If you're thinking about placing a special order through their Bakery Department, think again. About a week before Christmas, I placed an order for 4 La Brea French Baguettes that would be used for garlic bread for Christmas dinner. I placed the order with a very nice lady -- I believe her name was Kim. She asked me what time I would be picking up my order, and I said 1:00 p.m. on Christmas Eve (they were closed on Christmas Day).
She handed me a long yellow receipt and told me to present it when I picked up my baguettes. I left, happy that I wouldn't have to worry about having to find bread on Christmas Eve for the next day.
I sent my son to pick up the baguettes at the scheduled time on Christmas Eve. A few minutes later, he called me, telling me that they didn't have my baguettes, that he was told, quote, "SOMEBODY WITH THE SAME PHONE NUMBER ALREADY PICKED UP THE ORDER." Seriously. I told my son to ask them for my long yellow receipt, but that seemed to have also disappeared, along with the baguettes.
I called the Floor Manager (her name escapes me). She was very kind and apologetic. I told her that this is the 2nd time I have had problems with the Bakery Department. About 2 years ago, I had called in the morning and asked that they hold two La Brea French Baguettes for me, and that I would pick them up a few hours later. When I arrived, they handed me some awful store brand -- and, of course, they had run out of the La Brea variety. Mea culpa. I should have learned right then and there to not trust that they could actually handle a simple special order.
My Christmas Eve baguette saga did end well. My husband was in Torrance that day, and I called him and asked him to zip by Costco and pick up their baguettes, which he did. He fought the Costco crowd and grabbed the needed bread. Bless his heart. :o)
I shall NEVER AGAIN place a special order with their Bakery Department. I do not know what their problem is, and at this point I don't care. I am stunned that they made up such a lame excuse about why my baguettes were not there for me. They really need to come up with better lies.
While I'm here, I might as well tell you about some bad experiences that I have had with their pork chops and chicken. Their freshness leaves a lot to be desired, always on the verge of stinky. It never smells quite right. Fresh chicken and pork (and beef, for that matter) should not have any scent at all. In fact, if I buy a package of either chicken or pork chops and keep it in the frig for the next day, it has gone bad, has that rotten stench, even though the sell-by date is 4 days into the future. I think they are relabeling OLD chicken and pork packages with NEW sell-by dates. This has happened countless times, and my complaints to management have not helped. I shop everywhere -- Albertson's, Food 4 Less, Smart and Final, Costco, and Sam's Club, and Ralph's is the ONLY store that has this problem. I have actually picked up smelly packages of chicken or pork out of the Meat Department and brought them up front to a manager to show him/her what is going on, and they can smell the stench. I have finally given up purchasing these two items at this store and buy them elsewhere.
This store seems to have some serious problems, and it would be nice if Corporate (Corporate, are you reading this post???) stepped in and did something about it. Thank you. read more