Made the trek to Mei Hua Asian market in West Allis. I really like this place, but want to like it…read moremore. It's a bit hidden in the corner of the shopping center at National and Hwy 100 (108th St). It's a small place, with rather narrow aisles. However, as much as I like this place, and as much as I like to shop there, I can't in good conscience give it high marks for the following reasons:
1. It just doesn't feel very clean. Lots of miscellaneous "schmutz" in the freezers, on the counters, on the shelves, on the floors. Pieces and parts of products smooshed here and there, especially in the produce section, and the store shelves and racks (especially the produce area) didn't look clean, nor like they'd been cleaned or wiped down in some time. Gave me kind of a "brother, ewww" feeling.
2. As well "neat and tidy" aren't words I'd use about this shop. As noted above, things are strewn about rather higgledy-piggledy, with products in the wrong places, or in a "this doesn't make sense here" location, or whole shelves of product overturned, or items fallen down the freezer units, or stacked on the floors in the aisles....things seemed to be piled all over the place, even by the pay register. Maybe I came on restocking day? As noted, it's a tiny place, they've really done their best to shoe-horned in their products, but I noticed something rather odd. Rather than tear down the wall to increase their store square footage with what I assume was a space next door that became available, they instead opened a tiny cafe/restaurant. Made me wonder...why? Especially what with the way everything is already so crammed into the store? Is this "normal" for these kinds of places?
3. This one didn't make for easy shopping. It seems as if only about 25% of the store is price-tagged or price marked. And current price tags are old, worn, torn, or don't even reflect the items on the shelves above or around them. The back room was the worst. They would have 4-5 brands of a similar item on a shelf, with only ONE very worn price tag for only ONE of those products. When I got to the checkout, I had to ask what the price was on a couple of items, and then ended up not buying them, something that could have been avoided if they'd been marked. As well, none the hard goods (plates, bowls, utensils, pots & pans, etc) seemed to be price-marked at all from what I could see. Mei Hua, price ALL of your items, please!
4. Lastly - mind you, I didn't have time to look for, nor did I notice this on my most recent visit - but in past visits I had noticed several items that were well past the due dates stamped on product packages or containers. We're talking MANY months out of date. So that was a bit unnerving, but I don't know if this issue has been resolved or not.
I know the profit margin for grocery stores is razor thin; perhaps even moreso with these small "mom & pop" types of places that cater to a smaller group of people. Perhaps they opened the cafe in hopes of bringing in more revenue? However, while all of this above will not stop me from shopping at Mei Hua, it will make me much more cautious about the products I do buy there. YMMV of course.
