Save-On-Foods — Attraction in Abbotsford

I usually shop here but since the major changes the store is (still) going through it's been awful shopping here. The prices have gone up, you can't find anything, no one knows where anything is, and it takes me 20 minutes longer to complete my shopping than it did before. One item I bought on a previous trip was $4.00 more than the local convenience store sells it for (a locally made item). Also it took three people including the store manager to find the item for me, as it wasn't where it used to be located and no one knew exactly where it was. Then none of the staffed cash registers were open so I went through the self check out. The first machine stopped worked in the middle of my check out and there wasn't anyone there serving the area. I packed everything up and moved to the next machine and at the end of my purchase it stopped working so I had to go and find someone (one of whom walked right past me as I approached them to help me). A quick trip that should have taken 15 minutes took 45 minutes. This last trip weeks after that, I found they are still under major renos and reorganizing (drop cloths hanging from the ceiling etc). I had a customer ask me where chocolate sauce was - he'd been directed to the jam/honey aisle I was in and we looked for the item he wanted. I told him that I was sure it wasn't there, but over where they sold ice cream topping. He went and found another person who pointed to the same aisle he'd been directed to before, but the staff person didn't go with him - just wandered off and he was back again looking for the item, which obviously wasn't there. He walked with a cane and had only come in for this one item. Then I went looking for rice crackers and rice noodles, which aren't in the newly reorganized and labeled aisle that says "Crackers", or the aisle that says "Noodles" but in the aisle that says "Asian Food". Ok, that's fine but then change the labels to Wheat Crackers, and Pasta. I was also looking for raw honey and found out by my long winding trip around the store that there are two places in the store where raw honey is located. Do we really need to do this? I was so annoyed and tired from lugging the hand basket around going up and down the aisles and trying to avoid the staff wheeling stocking carts around. This time I decided to use a staffed cash register, which was staffed by a young fellow who frankly was completely inexperienced - a kid really. The belt table was set really high, and was wet and dirty so I asked if he would wipe it down before I put my groceries on it. Then i had to lift my full basket up to chest height to get it on the table, and when I put my basket down to start taking things out he ran the belt so the basket left me and went to him while I was trying to pull out my cloth shopping bag and put out the groceries in a bit of order like I do - soft stuff, hard stuff, fresh stuff. Instead we both had our hands in the basket but no place to put the items onto the belt because the basket was sitting there between us, so he just started randomly scanning things. I asked if he would put the heavier stuff in the cloth bag, but everything was out of order so he put a few items in the bag, then added stuff like the crackers and noodles. He only filled it half full then put it aside, so I said he could put more in it if he liked as it was a sturdy bag. I came home with an extra two plastic bags, one that had a carton of eggs in it and nothing else, the other which had two plastic tumblers nested together and small bag of shallots - just a mishmash. If I hadn't urged him to use the cloth bag to full, I can't imagine what a mess of bags I would have had to deal with. The whole grocery trip took way longer than it should have and my bill, which I estimated to be about $65, was $81 before I scanned by More card - yikes! I know groceries have gone up, but remembering my last over-priced purchase there I was feeling ripped off. And for the length of time and annoying effort it took I might as well go to a no frills...

My husband and I went here to buy a cake for Father’s Day. Sounds simple enough, right? It was anything but. This is a story about poor craftsmanship, poor customer service and—wait for it—racism. Being white, I have yet to be at the tail end of such a thing, yet here I am, telling this tale.

First, none of the cakes in one of the display cases were in the right position. (I’ve posted pics; pay close attention to the tags and the actual items and you’ll see that none of them match.) The cakes in the other display case looked unappetizing and were very poorly made. (I used to make cakes at a DQ; there was no way that we would even display cakes of such poor caliber. Again, take a look at the pics.)

I had to ask the lady several questions about the cakes in the disorganized display case. Eventually, with exasperation, she told me that she hasn’t had time to put the cakes in the right spot. When my husband, who is Indian, asked her a question she was downright curt and dismissive. She then stopped helping us—even when I was going to ask for a cake!!—and walked away. A (and I need to emphasize white) male came just after she walked away and called her attention. She was all sweet and roses to him. I was shocked at her behaviour for many reasons, but decided to play down that her attitude got worse after my husband showed up; giving her the benefit of the doubt.

But it was when I was at customer service that I couldn’t ignore the thought of racism. I had asked the teller at customer service if this machine offered cash back. She initially said that she didn’t think so, but was going to ask. My husband came up and she immediately told me it wasn’t possible (without asking someone). She then called over another employee and ignored us for the rest of the transaction; talking about non work-related things.

My husband said that while he was in the pharmacy section, he also had rude and curt responses. Honestly, I have never seen so much blatant dislike for my husband before; and thus myself by proxy. We will never be going back to...

This needs to be shared with everybody.

I’m a twin mom of 1 year old girls. For me to go to the groceries store with my babies is really stressful for me. I struggle with postpartum depression so leaving the house is hard, let alone bringing my babies to grocery shop. But we had run out of most of our food, so I know I needed to go today as I was also running very low on formula. That was the only reason I went.

I went to save-on dreading it and just wanting to get it over with.

This was literally 15 minutes ago-as soon as I got home I was determined to write this review.

The person I want to receive the most recognition today is Sean/Shawn (not sure how to spell it correctly). He went above and beyond. And more beyond.

I do not like asking for help-I just don’t.

But he could see I was struggling and grabbed one of my baskets and asked if he could bring it to the front for me to help it be lighter for me.

He then, with the help of his amazing coworker Laurie, proceeded to place all my bags in a grocery cart. I also had Bev come and chat with me and make me feel welcome-as well as another woman, who’s name I never got, but I know she also has twin girls and had shorter hair (hopefully that information places a name or face to that).

Shawn then proceeded to bring the cart fro me to my car and then LOADED everything in the trunk of my car.

This experience has brought tears to my eyes. This is one of the kindest acts anyone has done for me. I just really, really needed that today and it will forever be remembered.

They a need raises, but especially Shawn/Sean. He mentioned he had been there for a while and I hope he gets promoted or gets a raise. He really deserves it. Or employee of the year award or something. Hard work and kindness like that can’t go unnoticed. He is the heart of that business.

Thank you so much to Shawn/Sean, Laurie, bev and the other unnamed woman...