When Landers opened in Naga nearly a full year after S&R, I was pretty excited about another big-box store to increase variety. The selections shown on the website were impressive, so I expected a much better meat department.
Then they opened.
On our first visit there, there was a horrible stench of rotting meat at one end of the beef counter. Scratch any trust in the fresh meats! However, they did have a nice inexpensive variety of international sausages and frankfurters that were actually locally made, but very good. (There's your one star.) But hot dog BUNS were another matter. If they were in stock, they were nearly P400 for six buns - not the market value of P50 for six buns.
Then, not long after they opened, we were hit with a massive Tropical Storm that flooded the city and cut us off from electrical service for nearly a week and outside deliveries for nearly a month.
S&R was open almost immediately, fully stocked.
Landers didn't open again for nearly a month. When they did open, they sent out an SMS alert saying they were "back" with "better deals than ever."
I was happy to stop in, but I found 2/3rds of the store shelves absolutely empty, no frozen goods, and nothing in the meat department. Just some snack foods and hard goods like furniture.
I've been keeping their eye on their parking lot, but it is usually pretty empty, so I can't be the only person disappointed in their "return."
I stopped in yesterday to see if they had any groceries yet. Their parking lot was nearly empty - maybe 20 cars. I pulled in and parked near the door. But, a guard came over and informed me that since my tuk-tuk has only 3 wheels, it's not allowed to park in their parking lot. He pointed to MOTORCYCLE parking, all the way on the other end of the building.
I've got news for you, a tuk-tuk is too big for motorcycle parking.
I'm 62 years old. I'm not about to park 100m away from the door in a small motorcycle parking area where I would have to take at LEAST 3 slots away from motorcycles, just to walk through an empty parking lot to go inside.
If I had come on a motorcycle, I'd understand. After all, how much can a motorcycle carry?
But I was in a tuk-tuk. It's basically a small car. In fact, many are used by delivery services like those used by Landers!
So, after such terrible service and then being treated like a second-class customer, I decided that paying this terrible organization a "membership fee" to shop there is insane - so I turned in my card, went across the street to S&R, parked right by the front door, and went inside to spend P17,000.
Now, isn't P17,000 worth a damn parking spot? read more