Enough is Enough…read more
Ray's Food Place and Shop Smart in La Pine need to do better.
I understand that La Pine is a smaller community and that we aren't going to have the selection of Bend or a major metropolitan grocery store. What I don't understand is why we're expected to pay what feel like premium/Sunriver prices for groceries that are so often poor quality or downright spoiled.
I have repeatedly purchased rotten potatoes, rotten onions, rotten avocados, tasteless fruit--and, most seriously, rotten meat.
Let that sink in: ROTTEN MEAT.
I purchased a sealed package of ribs for approximately $30, only to discover that the meat was rotten. A $30 package of sealed meat should not be something a customer has to gamble on when they walk out of the store.
And this isn't an isolated bad shopping trip. I continually find myself bringing home produce that is already deteriorating or simply isn't worth what I paid for it. These are basic groceries--not luxury items. Customers should be able to buy a bag of potatoes, an onion, an avocado, fresh fruit, or a package of meat without wondering whether it's going to be spoiled when they get home. I shouldn't have to inspect every potato, onion, avocado and package of meat like I'm conducting a forensic investigation before putting it in my cart.
And this is where the responsibility lies--with C&K Market, Inc. Ray's Food Place and Shop Smart are both C&K Market stores, so this isn't about blaming the employees who work in these locations. The employees aren't deciding what products the company purchases, what quality standards it accepts, what gets distributed to La Pine, what gets put on the shelves, or what prices customers are charged. Those are company-level decisions. If C&K Market is consistently selling inferior or deteriorating food while charging premium prices, then C&K needs to take responsibility for its purchasing, distribution, inventory management, and quality-control practices instead of leaving customers to absorb the cost of food that should never have been sold in the first place.
And I have already brought these problems to the attention of store management--not once, but repeatedly. On three separate occasions, I have been given a $25 store gift certificate in response. I appreciate the gesture, but I'm tired of being compensated after the fact for food that should have been fresh and edible in the first place. A $25 gift certificate doesn't fix a systemic quality problem; it simply encourages me to spend another $25 at the same store where I just had a problem. At this point, I don't want another gift certificate. I want C&K Market to address the underlying problem.
If you're going to charge premium prices, then the quality needs to justify those prices. La Pine deserves better than Sunriver prices with bargain-bin quality.
