No longer my beloved "Weggies"

[missdiane]

Wegmans is at risk of losing a good customer because today's grocery trip was an epic fail. I'd been going more to Trader Joe's of late and even sometimes Stop and Shop and Target since they're so much closer to me but I'm usually a pretty loyal Wegmans shopper and am there at least every other week, sometimes weekly. Heck, I've (only half jokingly) referred to them as my "holy land" to people. I'm even one of their speshul "Insiders" that takes surveys and such. I've overlooked their lapses in the past - especially when it comes to the shitty job of bagging their people do. But today...well...it was pretty darned pathetic.

Last week I shopped at Trader Joe's, mainly because they have my favorite biscotti and I wanted to stock up and I didn't need much else. I'd bought a bag of the cauliflower crumbles there in hopes of trying out that low-carb low-cal option but my one vegetable bin has been weird in that veggies have been going bad entirely too fast and the crumbles were the victim of the wonky drawer. I've since taken out the drawers and cleaned them with vinegar even though they didn't seem dirty at all and have higher hopes of the stuff lasting longer.

Schlepping down to Princeton on 1 can get annoying and it never dipped below the mid 70s last night so I didn't feel like the trip. Instead I opted for the Woodbridge Wegmans, thinking I could do some one-stop shopping and get good stuff. Boy, what a disappointment. I walk in and it seems that the only thing in the produce area that's stocked decently are their pre-cut veggies. Makes sense to them since they make more money on them but holy CRAP there was absolutely NO way I was going to pay - wait for it - SEVEN DOLLARS for a small pound package of cauliflower rice. It's not like it was blessed by magical flipping fairies. They ran it through a food processor and slapped it in a package. Yeah, sure, I could've gotten a whole cauliflower and dug out my little food processor but I admit in the summer, I get lazy. I hardly want to cook, much less do much prep. So no trying the cauliflower rice this week. 

I saw a sign that advertised sushi made with said cauliflower rice which would've been fun to try but no shock that none was prepared. I do like to indulge in Wegmans sushi since it's good and it's my post-shopping treat. I go relatively early but I'm thinking by nearly 9am on a weekend there should be a pretty decent selection. Nope. In fact there was hardy anything in the sushi bar at all. I reluctantly opted for the skinny rolls which I'll eat for lunch. (Note to Trader Joes, improve your sushi, PLEASE). 

The meat section was barely stocked with the exception of all of the big bold FAMILY PACK shit that as a single gal with a not-so-big freezer is wasted on me. I've noted that in many a survey. Not that it's been paid attention to. Aside from some pre-cut lunchmeat - since I wasn't waiting in the massive crowd to get someone to slice something from the deli - I mentally calculated that I had enough in my fridge and freezer for meats to get me through the week. 

I rounded back to the produce and it was still barely stocked. Many, many empty bins where there could've been fresh produce yet stockers slowly rolling by and chatting with coworkers. You're losing a good chunk of money if you don't have stuff ready to grab on weekend mornings, guys. That and is there some reason you don't schedule people to come early and stock so it's not a mad crush of carts trying to buy crap?

I managed to get a few things that looked respectable enough and hit the regular part of the store. Ugh. Even more chaos and empty shelves. When I finally mentally sighed "yeah, that's enough," I headed to the registers and was lucky to find one that was ready to go. If things had been better, I would've had to wait longer since I would've lingered and bought more. But by this point I was ready to get my shit and get the hell out of there. I had to quickly toss things on the conveyer belt and the checker asked if I wanted to bag in the ones I brought which I said yes, I did. I got to the front as fast as possible but evidently not fast enough for her since she started grabbing bags and stuffing things inside them. 

I would've been grateful for that IF it weren't for the fact that she was filling them to the brim and making them heavy as hell and when I mentioned that I had cold bags (since it was already 80+F outside), she ignored me. One bag had to be over 15 pounds with my eggs balanced precariously on top. Asshat. I checked out and moved to the side and rebagged my things as not to have a disaster, to put cold and frozen things in the cold bags and so the damned straps wouldn't break from the weight. (Hey, it happened to my friend I was shopping with one time at this same store when they completely overloaded her bags and she lifted one and KABOOM. Juice went everywhere.)

