Blake G.
Yelp
So...This particular Mariano's location has always been EXTREMELY sub-par (compared to their other locations), but now that Kroger took over, this location has nose-dived much further. Granted, all of the Mariano's locations have really suffered and gone way down-hill since they were bought by Kroger (and seem to only get worse and worse every time I give them another chance and reluctantly go into one of their stores), but this particular location is ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING now. If I didn't know better, I would say that it looks like they are liquidating their inventory because they are getting ready to shut down and go out of business.
The store is filthy, the floors are dirty with rusty water stains, half of the shelves are empty (to be fair, that's an exaggeration, it's more like 10% of their shelves are empty, but I'm on a roll with this rant, so bear with me), the customer service is nonexistent (Jewel LITERALLY has better customer service...JEWEL!!!), their selection and variety is severely lacking, and the quality of basically all of their fresh food (deli, meat, produce, bakery, salad bar, hot food bar, etc.) is extremely poor.
It also appears that (as part of the Kroger take-over) they have now introduced a line of pre-packaged, ready-to-eat meals that look disgusting...Not sure if they thought that this would play well in Chicago, but I doubt it will, at least not with me...Yuck.
It's a shame, especially since when the Mariano's chain originally opened (about 10 years ago?), it was great! It was a higher-end version of the main-stream grocery chains, and I loved shopping there, but those days have apparently come and gone.
It's also a shame because I live down the street from this Mariano's location, so it would be a great location for me and the other people in the West Town/Ukranian Village neighborhood, if it wasn't such a rat-hole.
Now, if I want to go to a nearby grocery store, I just go to Pete's Fresh Market on the corner of Madison and Western. Although the immediate area around Pete's Fresh Market is admittedly a little sketchy, they really do a good job with just about everything at that location. The quality of the management and staff, as well as the quality of the products are shockingly good. The store is also very clean and well laid out.
PRO TIP: Forget Mariano's and drive the extra 3 minutes to go to Pete's.