Our family calls the Auburndale Star Market, "the Bodega". Not as a pejorative, but rather, we use it as an over-sized convenience store where you pick up things you missed in your weekly grocery shopping elsewhere, or an ingredient you need sooner than the weekly run.
(Though there is occasionally a whiff of over-ripe something when coming in the front door.)
What I did like is that for a time, they employed a number of challenged individuals, all very nice and helpful- and a positive way to give them opportunities. Props for that, though I have not seen them in recent years.
The staff is middling- the high-school age kids at the checkouts are, well, high school kids, so I do not mark them down for cross-aisle banter. Usually very nice, some a bit awkward but hey, so were most of us. All good.
(Small tip: Eggs go on TOP of the canned goods. I like scrambled but not that soon. Thank you.)
The self-checkout does not offer an employee discount if you use it. I get why they exist but also do not need to be scolded by an early AI Bot, that electronic ex-spouse that resides in each. The staffer policing it could be put to better use at a staffed checkout or bagging groceries.
The service desk is the worst. Rarely attended when you need them and a bit impatient telling you which aisle has what I need (after looking my self, playing "getting warmer/getting colder" for longer than is healthy. More often downright rude and dismissive. I ask little of them and by golly they meet that expectation.
The glass-front cases in the frozen foods aisle (ice cream is a food group) are uniformly covered in frost and condensation inside. I suspect the overall store humidity is not controlled that well and may be cut back to save energy. But the condition requires customers to open the doors to see what they have, which lets in more humidity, frosts-over the product and creates a vicious cycle. It is not so much a store problem but is a feature at this point.
This store had past glory and the brand as Star Market was our go-to growing up. Sure, it changed hands (Stars to Shaw's and back again, now under Albertson's I understand.)
It is too bad, this could be so much more. The prices are higher than they need to be and the staffing is lower than it should be, current conditions accepted.
The shelf-prices are often enough lower than the register price so one must stay on your toes. Issue is that when going there, we tend to be in a hurry, a quick stop, so any price adjustment needs a manager. If I cannot find one, but staff can, what does that say?
We now shop for weekly groceries at MB in Waltham, where the staff is appropriately accessible, everyone is super-nice, starting kids of working age, recent and established immigrants get a good start and the prices are quite reasonable. The contrast to Star is why we switched for our weekly grocery run. I know supermarkets are a thin-margin business based on volume, but somehow MB pulls it off well. read more