Food Lion — Attraction in Columbia

Pleasant, affordable. I was in at lunchtime so not too busy or crowded. Good quality, fresh produce. the floors in store were clean, aisles not obstructed and I walked almost every aisle with exception to soaps. Decent meats though limited selections. "Meat guy"- wish I'd gotten his name-who was stocking spoke to me and also took my package to rewrap it without my noticing it was loose. A little thing but tells me he takes pride in his job, also he found a marked down bacon I didn't even know I was looking for. Produce associate pleasant as well, seemed on top of rotating produce. When I couldn't find price of item he offered to check price and remake sign which had fallen. Nice he attended to it instead of ignoring it or forgetting. Tidy produce layout, in baskets so varied produce does not spill over and get mixed or bruised. Looks nice which prompted to me shop for much more produce than I had planned to. Cashiers were pleasant. I noticed a recycling center at doorway/entrance, another nice touch. I did check out ladies room to add to review, was clean and well stocked. Grocery prices seem standard for Food Lion. Carts were neatly aligned and were clean. Parking seemed substantial and appears to have ample lighting due to number of poles but, I will update this review if I find otherwise at dark. Good location and easy to get to from Providence...

This is a clean store. Employees were working and available if needed in most areas. The cashier who helped me was very nice. There were a few decent sales. Not very busy at all, which made parking and checkout easy. I looked for a few items I could not find, but they are new so that could explain it.

A few issues I have seem to be chain wide. The deli bakery is small and does not have a ton of ready to eat items or fountain drinks available. No fresh seafood, difficulty finding help in the meat department if you need something cut. Most notably-- no courtesy clerks For a full service grocery store, this is a huge problem. I don't need help out, but the elderly or sick might. Assuming the lines are busy or there is a price check needed, the system is inefficient with the poor cashier having to do the job of at least two people. In addition, baggers going in and out make you feel safer, especially at night. I'm sure this is a cost saving measure, but I wish the company would consider customer service more. It seems they want our money but want to do as little as...

This is a pretty good Food Lion, although there are some undesirable aspects of it. There's always homeless people asking you for money outside the store, and they rely heavily on the self-checkout, which I'm not a fan of. The store is usually pretty clean, but tonight there were boxes all over the aisles, which was kind of gross. Unfortunately, they were out of bananas for a couple of weeks, which is kind of hard to understand. Bananas should be one of the easiest things to keep in stock. Finally, they have some misleading "deals" which will initially pop out to you, but once you see the price tag you realize it's not much of a "deal". All-in-all, despite its flaws, it's still much preferable to going to Wal-Mart, and is one of the better Food Lions I've been to. It's convenient and affordable, and moderately enjoyable to shop at. Will continue to go...