Anyway, it was annoying at best. I think for a while I'm going to make the trek to TJs and fill in with other grocery stores with better prices and such. Hell, if the Target stores near me start getting more diversity and more local produce and maybe fresh deli and meats, you'll be in serious trouble of me being a regular customer there instead, Wegmans. 

Comments

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

I'd send off a copy of this to Wegman's corporate and see what happens... Maybe it was just that store that was sub-par.

I don't shop at Wegmens, there's none locally. I go to Shop Rite, and Stop n' Shop. There's a Whole Foods across the street but it's too expensive. I buy fresh veggies at Acme but only when I have to pick up my prescriptions from their pharmacy as it's also out of the way. There's a Foodtown not far away but they became pricey and I stopped going there...and I used to be a loyal Foodtown customer.

[missdiane.livejournal.com]

I tweeted it to them so hopefully they pay attention. Though considering they don't even pay attention to the comments in the surveys that they send to me, I'm not holding out much hope.

The closest store to me is Stop n' Shop but it's a crappy one. There's one that's slightly further away that I go to once in a while but I get irritated because when I do the self checkout with the price gun you carry around the store, I always get "audited" (you'd think after the fifth or so time of not finding me taking anything without paying that I'd get off that damned radar)

Interestingly I needed to go to Target and lo and behold I found a pound bag of Green Giant cauliflower crumbles for $2.99 - less than HALF of the bullshit price at Wegmans.

I think I need to start going to Aldi and the Asian Market that's not too far away. I need to save money anyway.

[mrua7.livejournal.com]

In the techno times we live in, a written letter to corporate might actually get more attention than a tweet. Corporate might not really see tweets in general.

Or perhaps an email to corporate.

Aldi is cheaper, but what they carry is not terribly healthy. Some produce, but very limited and not a lot of brand names, some, but not a lot.

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

UGH...this is why I hate even my favorite grocery stores after a while. I have two different places I shop...just because I do not trust the meat at my 'main' store. And here of late, they are NOT prepared for holidays (much less the after math!) Boggling...

*HUGS*

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

The best was to protest is to take your business elsewhere. We shop in three stores -Safeway, for the general stuff, TJ for the specialty fun stuff and Podesto's a locally owned store for meat. At each one, we are known by name and we frequently chat with the various clerks there. Heck, two of the owner's sons at Podesto's run the check out stands and the father works in the meat counter in the back.

To be put through that sort of crap is too much, not when there are so many other choices. I wonder if the store is possibly have financial issues - it sounds like it might be. And for all the reasons you state. I'm sorry you had to have such a bad experience.

[missdiane.livejournal.com]

Wegmans is a major supermarket chain on the East Coast. In fact for many years, it's been listed as the top supermarket chain
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2014/03/27/grocery-stores-consumer-reports-rankings/6967537/
And is ranked as the #4 nationwide business to work for
http://fortune.com/best-companies/wegmans-food-markets-4/

If I felt so inclined, I could try venturing to another Wegmans further away but I figure if they can't get one of their stores straightened out, I'm not going to continue to give their company business. I do occasionally go to their location down in Princeton but sometimes the service/stock can be a bit iffy there too.

Since it's June and the farmers markets are starting to get some produce, I should hit them more often too since it supports local farmers. That and TJs does have a decent selection of produce. I used to get fresh bread and rolls from the Wegmans bakery which with that and the sushi, it's what really pulled me in but since I'm trying to eat less bread anyway, that's not so hard of a sacrifice.

[spikesgirl58.livejournal.com]

Not is they continue that sort of customer service and offering such limited options.

I agree with you about TJ's sushi - it's rather tasteless. Some of their stuff I love, but the sushi isn't one of them.