In this day & age, I truly believe that most people want honesty. With that being said, i'm going to give an HONEST review. I came to Trader Joe's yesterday afternoon (11/15/2015) for ONE thing: Chicken breast. Up to that point, Trader Joe's was the only place I shopped for chicken breast for months as the quality is usually pretty good as long as the "sell by" date isn't too near (with the only "downside" being the price charged for the amount of chicken you actually get). I came into the store & immediately noticed TONS of people in the front of the store. "Wow, they're REALLY busy today", I said to myself. I should have taken that as a "red flag", but with an empty stomach, all I had on my mind was grilling up some chicken & having a nice lunch after skipping breakfast. I went to the meat section, grabbed two packs of chicken breast & got in one of the lines (EVERY line was about 15-20 ppl long, which was very unusual for Trader Joe's). After waiting in line for about 20 minutes or so, there was only one more person in front of me & I overheard the cashier saying something about them having computer problems. Once it was my turn, I was naturally annoyed as a result of the long wait but I was just eager to finally pay for my item & get on with my day that had already been planned in advance. In the end, I scanned my EBT card once & after about 1-2 minutes it didn't go thru (I had more than enough credit available for my purchase). A manager was called over, I scanned it again, & after another 1-2 minutes he tells me "Oh sorry, our EBT transactions aren't working right now".. I looked at him for a few seconds as I waited for him to offer some type of customer-focused resolution after I had stood in line for 20 minutes waiting to complete my purchase. Sadly no resolution was offered & before saying what I REALLY wanted to say, I realized that I just didn't have the energy, I left the chicken on the counter & I walked out empty-handed (after waiting in line for nothing & having 20 minutes of my life wasted [all of which could have been avoided had the people who work at the store set the right expectations ahead of time]).
My complaint isn't due to the fact that the system went down. My complaint is due to the fact that the HANDLING of the situation was so unprofessional & non-customer focused. I can see if a company just went into business a week ago, but for Trader Joe's to have been in business for as long as they have (founded in 1958) I would expect that they would have some type of proper protocol in place for situations like this. In my eyes, it's just common sense: Put your ego down, put a sign up on the door advising your customers that you're having computer issues & thank people in advance for their patience. Warn people that the EBT system may be down, so that you set the right expectations IN ADVANCE instead of having your long-time customers standing in one of your RIDICULOUSLY long lines for upwards of 20 minutes just to walk out empty handed all because you made no effort to warn them in advance that your system was down. Had I known what was going on in advance, I could have saved myself the headache & either brought mom with me (since she always keeps cash on her) or just went to another store & avoided the mess altogether.
What I experienced yesterday was just not customer-focused at all, it is not what I would expect from Trader Joe's & I honestly would have expected more. I mean SOMETHING to make the wrong right & make me feel better about shopping at your store even after an experience like this. Companies make mistakes just like people do, but this was just a complete turnoff for me & i'll think twice next time I walk into the store & see that many people at the front. If you don't communicate something to me, i'm left with no choice but to assume the worst & in this case i'll simply assume that your system is down again, i'll just turn around & walk out. I was not happy with my experience yesterday & wanted to share in hopes that someone at Trader Joe's can take ownership & find a better way to handle stuff like this next time around. Other similar companies (i.e. Fresh & Easy) thought they would last forever, but at some point there was a disconnect with the customer: We all know what happened to Fresh & Easy & i'm quite sure that Trader Joe's would not want to end up in the same position. Once again, I truly hope they find a better way to handle situations like this going forward so that the customer feels valued & respected (aka- the opposite of how I felt on yesterday afternoon). read more