I am getting so fed up with the service at our local supermarkets (Food Lion and Giant) that I, someone who was ambivalent about Wegmans, to become a full fledged supporter of any supermarket, no matter how much damage it does to our local Village Centers, to bring some competition to force these smaller supermarkets to do something to improve their service. Yesterday, my trip to the Giant at the Owen Brown Village Center was about the last straw for me

First, I get to the deli counter at about 1:00pm. There is a line of about six people, which was not a big deal at first. But then I am watching the two people behind the counter working and let’s just say, it was clear they would rather be somewhere else. They were taking forever to slice the most simplistic orders for each customer. They also decide, despite the long line of customers, that they are going to carry on a conversation among themselves. Now that alone wouldn’t be a problem if they could two things at once, but whenever they would actually be talking, they felt the need to stop doing there job and slowing things down even more. It took nearly twenty minutes to get through the line at the deli counter. The people in line with me (about four people came after me as well) were commenting to each other about how slow things were and getting frustrated at the seeming refusal for the two people behind the counter to stop talking and start slicing. This prompted one of the persons behind the counter to mutter under her breath, although it was audible to just about everyone there, that she was going on break at 1:30 and we, the customers stuck in the line, would just have to suck it up and deal with it. i just shook my head in disbelief.

Bu that wasn’t the end of it. Then I get to the checkout line. There is really no long lines to speak of and the one I get into only had one person in front of me (I joked they were probably stuck at the deli counter waiting to get their meat). As I am waiting my turn, I am noticing the cashier is constantly looking down at her waist at the same time she is checking out the woman in front of me, obviously slowing things down because every time she would scan an item, she would take a few seconds to look down. The woman in front of me, you could tell, was getting frustrated at the slow pace at which she was being checked out. My first thought is she was getting a cell phone call and checking to see who it was. After the woman in front of me finally is finished and it is my turn, the cashier starts doing it again. This is when I notice she is actually typing out a text message on her phone to someone while she is trying to check my groceries. Obviously she knew she was doing something wrong since she is trying to hide her hone below the counter so her boss can’t see her. I am just in shock this what I am seeing that I am speechless.

Just on a whim, later yesterday, I mention my experience to my parents and they mentioned they saw the exact same thing occur at the same Giant (although I don’t know if it was the same cashier) when they were there recently.

I could chalk this up to just a bad day or a couple of bad employees, but this type of issue or other issues continue to happen at Giant and the Oakland Mills Food Lion that infuriate me about the service that I am now chomping at the bit for something, anything to force these places to get their acts together. We hear a lot in the news about the demise of our village center and the pending loss of these smaller supermarkets caused by in the incoming larger Wegmans and Harris Teeter. But I will say, it is becoming increasingly hard to feel sorry for the these when the service at these Village Center supermarkets continues to be ridiculously deficient. If these smaller supermarkets want to survive and the people who decry the demise the fate of our Village Centers, then these supermarkets had better get their acts together and the people who run the villages better start leaning on the management of these supermarkets to improve their service. Otherwise, they will lose people like me and others who would be perfectly willing to choose the Giant or Food Lion over Wegmans, but will not put up with piss poor service and will drop these Village Center supermarkets the minute Wegmans open….

I am on my last nerve with these places….