Gwyneth T.
Yelp
I want to still like this store. When it first opened, it had an amazing array of products, nicely stocked shelves, and helpful employees. But all that has changed.
For some time, I let it go, as the pandemic did open a lot of cracks within certain businesses, but many recovered once things were up and running again. This is not the case with this store. Such a shame, too: it has a nice environment, spacious and bright. And then about a year ago, they did a wacky reset, splitting categories up into other sets, which makes finding what you want time consuming. Their in-stock position is also weak: a number of times I've been here and items needed were not available. Just for the hell of it, I estimated what they lost in a sale with just my order, and it came in around 30.00. Multiply that by a number of other customers who also could not find what they needed, and it would be in the thousands.
Today though...I've had it. The first step into the lobby was sad: trash on the floor, virtually no carriages there either. I grabbed a cart from outside and started my shopping. First stop was the bakery, which was mostly empty. Not a problem, I know that production can be slow in that category, so I opted to buy commercial brand sliced bread. The first few loaves I handled felt dry, and then I noted the date was for the 27th of July. These sat cleanly, neatly stocked next to others that had date ranges of August 3rd-August 10th. Really poor execution, as well as maintaining proper stocking.
I then went to produce where large portions of the multi-deck refrigerated cases were either low, or empty. Some of the items looked like they should have been culled out, but were still there on the shelf. Sometimes this happens when there is a problem with the temperature of the cases, and given how hot it's been lately, some of them may have iced up, causing the product to go bad. I wouldn't have noted it, or worried about it, but this isn't the first time it's happened when I shop there.
Into the grocery aisles, and there were tons of out of stocks. I curbed my shopping needs and only picked up the minimum of items on my list. Too bad. I used to love their private label store brands: the cooking sauces, salad dressings, canned beans, and pastas.
Heading to checkout, where the rubber meets the road in retail... self scans were lined up with customers with HUGE orders, like full carts, which takes quite a bit of time while they look up PLU's for vegetables, or just trying to find the barcode on a package to scan it. I figured it would be better to go to a register with a human working there, and ended up waiting almost 10 minutes with only 1 person ahead of me, while their small order was being rung up. The poor cashier had trouble finding the codes for the produce, and clearly was new at the job, but not well trained, as they also had difficulty tendering the order.
Not long ago, I applied for a job at Wegman's. I've worked retail (mostly in management), have a lifetime of experience in that sector, too. Nice things are said about them, but my phone interview with them was less than kind, or even logical. I applied for a stock clerk position (they really seem to need them, too, given the state of their shelves), and when I told them that I wasn't available to work after 5 PM on Sundays (but available all other times and days), the interviewer abruptly told me that the position they would now consider me for would be overnight stocking, or in-store shopping because my availability was "limited". Excuse me? Do you mean to say that those positions aren't staffed on Sunday nights? Never in my life have I encountered such a rude reaction from an HR person. I laughed, thanked the interviewer for their time, and hung up.
