Weis Markets, a regional chain based out of Sunbury, PA (10 miles from where I grew up), bought my local Food Lion about a year ago. It was the go to store because it was a mile from home and it wasn't worth running to the better store(s) 8 miles away. But, now that Weis Markets has had the chance to really F things up, I am about ready to drive that 8 miles each way to avoid their constant bull####.
Aside from their prices being significantly higher than Food Lion for the same mediocre products, Weis has a serious issue with being able to properly identify the price of items that are "ON SALE." One of their big gimmicks is to try and force you to do a volume buy to get a better price. One of my favorites is that if you buy 10 AVOCADOS, you can get them for $1 each instead of $2 each (who in the hell charges $2 for an avocado in season?). When they first opened, their infamous little signs failed to tell you what happens if you only want to buy ONE, or FIVE or NINE? Do you pay $1 or $2 each? I asked 2 employees and neither had any idea. Well, these days the sign has the decency to tell you that the single unit price is $1, not $2. I guess they finally got the message that people were sick of guessing and/or being bullied into buying more than they really wanted (who can use 10 avocados before they go bad?). Of course, there are some items where the single unit price is higher, but not as high as the "normal" price. Whatever, at least you can know what you're going to pay before you get to the checkout.
Today I find out that Weis has not improved all of their "sale" signs. I didn't get to my regular store and I wanted some tuna for lunch. They had a name brand solid Alabacore, normally $2, listed as 10 for $10. But, of course, there was no single unit price. Was one can $1 or $2 or something in between??? I assumed that by now they had learned their lesson and would have labelled it if the unit were more than $1. I also triple checked the sign to make sure it was the right product being advertised. Sure enough, it rings up as $1.79. I told the clerk to just take it off the bill. Mind you that this same can of tuna sells every day for around $1.20 at Walmart.
Oh, but surely David, this is just an isolated incident and you might have been having a bad day. Nope, sorry. I don't think that has ever been a time when I was in there that there wasn't some customer within my ear distance who was having a similar conversation with their clerk; I feel bad for the clerks having to deal with this crap every day.
I don't know if the Weis management "team" is stupid, incompetent, or they just don't give a ####. In any case, I wish they would sell the store to a better company who knows how to mark prices; after all, this is 2018 and we have Amazon as a benchmark of the right way to run a retail business.
And finally, as a comparison between how some stores deal with customer confusion: I bought a pack of the best T-Shirts that Target had on the shelves. The sign indicated a significant discount on sale. The shelves were kinda disorganized (due to customers throwing bags back where ever), so I double checked the sign against the package to be sure I had the right one so I could avoid any confusion at checkout. Well, the price rang up at full price. I asked the girl if she could take them off the order because I thought they were on sale and I must have picked up the wrong item. She asked what price I was expecting and gave it to me for that (close to $15 discount if I remember correctly).
So, to repeat those memorable words a Taxi driver in a big city yelled at my friend's mom when she driving in traffic:
GO, GO, GO BACK TO THE WOODS!
P.S. And the real kicker to the story is that our federal government forced Food Lion to sell several of their local stores. Seems Food Lion was being bought out by some big European conglomerate who must have owned some other stores in this region. So the bureaucrats wanted to be sure we were safe from a lack of local competition. Now we have to deal with a chaotically run store with significant higher prices that are really impacting senior citizens and other people on fixed incomes in this area (I know because I talk to them when I am able in the stores).
As far as the competition thing, here are all of the other stores within my shopping radius:
- Food Lion
- Shoppers
- Giant
- McKays
- Walmart
- Aldi
- Harris Teeter
So, 8/EIGHT including Weis. Many rural and inner city areas barely have one.
Aside from their prices being significantly higher than Food Lion for the same mediocre products, Weis has a serious issue with being able to properly identify the price of items that are "ON SALE." One of their big gimmicks is to try and force you to do a volume buy to get a better price. One of my favorites is that if you buy 10 AVOCADOS, you can get them for $1 each instead of $2 each (who in the hell charges $2 for an avocado in season?). When they first opened, their infamous little signs failed to tell you what happens if you only want to buy ONE, or FIVE or NINE? Do you pay $1 or $2 each? I asked 2 employees and neither had any idea. Well, these days the sign has the decency to tell you that the single unit price is $1, not $2. I guess they finally got the message that people were sick of guessing and/or being bullied into buying more than they really wanted (who can use 10 avocados before they go bad?). Of course, there are some items where the single unit price is higher, but not as high as the "normal" price. Whatever, at least you can know what you're going to pay before you get to the checkout.
Today I find out that Weis has not improved all of their "sale" signs. I didn't get to my regular store and I wanted some tuna for lunch. They had a name brand solid Alabacore, normally $2, listed as 10 for $10. But, of course, there was no single unit price. Was one can $1 or $2 or something in between??? I assumed that by now they had learned their lesson and would have labelled it if the unit were more than $1. I also triple checked the sign to make sure it was the right product being advertised. Sure enough, it rings up as $1.79. I told the clerk to just take it off the bill. Mind you that this same can of tuna sells every day for around $1.20 at Walmart.
Oh, but surely David, this is just an isolated incident and you might have been having a bad day. Nope, sorry. I don't think that has ever been a time when I was in there that there wasn't some customer within my ear distance who was having a similar conversation with their clerk; I feel bad for the clerks having to deal with this crap every day.
I don't know if the Weis management "team" is stupid, incompetent, or they just don't give a ####. In any case, I wish they would sell the store to a better company who knows how to mark prices; after all, this is 2018 and we have Amazon as a benchmark of the right way to run a retail business.
And finally, as a comparison between how some stores deal with customer confusion: I bought a pack of the best T-Shirts that Target had on the shelves. The sign indicated a significant discount on sale. The shelves were kinda disorganized (due to customers throwing bags back where ever), so I double checked the sign against the package to be sure I had the right one so I could avoid any confusion at checkout. Well, the price rang up at full price. I asked the girl if she could take them off the order because I thought they were on sale and I must have picked up the wrong item. She asked what price I was expecting and gave it to me for that (close to $15 discount if I remember correctly).
So, to repeat those memorable words a Taxi driver in a big city yelled at my friend's mom when she driving in traffic:
GO, GO, GO BACK TO THE WOODS!
P.S. And the real kicker to the story is that our federal government forced Food Lion to sell several of their local stores. Seems Food Lion was being bought out by some big European conglomerate who must have owned some other stores in this region. So the bureaucrats wanted to be sure we were safe from a lack of local competition. Now we have to deal with a chaotically run store with significant higher prices that are really impacting senior citizens and other people on fixed incomes in this area (I know because I talk to them when I am able in the stores).
As far as the competition thing, here are all of the other stores within my shopping radius:
- Food Lion
- Shoppers
- Giant
- McKays
- Walmart
- Aldi
- Harris Teeter
So, 8/EIGHT including Weis. Many rural and inner city areas barely have one.
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