Terrible customer service. There is an older woman who I always have problems with as she is always passive aggressive and rude with zero knowledge of how to properly bag groceries. I had one of my bags split open while trying to pick it up, leading to a glass container smashing open on the ground. I picked up the large pieces and threw them away, then went back inside to let one of the employees know of the incident. She was extremely passive aggressive. I find this quite ironic given that she bagged my items. I had to go back to my car to find new bags to transfer everything into before I could get it into my car. By the time I was done, I came back to return my cart and I could tell someone had mopped the area, but there were still shards of glass that were very visible. Extremely disappointed in the overall lack of common sense displayed. I will add the caveat that this location always seems to be understaffed. No matter how many customers I see in the store, there is always only one register open, which, again, displays an extreme lack of common sense by management. read more

A lot of these reviews speak of bad customer service and though I only interacted with two workers today, they were very friendly and helpful and efficient. read more

Great store that needs some customer service training. Had the experience of the only checker hung up their register. So what they did was open another register. But without notice. So the accomplished service to the back of the line first. I do not like that read more

terrible service placed online order never came out then marked it as complete. now they say it will take 48 hours to "check" if i got my items like ? read more

I've switched the majority of my shopping from Albertsons to Smart & Final, and it's going okay! I like the bulk aisle, and the option of restaurant-size containers for ingredients we go through quickly. They have items that aren't available at Albertsons that are new staples for me - some chopped salad kits, choco-covered snacks, and salsa brands. And they definitely have better prices on a lot of things. I really made the switch around Halloween, because the spooky seasonal candy here was wayyy cheaper than at other stores. Personally, I haven't experienced a quality issue with meat, dairy, produce, or frozen foods. So far, so good. The only thing that I've noticed to be lacking is a vegetarian frozen foods section - they seem to have the veg stuff all interspersed with the conventional stuff, which makes my shopping a little less efficient. read more

I wrote a similar review on safari but I might as well write one here as well because people have to know. . . . I've recently gone in to get something cold to drink over this heat wave. and I noticed that the cashiers looked more exhausted than usual, I asked them if they've been staying hydrated and the cashier told me that they aren't allowed water?!? This is comepletly unprecedented and dangerous in this weather. I don't understsand what's wrong with being hydrated? I don't think I can shop there if they neglect their workers this terribly. read more

They have meats and vegetables here? First time coming back to S&F after few years, now I know that they have grocery stuff such as meats and veggie. Party supplies was my main reason to come here, now added grocery stuff which I like, kinda one stop shop. This place is big, the cashier was nice. It looks like the place is well maintained, clean and organized. Did I say they have meats here? I saw fillet mignon here, first seeing that in a grocery store. Fresh vegetables are available too. I would come back here coming from costco. I bought sterno gel here, good deal! read more

Probably the best option for semi bulk groceries. Offers good quantity at a low price. Imagine Costco without members ship but less packets. Cashiers are nice. It's got everything you need really. read more

We've had only good experiences coming to this Smart & Final, thank the Lord. This store is always clean and well stocked. There was only one cashier on register and he was quiet but quick. Another lady stepped on a register too when the line began to grow. We bought many groceries and had five shopping carts, thankfully the employee was patient with us as we tried to organize our items in bags. read more

This is a Spanking new Smart and Finals. I go here for stuff and/or bulk items not for in the nearby Costco and Albertsons, and it's very pleasant shopping there. Pros: +Vegetable selection is quite extensive, cheaper than next door Albertsons. +has option of buying small AND big items, (ie tomatoes by the pound or by huge boxes) +Spices are WAY cheaper and of larger quantity than stores in the area. +friendly staff who greets you and a pleasure to talk to +As of February 2016, it's not crowded. +Poultry, Fish is cheap relative to Albertsons next door Cons -Meats like beef and turkey are slightly more expensive in comparison to Albertsons next door -Alcohol prices are marked a bit higher in general than other stores in the area Overall, I feel like this is a mix of an upscale Costco with some good prices and more variety. It's bulk prices are nice to split with 5 roommates, and I love this Smart and Finals. read more

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Good store, not too busy...yet. Smart and Final is pretty chill, they have a decent selection of items like spices. The meat selection and frozen selection is not so good. Produce is surprisingly good. read more

