I have lived in Ojai for 10 years. In the old, old days, I would go in and get salads...they were full of organic vegetables and plenty of fillings. I would basically, get 7 (one for everyday) $5 salads...plus since I was in there, I would then grab other things I didn't really need, but wanted. The average of my purchases a week was $150. Multiply by 52 and multiply by 10 years. $78,000.
Here is my experiences over the last 10 years that have made me never go there, unless I can help it. I stopped going about 8 years ago and here is why:
They slowly decided to nickel and dime the consumer.
I always get the veggie, tofu salads. The veggie tofu salads used to be $2 cheaper than the chicken salads (Same exact ingredients, but swap out the tofu and chicken.) Along while back they started charging the tofu people, the same price as the chicken people. We all know a container of tofu is $2-3 and a thing of chicken is 5-6 times more.
Next, a friend pointed this out to me...he said, "Look at the ingredients and you will see they don't put all organic veggies in the salads." I looked and lo and behold...the 'used to be' organic salads are now swapped out for non-organic.
Basically, when things like this happen, as a consumer, you are left feeling duped. Studies show, consumers like to feel smart, not dumb and duped. So, this one thing, made me not go there anymore, unless and only unless I have no food at home and have to.
Rainbow Bridge, you are smart and you can calculate, for yourself how much money this has cost you. (The average of my purchases a week was $150. Multiply by 52 and multiply by 10 years.) $78,000. Now, if you scroll down and read the reviews below you will see loads of people complain about the cost. If you would actually give your customers fair prices, and keep good quality things coming, I bet you could increase your profit margin hugely. All the locals would actually come back instead of going to Lassen's and the farmers market.
(By the way.... I am a Marketing expert and a multi-millionaire. I only state this for clarity so that you are aware that I know what I am talking about. I've made millions by pricing things with testing and re-testing to create the largest portion of consumers having a happy experience, with what I share.)
So, even though, I have plenty of money, I don't like to feel like I am being duped and swindled. This is why I don't go in your store anymore.
So, in reality, all these smooth hidden tricks, just make you look cheap and unattractive to the consumer.
Now...there are other things that I would love to point out. The salads are not as veggie hefty as they used to be. They have way more salad greens and way less toppings. They also changed the containers to hold less than what we used to get.
Also....the deli fresh people need some training. They put on a glove, touch the cabinet to open it (i.e. touch the germs and now their gloved hand is germy.) and then grab customers food without using tongs. THIS IS GROSS!!! GROSS!!! WHERE IS THE COMMON SENSE? The gloves are meant to keep the customers food germ free, not your fricken hands germ free. I have brought this up to the deli manager multiple times.....it still happens. So, before ordering food, please tell your deli person to use the utensils and please don't grab your food with their hands.
You get the point......
One last idea...please clean your bathrooms more often. Shiny, clean, happy bathrooms, make us think you care about quality and cleanliness. I try to avoid public restrooms...but the 3 times I have had to use yours...it was GROSSSSSSSSSSSS! I ended up leaving, not purchasing anything because the experience was so visceral I could not think of food anymore.
All this is said with love and compassion and hopefully, the owners will poll people about how much they spend per week on average and how much more the customers would spend with reasonable, feel good prices.
Blessings! read more