🚀 go-pugleaf

"Tim Johnson" <bigtjohnson@verizon.net> wrote in message 
news:LKp5i.16256$qp5.5038@trnddc03...
> I'm curious as to whether or not anyone on here would like to share their 
> opinion of the Neighborhood Market that opened in Plano a month or two 
> ago. We do a lot of our grocery shopping at the Supercenter not far from 
> it (on Ohio) and were pretty excited when we heard they'd be opening the 
> Neighborhood Market close to us because the location's more convenient. 
> However, after a few bad experiences, neither my wife nor I plans to go 
> back to the Neighborhood Market again.
>
> My gripes were:
>
> 1. The lines hardly moved at all because the cashiers spent a lot of time 
> looking for produce codes on their "cheat sheets". In fairness I should 
> point out that the times I was there the store hadn't been open long, but 
> how hard is it to find people who've already worked as cashiers at 
> Wal-Mart, especially when (according to their own store locator) there are 
> 20 Wal-Mart stores within a 12-mile radius of here?
> 2. Half the checkout lanes were self-checkout. I admit that I'm not wild 
> about self-checkout to begin with, but the fact is that when I go to the 
> store I'm often getting refills of bottled water, and so I can't just scan 
> the UPC code like you would with most items. To make matters worse, when I 
> was there, not all the (human) cashier lanes were in service, meaning that 
> the *majority* of the open lanes were self-checkout.
> 3. I've never thought of myself as being claustrophobic before, but the 
> aisles seem uncomfortably narrow for a grocery store. It made me want to 
> get out of there in a hurry, which I've always heard is the opposite of 
> what a store is supposed to try to do (more time spent in the store 
> generally means better sales).
> 4. The grocery selection at the superstore is adequate, but I found the 
> Neighborhood Market's selection unacceptable; it seemed more like a big 
> convenience store than a grocery store, and (rightly or wrongly) a grocery 
> store was what I was expecting. Could this be the root of the problem --  
> that it's neither fish nor fowl, more than a convenience store but not 
> quite a real grocery store?
>
> I was willing to overlook #1 because I figured that would improve over 
> time, but the other three things I just listed don't seem likely to 
> change, particularly the last two since they're limited by the space 
> available within the store. I read on their web site that Neighborhood 
> Markets are specifically targeted at women shoppers which makes sense I 
> guess, but the fact is my wife doesn't like the place any more than I do, 
> and she gave it more chances than me before giving up.
>
> I guess the truth is that I wrote this partly to vent, but it's also true 
> that I really *wanted* to LIKE the Neighborhood Market, so I'm hoping that 
> someone can convince me that I'm wrong and somehow missed how great it 
> really is. So please, if you disagree with me (or if you agree), I'd like 
> to hear from you.

Tim,
I can relate. A couple of years ago they opened one not far from where we 
live. I thought it would be great for those little emergency things that pop 
up between bigger grocery shops.
I couldn't have been more wrong.
At that time, we shopped traditional stores for everything, but now we buy 
all our food from Whole Foods. But at that time, we had a difficult time 
finding anything in stock! The produce that was in stock.. I'd have to spend 
a good five minutes searching for an onion that wasn't half rotten, berries 
that weren't moldy, etc. No joke.
Then the lines that extended out to the aisles, and almost nobody using the 
self-check. I dont blame them, I don't like using them either. A lot of 
their products wont scan, and then you have to wait for someone to finally 
get time to assist you, then you have to wait for them to figure out the 
problem, and then you finally get going again with your scanning. I 
literally took a soft pint of ice cream out of my cart and set it aside 
right there, and told the guy it was half melted while waiting, so I no 
longer wanted it. I kid you not, he told another guy to put it back! It was 
so soft the carton bent when picked up.
So anyway.. we haven't shopped there in a couple of years, but still drive 
past it daily. Frankly, I don't see how they stay in business.
Chaviva