Smart & Final Extra! - Produce - Grocery Near Me - Goleta, California

I stopped by Smart & Final today to pick up a couple items. This was my third time in the store. The store is large and pretty well stocked and we found what we were looking for. During check out, Kelly helped us out. She seemed nice at first until she noticed my service animal. (I am a disabled person and utilize a service animal that has been specifically trained for my specific disability.) The conversation quickly went downhill as I realized that Kelly was not a very nice person. Here's the conversation: Kelly: "I'm sorry, pets aren't allowed in the store." I replied: "He is my service animal." Kelly retorted: "Only 'seeing eye animals' are allowed" and then she jeered sarcastically, "Sorry, but your PET, is not allowed. Me, calmly: "I'm sorry, but its against the law to not allow me with my service animal." Kelly: " Then show me his paperwork?" Me: "I don't carry paperwork." Kelly, snarling meanly: "BECAUSE YOU DON'T HAVE NONE!" Me: "People with paperwork are usually the ones who don't really have service animals..." Kelly, cutting me off and dismissing me: "Yeah, yeah, yeah..." I tried to be fair with Kelly, but she was really mean and disparaging. I'm really not surprised either because she has been misinformed, and this is probably just a reflection of management. As a person with a disability, its really sad that someone would want to be abusive to someone who has a disability! I mean, you're such a big person you are going to pick on someone with a disability? Thats pretty low. Keep in mind, my 7 lb service animal was in a shoulder bag, with only his little head sticking out. I don't think I will be shopping at Smart & Final again if that is how they treat people with disabilities. Below are answers to questions on the ADA.GOV website to common questions about the laws regarding service animals: https://www.ada.gov/regs2010/service_animal_qa.html Select Q&A's follow: GENERAL RULES Q7. What questions can a covered entity's employees ask to determine if a dog is a service animal? A. In situations where it is not obvious that the dog is a service animal, staff may ask only two specific questions: (1) is the dog a service animal required because of a disability? and (2) what work or task has the dog been trained to perform? Staff are not allowed to request any documentation for the dog, require that the dog demonstrate its task, or inquire about the nature of the person's disability. Q8. Do service animals have to wear a vest or patch or special harness identifying them as service animals? A. No. The ADA does not require service animals to wear a vest, ID tag, or specific harness. CERTIFICATION AND REGISTRATION Q17. Does the ADA require that service animals be certified as service animals? A. No. Covered entities may not require documentation, such as proof that the animal has been certified, trained, or licensed as a service animal, as a condition for entry. read more

Smart & Final in Goleta is tops except for the terrible screaming back ground so called music that prevents me from shopping there. It hurts my ears. read more

Every time I buy meat here it's spoiled. Stew beef, lamb, beef ribs, all of them smell bad. That's despite the fact that I freeze them instantly after getting home. I wonder how many people are sent to hospital because of the meat here. read more

I AM NEVER SHOPPING HERE EVER AGAIN, not only was I disappointed in finding a medium sized pincher bug crawling all over my steak while I was opening it but when I called the store a day after the manager was disrespectful, rude, and not understanding at all. She completely dismissed the fact that they are selling products that are contaminated, not fresh, and worst of all have insects in them. I asked if there was any compensation like store credit or even just another steak of the same price. She said it was impossible, not only did I give her a chance to keep a loyal customer but I tried throwing her a bone and she completely disregarded it and has lost me and everyone I tell as customers of this smart and final. Word of advice, if you're looking for cheap prices for food, don't settle, you don't know what you're putting in your body if it's from this store. read more

Smart & Final Extra! - Pincher bug crawling around in the steak, luckily I noticed it before opening it completely. - Grocery Near Me - Goleta, California

For packaged goods, spices and beverages you'll likely find good deals and selection. Everything else is depressing. The worst part of this store is the checkout. I've politely written the management a couple times and even spoke with the manager himself by phone (a lifetime veteran of the grocery store business). While our conversation was pleasant, nothing has changed and I'm disappointed. I, just like everyone, just want to be in and out of there and go on with my life...not spend 500% of the relative shopping time in line. There's also questionable decisions being made. For instance: bring the meat department guy to be a checker. In his raw meat juice soaked apron. While he supports some heavy items against it to scan, likely taking some of that lovely e. Coli or salmonella laden liquid along with it. *Disclaimer: I've never gotten sick from it but I did throw up a little in my mouth. Or when a cashier asks a supervisor (in my presence) if they can take a break because they feel dizzy and their blood sugar is low...and the supervisor says NO!? That incident motivated me to reach out to corporate, which resulted in the phone call from the manager. The explanation was that this employee "does that often" and must infer they are malingering. I've attempted to buy produce but yikes, you hold it, look at it, smell it, put it back and walk away. Stacks of bottled water sit outside, in the sun, so you can taste the volatile organic chemicals later after you buy it and take it home. Common sense is defied here. read more

I am very disappointed with bad quality of the berries and grapes! They are moldy, not even fresh:(

