Netcost Market — Attraction in New York

I am honestly stupefied by the behavior of the average Russian consumer. It's rare to get in line to pay for my items and not have some drama occur with a patron ahead of me. They either want to return something, have a million questions for the cashier that require clarification, want to argue over pricing or discounts, or need to run back into the store to make an exchange. Russians also have a habit of only doing half their shopping before they get in line. Then they run back and forth doing the second half while waiting. The deli section is an absolute free-for-all and the elderly are the worst offenders when it comes to trying to skip ahead. Then when they are being served, they absolutely need to taste test a slice of everything and really think about it hard before buying, regardless of the giant line forming around them. That's another thing about Russian shoppers -- the complete and utter lack of situational awareness. It will never cease to amaze me how many of them can just gather in a bottleneck area and have a friendly conversation like they're in the freaking park, completely oblivious to the fact that they're blocking traffic. Still others will leave their wagons smack in the middle of the aisle while they appraise an item and seem genuinely shocked and offended when someone angrily moves their wagon out of the way. It's insane and it truly does seem to be disproportionately endemic to this particular ethnicity. I mean, I honestly cannot fathom how this giant swathe of humanity makes it to adulthood without ever learning how to share and navigate public space in an orderly and considerate manner. It just seems like each of them resides in a bubble of self-concern, completely unaware of cause-and-effect relationships or the rules of basic civility. I constantly see old ladies pause with their wagons in the middle of a doorway so they can look at tomatoes because somehow a lifetime of experience passing through doorways wasn't sufficient for them to learn that INEVITABLY when you're in a crowded market, there will always be a person behind you who will need to get by. The last time I was there I found myself waiting in line behind a couple with three young kids, one of whom was crying incessantly. There was only one line open and they had a cart full of groceries and numerous shoppers queued up behind them. It took them forever to get checked out and bagged up and just as it was done, the man handed his crying child to his wife and asked the cashier for the form for a discount card, which he proceeded to fill out while we all waited behind him, exasperated. That was the last straw for me. This market has some of the best produce and prepared foods in the neighborhood, but I just cannot bring myself to contend with the parade of idiocy that is the status quo at pretty much any market frequented by a majority of...

I think I've been to all NetCost Market locations (including both ones in Philly area and maybe except the new one in NJ) at some point and I have to say that this location in Queens is probably the worst among all of them. The store itself is extremely small and shopping aisles are so narrow that you'd have very hard time using a shopping cart there. The selection of caviar is really poor, much worse than what I got used to frequenting other NetCost locations. Many items are either expired or extremely close to their expiration date (e.g. I accidentally managed to buy a pack of juice with 1 year shelf time that was about to expire in 2 days!... so technically it was not expired, but you can't call it fresh either). The location is probably convenient for those living nearby and walking to it, but it's terrible for those willing to drive and park somewhere close to the store - good luck finding a parking spot withing a few blocks even in the evening. All in all, it was just close to where I've been anyways, but in future if I am planning to do some major groceries shopping, I'd drive a little more and hit one of Brooklyn locations - usually much better...

Rego Park's local Russian supermarket. It's big and sort of clean inside but all the positive things stop there. The people inside are so rude, especially the cashiers. I'm not white so every time I go, people are always giving me odd looks as if to say, what are you doing here. The cashiers are incredibly rude and give me a nasty attitude in some form or another, especially the young male teenagers. During checkout, they don't say a word to me and don't look at me the entire time. They dump (actually DUMP) my items in my bag and leave my bag where they DUMPED it. They don't even tell me the total of what I owe and just stare at me aggressively as I pay. That's the only time they look at me. This has happened each time I've gone with different cashiers. It's not a one time thing. There's a hostile tension inside the place every time I go. They're pretty racist and let you know that POCs are not welcome here. I've stopped going because it's not worth the bad treatment and i'm not giving that racist place any of my money. If you look at other commentator's reviews, they'll pretty much have the same...