Tip: Sign up for Healthy Planet's rewards program. Get a point for every dollar spent. When you hit 500 points, you can redeem them for $5 off your order.
My rating is 4.5 stars. I interacted with two staffers. One was great. The other one wasn't the best communicator, so I knocked my rating down to four stars.
Markham has a new Healthy Planet, which is this one at the northeast corner of Woodbine Avenue and Highway 7. It is dubbed as the Markham West location, distinguishing it from the longtime one on McCowan Road, across from CF Markville Mall.
This second location is where CanaBee Baby used to be. Before that, it was Michael-Angelo's, a grocery store that I still miss.
I came here after work on a Wednesday evening. I scored a prime parking spot in front of D-Spot, which was directly across from Healthy Planet. I walked across the road and headed inside.
I like this store far better than the original one. It has a cafe with large empanadas and samosas. I was impressed!
You can get complimentary water by using the cooler. The catch is you need a water bottle or a cup.
The produce section is also larger. I was floored to see whole organic watermelons going for $18 each. The older location didn't have enough room to house half the produce section here.
This store is clean and inviting. Items are impeccably organized and labelled.
I was mesmerized by the various drinks that this place had. I love drinks and there was so much variety that my head is still processing everything.
I saw packages of tofu that were marked down by 30%. I decided to get the silken tofu.
There was vegan chocolate on sale, next to the sugar-free varieties. I love that this place caters to dairy-free, gluten-free, and vegan diets. It felt so freeing looking at Daiya dips without worrying about dairy in them.
The protein and supplement sections are insane here. I was looking for something specific by Bell Laboratories. A nice male staffer asked me if I needed any help. I rattled of the name of it and he knew exactly where it was. I was close. He was exceptionally helpful.
He let me know that he attended a training session with Bell Laboratories. He said that the tea version that I had picked up would be more affective than the vitamin version because I would absorb the nutrients in the loose leaf tea much faster than its capsule formula. Cool!
I went to pay at the checkout. I got a female who seemed friendly. She asked me if I had a rewards membership. I wasn't sure. Healthy Planet used to be a part of Five Stars for its points program. I remember a man from the other Markham location telling me to cut up the card because Healthy Planet was going with its own system.
I didn't know whether I needed to re-register. Anyway, the woman asked for my phone number. I gave it to her. She didn't say anything. Judging by her facial expression, I was in the system.
It's the main reason why my rating is four stars. She wasn't the best communicator. She was talking to a male staffer while scanning my items.
She said, "Please wait." To whom?
After scanning all my items, she just stood there. I said that I'd like to pay with a credit card.
"Please wait," she said.
Oh, you were talking to ME. No eye contact. No reason on why I was waiting.
An older woman came over. I looked at the screen with all my items. It turns out that she had charged me $2 more than she should have. I give her props for fixing her error. She could have communicated it to me. Embarrassed? Or are you a poor communicator?
Why not tell me that? I would have understood why we were waiting in the first place instead of being a woman of few words and almost hating to open your mouth to talk to a human being.
Once the $2 was removed from my total, I could finally tap and pay. I gathered my items. She gave me my receipt. I wished her a good day. She seemed better and reciprocated. I grabbed my items and headed to my car.
I put them away in my reusable bag. I then headed home.
The vegan chocolate that had coconut in it was excellent. I finished the bar just now. Delicious! Thank goodness it was on sale.
I liked shopping here. Better communication about erroneously adding $2 to my total would have been nice. I would have understood that we needed to wait for someone more senior to remove it from my total. Eye contact about waiting would have helped me figure out that you were talking to me and not your male colleague. Just blurting it would without any eye contact was odd.
I'd return again. I hope that I don't get this woman again.
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