Clyde was extremely helpful. He dropped what he was doing and personally walked me to the three items on my list. I was totally in a rush so this saved me some time indeed. The store was clean and very organized which made it pleasant to walk through quickly. read more

Update 2/3/18: The checkout lines are verrry slow again. It's been getting steadily worse over the past many months. Not to mention, we even saw a customer in the express line (10 items or less) who had an entire cart, jam-packed to the very top, full of items. Lack of enforcement makes the express line completely useless. *** The checkout lines were really improved in our last visit this past Sunday. They had two new cashiers (or at least ones different from the super slow ones we've experienced in previous visits). We could tell that both cashiers were trying hard to move the line along as quickly as possible, which we appreciated. I hope this is a permanent improvement! read more

I will never go back to Smart & Final out in Goleta. It started with going into the parking lot to find a cart at 2:30 on a Thursday! I saw mold on all the packages of blueberries. I peeled back 6 ears of corn (on sale) and they were all brown & mushy. I went to get the Hillshire Farm cheedarwhurst and all 6 packages in the case were all with a "use by" date of a week ago. I wanted to get a hot cooked chicken but it was too hot to pick up...I asked a young man who worked there and he said, "I use to cook those, so I know they're hot!" He never helped! The frozen dinner I bought was freezer burned when I open it. It should be Smart & Final MINUS instead of extra! read more

Never did I ever expect my Holy Easter Weekend to be RUINED at a Smart & Final Extra! by Kelly, the acting manager. This woman took it upon herself to verbally harass another cashier as well as a friend of mine after my 21 year old friend purchased champagne. I was behind my friend in line, purchasing orange juice for my Church Potluck Easter Brunch, when Kelly began screaming about how I needed an ID to purchase orange juice since I had been talking with my friend who had purchased the alcohol. My friend had purchased the alcohol and was on her way out of the store when Kelly took it upon herself to insist that I needed to prove that I was also 21, apparently because that is the age you need to be to buy juice these days. I am not sure when my age became relevant in regards to my juice purchases, yet clearly Kelly had nothing better to do. Never mind that she had a customer trying to check out or a line halfway through the store, her priority in this instance was to verbally abuse her coworker and harass me and my friends. Now my church won't have orange juice and I won't be returning any time soon. A very "happy" holiday indeed. I hope The Lord finds Kelly som read more

Now this is how a grocery store should be! This Smart and Final is very organized, clean, and has everything well stocked. The prices of all the produce and meats are reasonable and much lower compared to other groceries in the area. Watch for their weekly sales on produce and meats! The staff throughout the store are very friendly and ask you if you need any help while shopping. Cashiers are also very friendly and make checkout go smoothly. All in all, great grocery store for saving money. As the jingle says "Save time and money, shop like a PRO"! read more

I went in to do my shopping and noticed a customer not wearing a face covering. I told him he needed a face covering and he told me he doesn't wear one. He walked past multiple employees and not one of them said anything to him. I won't shop at this Smart &Final ever again. I walked out without doing my shopping because your employees refused to say anything to the man. read more

Went in this morning looking for Toilet paper due to the shortage on paper, I asked if they had anything left to one of the employees, they told me to ask the cashier for a toilet paper. They had toilet paper in the back not upfront for the customers to grab and they were handing one package per person and the cashier was telling you either buy toilet paper or hand towels one or the other, while waiting in line I started to talk to the person in front of me and when she paid the person in front of me asked for a toilet paper pack which was given to her, But as she charge me for my item and I asked her for a package of toilet paper the cashier said that she couldn't give me one because she said me and the random girl I was having a conversation with we were a couple, I told her no we are not I just met that person and she stated nope I don't make the rules, I told her several times I have no relation to that person I even told her to check my ID and check hers she even told her I don't know this person and she just refused to sell me a package! read more

I seriously love this place!!! I come here almost every day! Everything is always organized and if the lines start getting long they always open up a register to speedy things up!! read more

This Smart & Final is clean and has great bargains all the time. Organic vegetables and awesome meat prices. I half my weekly cost by doing our shopping at this place. Love it and only 4 minutes by car from my house Thank You. Reavell Orr, from Goleta read more

Smart & Final Extra! - Janet Reavell Orr - from Goleta, California - loves Smart & Final for some of her Grocery shopping! - Grocery Near Me - Goleta, California

