Another Customer Service Issue -- This Time Fine Fare
  • EmskwareEmskware
    So I forgot to buy parsley and I planned to run in to Fine Fare because it was closest to home. I walked in with my folded up cloth grocery bag and got to the produce department when I heard a woman yelling "Maam Maam STOP!!!!!" I turned around to find a store employee yelling at me to stop. Thinking I had dropped something, I looked around at the floor while she ran up to me and said that I had to check my bag before I could shop. Huh? She said I had to go to customer service and check my cloth grocery bag before I could shop. I said I'm just buying a bunch of parsley (which was about 10 feet away from me) and she said, no, I had to walk to the other end of the store to customer service and check my bag. I said then how do I pack my groceries if my bag is in customer service? She said when you're done shopping you can get your grocery bag from customer service.

    Have you ever heard anything so stupid? (Rhetorical question, no need for anyone to answer one way or the other). Needless to say, I walked out and will not be shopping there ever again. Way to go Fine Fare. \:D/
  • PeggyCPeggyC
    Actually, every time I go to the grocery store I wonder how many people slip items into their bags and past the cashier without paying... so I'm not surprised someone's developed a way to avoid that. Sorry...
  • EmskwareEmskware
    Peggy, If I wanted to steal the bunch of parsley, I could have slipped it in my handbag and walked out. The cloth bag was folded flat at the bottom of the basket. They'll just dissuade recyclers from using their cloth bags to shop, or lose customers like me outright.
  • PeggyCPeggyC
    Yes, I agree the way they handled that situation was far from perfect. But I still see the potential problem they are trying to prevent from shoppers in general.
  • kthnrykthnry
    Interesting. I just noticed a sign at WF last night asking customers to use a cart or a basket and not to shop into their bags.
  • PeggyCPeggyC
    I imagine the stores are all trying to prevent theft that goes hand in hand with the bags people bring in with them. It's a difficult thing to address without driving customers away or convincing them that recycled bags are more trouble than they are worth.
  • wendywendy
    I never heard of anything so ridiculous. I bring my bags into ShopRite and Trader Joe's all the time either placed in the push shopping cart or the hand held one. I've seen signs that ask people not to use their own bags as vehicles to place their groceries in prior to checkout but not ever to tell people to check their bags somewhere. I would call Fine Fair if this happened to me and ask to speak to the manager just to see if never shopping there again is a foregone conclusion (which it would be for me too if this happens to me). I would like to think someone did not understand the rules but perhaps Fine Fair is just whacko.
  • mcb
    I had a weird experience at Costco a few weeks ago. I brought my cart to check out. The cashier and her helper pulled up another cart nose to nose with mine. I had taken out all the light items and put them on the conveyor belt. They then had to take 2 flats of seltzer and a very heavy fold up table out of my cart and transfer them into this other cart. They then added my small items. I guess they are trying to eliminate items being missed on the bottom of the cart. But the whole thing was almost comical. I went back the next week and this new system had been eliminated.
  • noheronohero
    On the opposite end of the grocery store spectrum -

    The relatively new Stop and Shop in Union (corner of Stuyvesant and Vaux Hall) has personal scanners which a shopper can carry around. You scan everything you place in your cart or bag, and then at checkout the scanner downloads the information and tallies the total. I've never tried it, so I don't know what other controls they have for shoppers who use it.
  • spontaneousspontaneous
    Years back when the Fine Fare was an A&P I worked at that store. We had regular meetings because that store was the worst statewide for loss. I am glad that a new store has opened in that location, but I'm sure loss is still an issue so I'd rather they take extra steps that can be mildly annoying to help prevent theft rather than just shut their doors like the A&P did.
  • max_weisenfeldmax_weisenfeld
    First of all, the customer service desk is right next to the door and the produce department, not across the store.

    I had the same experience. I didn't love it, but I have to assume there is a good reason, since service in that store is usually quite acceptable (not Whole Foods but far better than Pathmark). Now I know, so now I will be prepared. It's a pity, but I suspect plastic conservation is less important to them than Fine Fare conservation.
  • EmskwareEmskware
    Max,

    I asked her where customer service was and she pointed to the other end of the store. I hadn't been there in a while, and, even when I did, never went to customer service, so what did I know? LOL!
  • johnlockedemajohnlockedema
    On the other hand I was in BJ's and saw a lady open a plastic box of raspberries and take a few out and eat them! I mean, a loose grape I can let slide. A few raspberries, plucked with fingers that have been who knows where, taking some out and closing the box shut? I told her 'You just bought that box' and she picked it up sheepishly.
  • Tom ReingoldTom Reingold
    I agree that it's less convenient to check your bag, given that other local stores don't require it, but it's far from unheard of. In NYC, many retail stores require you to check your bags before shopping. Fine Fare is in Newark, and they have a lot of low income customers. The trade off is reasonable: good stuff, good prices, mediocre service. I get fish for $2-4 per pound there, and it's good fish. The produce section is something special, and I enjoy exploring the ethnic foods.

    However, I agree that yelling is unnecessary and inappropriate.
    Post edited by Tom Reingold at 2012-04-14 18:07:35
  • bookgirl
    Fine Fare actually has a sign when you walk in saying something about checking bags; they've never checked mine, maybe they just started cracking down on it for whatever reason.

    To the person who mentioned the self-scanners at S&S, they do random audits from time to time (you'll get in line to pay and the screen tells you to wait for assistance; they scan a few things in your bag to make sure that you scanned them). I've been shopping there with the scanners for maybe 2 years or so, I've been audited less than a handful of times. I do wonder how many people are getting away with more than they are paying for. I do love those scanners, though.
  • shhshh
    I have not been there in a month or so but no one I have ever seen there uses their own bags.
    They have bagged mine in plastic and the I tell them I don't need the bags so they just toss them, grrr.
  • shhshh
    Oh, and Costco does that with the carts when it's busy. They have done that for as long as I can remember.
  • Red BarchettaRed Barchetta
    nohero said:

    On the opposite end of the grocery store spectrum -

    The relatively new Stop and Shop in Union (corner of Stuyvesant and Vaux Hall) has personal scanners which a shopper can carry around. You scan everything you place in your cart or bag, and then at checkout the scanner downloads the information and tallies the total. I've never tried it, so I don't know what other controls they have for shoppers who use it.



    I shop there regularly and really like this service. I've wondered if people really scan everything they put in their bags. On the other hand, a few times I've put something back on the shelf without 'unscanning' it, and wound up paying for items I didn't take.

  • wendywendy
    I will not shop in a place where I have to check the one or two bags I bring in with me which I've placed in a shopping cart so that when I unload my groceries and the clerk or myself pack those groceries in those brought in bags because someone thinks I plan to convert things from their store. You can keep that attitude and not have me as a customer. Silly and stupid. A flat bag placed in a cart is not going to cause damage. A rule about checking backpacks is a horse of a different color. Sounds like there's major management issues and I'm glad I don't live near there and therefore have no need or desire to shop there.
  • goldy
    Seriously, I agree with Wendy. They could just check the bags for emptiness at the check out.
  • PeggyCPeggyC
    goldy said:

    They could just check the bags for emptiness at the check out.



    That does sound MUCH easier and less annoying.
  • Tom ReingoldTom Reingold
    goldy said:

    Seriously, I agree with Wendy. They could just check the bags for emptiness at the check out.



    Good point.
  • harden
    I like the scaning operation at Stop & Shop. But I have to wonder how they pick their customers for the "audit" process--by profiling??
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