having an issue in the store for the decades before, I never spoke with this fellow. I thought my story might help him make the place better if not actually garner an apology or solve the issue for me. But I did not get a seasoned professional that seemed to care about his business, who wanted to listen, or who wanted to learn. What i got was a taste of his special brand of angry, entitled, hate as he showed me his perceived superiority to everyone and everything and his apparent contempt for his customers. I suppose this is an example of why family business' rarely last more than a generation... his father started the place, and he is apparently taken the helm and is driving it into the ground.
So now I know where the staff gets their horrible manners from.
Health and Harmony on Hudson is just a few blocks away. It is larger, cleaner, less expensive, and the staff is far more helpful and polite too.
And unlike decades ago when this place first opened, even chain stores like Trader Joes and Whole Foods carry excellent organic produce today as well as lots of food products from healthy brands of all types which makes to say cutting Lifethyme out of my life easy and painless. I suspect Lifethyme will go the way of so many others I have negatively reviewed. I seem to have a knack of picking the losers as they go out of business shortly after I post a well deserved negative Yelp review, and I just picked you Lifethyme.
ps. have you seen all the hate expressed in the yelp reviews here in the last year. this place is doomed! good riddance!
ps. Mr.Bander, unable to reply to your comment so adding this to mine... It is clear to me that you are correct in saying you "are not sure what to say." Normally, people that care about their customers and their customer experiences in their store would start off with an apology for a customer having had a negative experience with their store. You didn't do that in your reply to me, nor to any of your replies to the many negative Yelp reviews you have earned of late. Instead your go into a diatribe about how great you think you are, how unique you think your store is as if your therapist has told you to deal with criticism by just telling yourself how great you really are. Your complete lack of empath is appallingly apparent, and your ego is loud and clear. You have been given ample opportunity to address my issue and just as did before, you completely fail again. No doubt that it is lost on you, but I am actually being kind by not detailing the experience i had that motivated me to publicly express my opinion of your miserable store. Your business will certainly fail if you chose to continue to ignore customers, put yourself above others, and persist with your selfish, arrogant attitude. Sadly, that will most likely be your fate.