Weis Markets — Attraction in Ephrata

I wish I could write 2 separate reviews. The pharmacy is AMAZING. They do a fantastic job. There's always little to no wait with kind workers. On the other hand, the grocery part of the store has become a shopping nightmare. There is NEVER enough employees working check out so we always have to do self check out with our cart full of items. And every time we do we have issues requiring an employee to come over several times to help. We leave extremely frustrated every time. And now as of late we're finding it difficult to find fresh items as there are things rotting on the shelves. My husband and I did our first order to pick up since we weren't feeling well and were extremely disappointed to find rotting celery in the grocery bag once we had already brought the groceries home. This rotting liquid was on the other things in the bag. It said online that they'd have the "freshest" things picked out. I called the store and waited on hold for over 20 minutes before someone finally helped. At this point I wanted a refund for the service and the celery and they said I'd have to come into the store to exchange. I explained that we were trying not to get anyone in the store sick and that we don't have time to run the whole way back to the store. The lady we talked to said to come at 7am the next morning and that she'd bring the celery out to us. My husband was there at 7am the next morning before having to work and the lady wasn't there. He called the store and they said he needed to come in. So my husband went in to grab the celery and found that all the bags of celery were rotting! So it's no wonder the picker gave us a rotting one. He ended up having to grab an organic bag in which he was given an attitude about. This could've been avoided if the picker would've let us know she didn't have celery originally before making us go home with a rotting bag of celery. She had called us about something else, which we were thankful for, so I'm not sure why she didn't include that. But mistakes happen, things are missed, that's what REFUNDS are for. Which was not offered to us. Go to Dutch Way for your grocery needs. There's plenty of real check out lanes with real people open, the workers are wonderful, and there food is fresh. This review was for the shoppers so you guys don't have to go through the same...

Someone graciously gifted us with a grocery gift card for Weis. I haven't shopped at Weis in a long time. I typically go to the discount grocery stores near me, or if need be to Giant or Aldi which are right up the road.

So I wasn't aware that Weis has apparently switched over to mainly self checkout. Now don't get me wrong, I actually prefer self checkout when I just have a few items. But when I have a large grocery cart full, like I did today, I definitely appreciate having an actual cashier.

Now I did find out later that apparently there are at least one or two lanes that are open with a cashier. Today it was only one. But I assumed it was for 20 items or less so I didn't even go over.

I struggled with that self checkout like nobody's business. I'm also currently wearing a leg brace for a possible torn meniscus. So, everything takes extra energy as it is. It took me like 20 minutes to finish checking myself out.

Fortunately I didn't have anyone waiting behind me, but I would have been so embarrassed if I did. I can't imagine the self checkout lanes are efficient when the store is busy. Also, if you're going to do check out, you really need at least two people. I was trying to unload my grocery cart, ring my items, bag my items, get my items in my cart, all by myself. If you have a small order, no big deal. But my order was huge.

Now I will say that the woman who was operating the customer service at the front check out area was phenomenal. And she was busy! Lots of people at the self checkout lands needed her assistance. She was patient, pleasant, and helpful in every instance that I observed. Kudos to her!

And I really don't have anything negative to say about my shopping experience itself. It did take me longer because I'm not familiar with the layout of the store. And I would say the selection is a bit less than what I can find at Giant. But the prices are comparable if not better. The store was clean...and once I figured out the layout it was easy to find what I needed.

So will I shop at Weis again? It's not my usual go-to. But I would be fine stopping in with a few items here and there. Will I shop for a large order there again?...

Asst Manager was not operating under the mantra that the it is important to hear what the customer is saying and try to make it better today. He was snarky and told me "it's all about reading labels" when products are clearly not in the correct area. If the cooler clearly is marked in large signs and shelf labels "gluten free", then I expect all the products in that area to be GF. Not a big deal, however, I have repeatedly mentioned this to associates and they have all agreed that items in there should all be GF and some are in there in error Nope, Mr Asst Manager would not agree that they were in the wrong. He even stated that the company rep (Guess the rep for the products) said they could be in the GF case because they are organic. (Why do I doubt that the product rep would even say that??) Nope, that is just a passing of the buck and he doesn't want to admit a mistake. Just threw the responsibility back on me. Yep, I DO read signs. Clearly I read them and boxes every time I go in there. If I did not read signs/labels I would have missed the items being in there in error. I did not appreciate him avoiding responsibility for the error on the part of Weis. For some of us, GF is not a fashion or trend statement, but a needed way of life due to medical issues. Will I continue to read labels every time for every item I buy? Sure, always do, but someone else may not and end up with a bad reaction. Plus, I don't even care so much about the product mix up, I care that the Asst...