Jump to content


Photo
- - - - -

What Grocery Chain Do You Prefer?


  • Please log in to reply
5 replies to this topic

Poll: What Grocery Chain Do You Prefer? (21 member(s) have cast votes)

What Grocery Chain Do You Prefer?

  1. Albertson's (2 votes [9.52%])

    Percentage of vote: 9.52%

  2. Kroger (3 votes [14.29%])

    Percentage of vote: 14.29%

  3. Minyard's/Carnival/Sack 'n Save (0 votes [0.00%])

    Percentage of vote: 0.00%

  4. Tom Thumb (5 votes [23.81%])

    Percentage of vote: 23.81%

  5. Wal-Mart/Neighborhood Grocery (3 votes [14.29%])

    Percentage of vote: 14.29%

  6. Sam's Club (0 votes [0.00%])

    Percentage of vote: 0.00%

  7. Costco (1 votes [4.76%])

    Percentage of vote: 4.76%

  8. Super Target (1 votes [4.76%])

    Percentage of vote: 4.76%

  9. Central Market (4 votes [19.05%])

    Percentage of vote: 19.05%

  10. Fiesta (1 votes [4.76%])

    Percentage of vote: 4.76%

  11. Other __________ (1 votes [4.76%])

    Percentage of vote: 4.76%

Vote Guests cannot vote

#1 John T Roberts

John T Roberts

    Administrator

  • Admin
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 16,363 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:South Fort Worth
  • Interests:Architecture, Photography, Bicycling, Historic Preservation

Posted 07 April 2004 - 09:24 PM

If you wish, you may explain your choice and if you voted other, please provide more information.

#2 cjyoung

cjyoung

    Skyscraper Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 1,786 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Funkytown

Posted 22 April 2004 - 10:00 AM

Costco and Central Market make a perfect combo for me.


Peace

:D

#3 Dismuke

Dismuke

    Skyscraper Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 2,098 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Fort Worth
  • Interests:Late 19th/early 20th century history, popular culture architecture and music. Collecting 78 rpm records from the 1900 - 1930 era.

Posted 06 May 2004 - 01:22 AM

It is hard for me to choose between Central Market, Fiesta and Wal-mart. All three are great for different reasons and purposes.

Anymore, I probably do most of my grocery shopping at the Super Wal-mart in Hurst as it is convenient for me coming home from work. I think it a nice store. It has just as much selection as Albertsons or other conventional chains but significantly lower prices. And, unlike a couple of Albertsons that I know of, it is clean and laid out in a logical manner.

Central Market is great too - but I usually go there just for fun to buy something interesting and different.

I picked Fiesta for the poll because I like their cheap produce and interesting specialty items. I also kind of enjoy the ethic atmosphere and some of the Mexican music they play over the speakers. Unlike contemproary American pop, a lot of Mexican music still has melody. I don't care for the excessivly umm puhh - umm puhh stuff - but there is enough of it I like that it adds to the experience. Usually when I hear music at the places I shop, I find myself wishing they would turn it off. For some reason, I have always enjoyed shopping at ethnic stores. There is an Indian/Pakastani market in Irving that I go to on a regular basis as well. The Fiesta on 8th Ave is much nicer than the one by the Stockyards - though none of them are as nice as some of the largeer Houston area Fiestas which have a very large selection of international and specialty items.

As for conventional grocery stores, if I have to go to one I prefer going to the Tom Thumb on Hulen as it is much nicer than any of the others on the west side of Fort Worth. Unfortunately, the closest store to where I work is also an Albertsons. As a result, I end up going there to pick up odds and ends that I run out of despite the fact that the store is shabby and the prices high.

I have refused to shop at Minyards for more than a decade because of a bad experience at their Camp Bowie store. As for Kroger, they don't have any locations that are particularly convenient to me so I don't have much of an opinion about them one way or another.
Radio Dismuke
1920s & 1930s Pop & Jazz
24-Hour Internet Radio
www.RadioDismuke.com


#4 pmburk

pmburk

    Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPip
  • 192 posts
  • Location:Cowtown

Posted 17 May 2004 - 01:47 PM

My favorites are Tom Thumb, Central Market, and Costco. Tom Thumb (on Hulen) is clean and carries a large selection of items, and they always have good sale prices with the Reward card. Costco is awesome for great prices on gourmet items, and Central Market is good simply for a large variety of ethnic and hard-to-find items.

I dislike Albertson's and Kroger, and I refuse to shop at Minyard. We used to shop at the Westcliff Minyard when we lived in the TCU area, and I finally got so fed up with the rudeness of the employees, that I gave up. I should add that I also think their prices are too high.

#5 Dismuke

Dismuke

    Skyscraper Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • 2,098 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Fort Worth
  • Interests:Late 19th/early 20th century history, popular culture architecture and music. Collecting 78 rpm records from the 1900 - 1930 era.

