I've put off adding this review, but today was kind of a last straw for me. I've been in the military for a long time and have shopped at commissaries around the world. This one is hands down the worst.
For whatever reason, they seem incapable of keeping the shelves stocked with certain items. This was understandable during the initial phase of COVID, but this particular store had a problem before and it has a problem keeping items stocked now. In addition, many of the items it stocks are either out of date or are close to out of date. Once, I picked up a package of cheese and saw that it was almost a month past it's expiration date. I have picked up jars of Miracle Whip that were to expire in five days, and today, one of the half and half brands was due to expire in less than a week. So unless you eat Miracle Whip sandwiches every meal or drink half and half by the cup, you cannot rely on freshness at this store. It's as though their suppliers are dumping old products off in the commissary for military families to buy. The same is true of the vegetables and similar products. I'm not sure why, but even freshly stocked bags of salad in this store seem to be wilted and turning brown. It's almost as though they don't refrigerate it or leave it unrefrigerated for long periods of time. In short, if you shop here, inspect dates on EVERYTHING you buy.
The checkouts are also a huge problem. I'm the kind of shopper that likes to go in, get the items I need, and get out as soon as I can. It would seem like the self-checkouts would be ideal for someone like me, right? WRONG!!! For whatever reason, this store seems to constantly have AT LEAST one of the four of these machines that is inoperative. Of those that are operational, they are calibrated inaccurately and are constantly stopping the checkout process by accusing you of placing unscanned items in your bag. Maybe it's just a pet peeve of mine, but I fail to understand why the management thinks it's alright to have a machine essentially accuse you of stealing, when none of us would put up with being accused of this if it were done by a human checker. I also know that it's possible to correctly calibrate this type of machine--if you've ever used one in Target or Walmart, you know it can be done.
Speaking of checkout pet peeves, here are two others. First, enforce the item limits. It's frustrating to have to stand behind someone who is stocking up for the winter at a 15 or 30 items or less self checkout when I am within item limits and they are clearly not. Second...and this one is aimed at other shoppers...if you don't know what the hell you're doing, don't bottle up the self-checkouts!!! I don't know why, but a lot of you go through the self-checkouts and then act like you've never seen an electronic checkout scanner before!! You don't need to read the contents of the packages before you scan them, either...scan them, put them in the bag, pay, and then get out of the way. If you can't do this, go through a line and have a checker do it for you--you are defeating the purpose of these self checkouts. read more