I have never been so disappointed about any grocery store like I am now. My husband, my three children and I went to the store today about 7:45 pm. We had three cases of water and the cashier said that we could only buy one per store rule; but, I saw the American couple behind us had four cases and had not problems buying them. I felt so disgusted, disrespectful and discriminated that I went back to the cashier and questioned her why were we not able to buy three cases when the other couple was? Was it because we were Latin/Hispanic or what were we treated different? The cashier said that it was the manager's order and I could talk to her. I walked toward the manager and asked her about it. She tried to ignore me by saying: "Who bought four cases? "No one did". That made me feel even worse. I am a loyal customer of Smart Final at La Cumbre and I can't believe I had such an unwelcome experience at Smart Final in Goleta. I can't believe this store can have such a racist person as a Manager. This people need to understand that we such a Latin/Hispanic community make a great contribution towards the success of their business. Nunca me ha decepcionado tanto una tienda de comestibles como ahora. Mi esposo, mis tres hijos y yo fuimos a la tienda hoy a las 7:45 p.m. Teníamos tres cajas de agua y la cajera dijo que solo podía comprar un paquete; pero, vi que la pareja estadounidense detrás de nosotros tenía cuatro paquetes y no tuvo problemas para comprarlos. Me sentí tan disgustado, irrespetuoso y discriminado que volví al cajero y le pregunté por qué no pudimos comprar tres cajas cuando la otra pareja sí. ¿Fue porque éramos latinos / hispanos o por qué nos trataron de manera diferente? La cajera dijo que era la orden de la manejadora y que podía hablar con ella. Caminé hacia la manejadora y le pregunté al respecto. Ella trató de ignorarme diciendo: "¿Quién compró cuatro cajas?" Nadie lo hizo ". Eso me hizo sentir aún peor. Soy un cliente fiel de Smart Final en La Cumbre y no puedo creer que haya tenido una experiencia tan desagradable en Smart Final en Goleta. No puedo creer que esta tienda pueda tener una persona tan racista como Jefa de turno. Esta gente necesita entender que una comunidad tan latina / hispana hace una gran contribución al éxito de su negocio. read more

Love this store! Well laid out. Good variety. Good prices. Love the combination of "regular " sizes with large sizes. Great bulk food section. Produce is good and fresh. And nice people! read more

I don't know when it became illegal to buy orange juice but apparently I missed the memo. A few friends and I went to the store to make separate purchases when the night manager Kelly harassed us and the cashier ringing us up. My friend (who is 21) purchased champagne and a separate friend purchased orange juice. Both for SEPARATE functions which we tried to explain. Kelly (who was not our cashier) waited until my friend had purchased alcohol and then proceeded to yell across the store about how we couldn't buy it without all of us having IDs. Two of us weren't buying anything and one of us was buying something non-alcoholic. If this is the policy/law I understand, but she waited until the purchase had gone through and then told my friend "I can't let you leave" even though it had been paid for. Then she made her return the alcohol and refused to give her a receipt because returning alcohol is "illegal". All of these actions are completely unacceptable on top of embarrassing us in the middle of the store. We are extremely upset by this event and will not be returning. Kelly is rude every time any of us are in there and should be disciplined. read more

Does the job but uhh costco is definitely a better option if you have a card. Some things are a bit too expensive here by comparison.

Omgz I loved Smart and Final. It is February 3 and they have red cherries at the front of the store display lol ! Where else in the world can you find that on February 3!!!!??? Haha. They reminded me a lot of a GFS.. they have a lot of candy and soups and things in bulk which i liked a lot. And the cashier and I spoke for a bit about my travels which was nice. read more

This store is great! Super organized and clean plus everyone working there is helpful and friendly. Low prices on good quality food, including a lovely fresh produce section. So nice to have a grocery option other than Albertson's and Costco in this area! read more

Hell to the yeah on this market. It's *somewhat* affordable for you quick essential needs like milk, cereal, quick microwaveable foods, etc. I'm glad an affordable market in the Goleta /UCSB are is here. I wish I found out about them sooner, because I would've come here and be glad to spend my $$$. It's really organized here (a little bit TOO organized, it almost seems slightly creepy), clean and the staff are really friendly. Highly recommend this place. read more

This is a good place to shop cheap non-organic grocery. They do have some organic stuff, but very few. I only saw the canned organic black beans. It's a good place for you if you aren't looking for fresh organic produce or bulk dry goods. read more

Very nice store, glad to have a place to buy bulk items such as paper towels without needing a membership! I was concerned that I would have trouble restocking on bulk supplies since I can't shop at Costco - fortunately, not the case. Also, they have weekly specials so sometimes things are even cheaper. Just try to get there before the end of the week if you can, or it might be gone.... read more

theyre about 20-30% cheaper than albertsons i find. produce is not very fresh looking, same as albertsons, i suppose. would be nice if they had a self check-out option, as sometimes the lines can be slow. read more