Down Hill Fast! I had high hopes for this store when it opened. It was well stocked and had great selection. Unfortunately, its gone way down hill. It's like they kept the same bad managers that were there when it was called Soviet Vons.
Security: Gone are the guards on the roof and the front door. So now beggars at the front all day and night. Even when the guards see them they just look the other way. Like, don't expect me to go outside and talk to those people, I am just a guard.
Deli: Most markets with a deli counter have 10 to 20 variates of meet and cheese. What dose this one have? 3. Turkey, Turkey or Turkey. And yet they have a sushi bar. They just point to the stuff in plastic wrap if its not turkey.
Bakery: How do you screw this up? The recipes and all come from some central location and yet the bread is never baked right. Always stale and lacking flavor. I dont get this because the Vons down the street on 2nd does bread right.
Meat Department: First of all the basic select sucks. Want a thick steak? No deal. Want a standing rib roast, no deal. But plenty of "extreme value" cuts. Mostly 1/2 inch thin slices of meat in plastic with the edge of turning grey.
Oh and those guys behind the counter wearing white coats are not butchers. They will not even grind meat. If you want something like ground chuck, they point to the meat section of ground beef. Ground beef for those of you who don't know can be from any part of the cow, usually the scraps. This is why people get sick. It's perfectly normal to ask for a roast to be ground by a real butcher, but those guys wont do it. The reason? Oh our machine is broke. Really? Every week?
Specialty Cheese Section: Good luck finding good European cheeses that even Ralph's down the street has. No, no, we no heard of. You buy Mexican cheese K?
Produce: I normally don't bitch about price, this is not a budget store but really all the produce seem way over priced and under quality. Lemons for example are about $1 each and frail. Yet Superior Market down the street I can get about a dozen for $2 and fresh. Italian Parsley? What's that. Oh its in the specialty section, there might be 1 bunch left if you are lucky. We never thought about expanding that section even though its always empty.
Baking Section: We got rid of the most popular brand of bread flour King Aurthur but don't worry, we have lots of choices of Masa Harina.
Liquor: Security! We have a customer that doesn't drink beer or wine. Come on, all the liquor is locked up behind bars. There is no reason you cant use those tags on the top like other markets. They put beer and wine out but buying anything like brandy or rum requires a cavity search. Some of the wines are a lot more expensive then a cheap bottle of Bailie's Irish Cream.
Check Out: Why is self checkout always the longest line? This is inverse from every other supermarket I have been to. And lets make it more difficult and shut it down in the late hours so you can stand in line forever. If it's 10:30 at night, expect one long line with one checker.
Finally, none of this has to be this way. Everything I just said is being done right at other locations. Vons Pavilions gets it right, Vons Market on 2nd gets it right, Vons Broadway, FAIL!
I blame management from the top down. You may think you are catering to the local community, but in reality you are just racing to the bottom trying to compete with the discount grocers. This is what Sears is doing trying to race to the bottom with Wall-mart and Target. It's not working and they are selling off stores one by one slowly going out of business. They were never a discounter and neither are you.
The problem is, your prices are high while you race to the bottom. Your customers want high quality and variety if you want to play the high price game. But don't worry, there is a solution. Gelson's is opening up soon at the old Albertson's on 2nd St.
I will say good by to Vons forever if you keep going ghetto. read more