Posted 19 May 2004 - 12:58 AM

I refuse to shop at Minyard. We used to shop at the Westcliff Minyard when we lived in the TCU area, and I finally got so fed up with the rudeness of the employees, that I gave up. I should add that I also think their prices are too high.

Nice to know that I am not the only one who refuses to shop at the "Evil M-Word."

I was treated VERY rudely by an employee at the Camp Bowie store way back in about 1992. I wrote a check for my purchase and, when I dated it, I wrote the previous day's date instead of the current one (I have always been bad about remembering the date unless it is within a day or two of a date which is, for some reason, important to me). I have never, either before or since, had a store clerk question me about making a mistake on dating the check.

This store clerk absolutely came unglued and snapped at me in a nasty accusatory tone: "You didn't put in the right date!" When I looked and saw my error, I said: "Ok. I see I wrote in yesterday's date. The check will clear just the same." The clerk replied: "The check has to have the correct date on it! You are going to have to fix it!" I asked: "Why? The only problem the bank might have is if the check was post dated. This check is not post dated. The bank is not going to care whether it was dated yesterday so why should you? And why on earth am I being subjected to this?"

The fact that I asked such questions completely enraged her and she angrily snapped: "The date has to be correct and I need you to change it and initial the change." Up to this point, I was successful in maintaining an even and polite tone. But here I snapped back: "Well, that's just bloody stupid. No other store has ever asked me to do such a thing before - and even if you did have a valid point about the date, there is absolutely NO justification for you to bring it to a paying customer's attention in such a hostile, malevolent and downright rude manner."

This angered her even more and, for a moment, I thought she was actually going to hit me. Instead, she got on the intercom and announced to the entire store that she needed a manager up front IMMEDIATELY. Stupid lady, I thought. The last thing I would do if I was in her position and was so rude to a customer would be to call my boss over.

When the manager came over, the lady was still visibly upset and emotional. The manager spoke to me first and asked: "What is the problem here?" "The problem," I replied, "is your employee is extremely hostile and rude." At this point, the woman almost burst into tears and turned to the lady standing behind me in line and pleaded: "Help me out here, ma'am. Was I rude?" And to this day I am still utterly shocked by what this total stranger in line behind me said: She looked at me with a disapproving look and then said to the manager "She was not rude at all, sir." At this point, the clerk, still very emotional, said to the manager: "He signed the wrong date and I told him that he would need to correct it and initial it - and he refused and called me stupid." The manager then looked at me and said in the sort of tone that one would use to scold a schoolboy: "I need you to correct and initial the check. My employee was doing what she was trained to."

As soon as I left the store, I realized what I SHOULD have done was tore the check up into a hundred tiny little pieces and throw it like confetti and say: "Well, this is what I have been trained to do in response to inexcusable rudeness and bad service" and walked out leaving my purchase on the counter. Unfortunately, I was so stunned that the exchange had even happened in the first place that I simply corrected and initialed the check like a dolt and left.

Any store can hire a bad employee. And any employee can have a bad day. I understand that the manager did not see what transpired first hand. But the fact that the employee was so emotional should alone have been a red flag. I myself have, a number of times over the years, chosen not to discipline an employee after a customer complaint because I either doubted the credibility of the customer's accusations or, if it was one person's word verses another, gave the employee the benefit of the doubt based on his or her past performance. But there was NO reason whatsoever for HIM to be rude and use a nasty tone to me. All he needed to do was say: "I am very sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused. We do have a store policy requiring a correct date on checks and I am sorry if you were not aware of it. All I need you to do is to please change the date and initial it." Indeed, had the clerk asked me in such a manner in the first place, I would have complied immediately.

Before that incident, I had always thought the checkout staff at the store to be a bit unfriendly - but not really enough to pay much attention to.

After that, I have refused to shop at that store or any other Minyards. A couple of people have told me that I am being petty to hold it against them for so many years. Others have told me about positive experiences they have had with the staff at other Minyard stores. It is possible that in the 12 years since the incident happened, the store got new management. Maybe so - but they aren't getting a penny of my money. That Minyards is now the closest grocery to my house - and even if I am in a hurry and need just one item, I will drive out to the Albertsons on I-30 or the Tom Thumb on Hulen. Undoubtedly this has cost them many hundreds of dollars over the years that I might otherwise have spent there and it will continue to do so long as that silly store continues to exist.
Radio Dismuke
1920s & 1930s Pop & Jazz
24-Hour Internet Radio
www.RadioDismuke.com


#6 panthercity

panthercity

    Senior Member

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPip
  • 312 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Fort Worth

Posted 14 December 2017 - 09:31 PM

HEB!




0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users