Big Y — Attraction in Plainville

I used to shop there about once a month. It's not far from home & convenient. They have a "coin" program you can use to get sale pricing on certain items (items change monthly). If you win a coin (game at checkout counter) you can use it the next time you shop to get an item at reduced pricing. The other option is to pay a $20 annual fee which automatically gives you the "coin" pricing on everything, without the need for win coins. It's the only grocery store I know of that charges a fee for their sale prices! Since I was a regular, I paid the annual fee for the "silver savings club" membership several years in a row. Each year as the renewal date neared, the register slip printed out a coupon for "$10 off your silver savings club renewal", which brings the annual fee down to $10. I did that for 5 years in a row. Last year, I used the coupon along with $10 cash and renewed my membership at the courtesy desk. The next time I checked out, the cashier told me my card was expired...???? I told her I just renewed it a couple weeks prior. She sent me to the courtesy desk. The looked it up in the computer and said that for some reason, there was no record of the renewal. Fortunately, I had my adult daughter with me - who was also present when I paid for the renewal. They got a supervisor, then the actual store manager involved. The manager told me that the security cameras record everything in the store, so if I knew the date I renewed the membership, he could look at the film to verify if I did it or not. Keep in mind - I spend about $400 a month there and this is over a $10.00 purchase (after coupon) - yet this is what they put me through. I looked up the date of the trip and gave it to him. A few days later he called me and said he looked at the film, and saw me hand the courtesy desk attendant the coupon, but no money, and then (according to him) I shook my head and walked away. The manager claims that I did NOT give the clerk any money (beyond the coupon) and declined to renew my membership. This is a total lie. There is no audio with the camera, just video. I had the $10 cash and the coupon held together - one under the other and handed them that way to the clerk. Just the fact that the video validated that I was there on the date I stated, was at the courtesy desk and did hand something to the clerk should have been enough for ANY decent store manager to simply renew my $10 membership, but not this one. The guy (old guy) argued with me for 15 minutes (when I'm wrong I admit it - and when I'm right I don't back down) and then said: "Look, if you cant afford a card I'll pay for it myself, but don't lie and say you renewed it when you clearly handed no money to the clerk". I was shocked. Me and my daughter were disgusted. I wanted to blow up and use some words I haven't said in some time but held my demeanor; I wasn't going to stoop to his level. I told him that he just lost a customer who spends an average of $5,000 a year over what is obviously a computer error. The computer said I did not renew my membership (which likely means the clerk made an error at the time - no biggie) so in this store managers eyes, the computer is right and I am wrong even though video surveillance showed me there, handing "things" to the clerk, on the date stated. By the way - as for shaking my head and walking away...... yes, I did that. After my renewal was processed I was asked if I needed to buy stamps or lottery tickets and I said no while shaking my head.

I find it deplorable for a standard supermarket that does high volume in a thriving business community to charge an annual membership for customers to get sale prices when NO other stores do and then have the nerve to argue and challenge me over a $10 computer error (remember, I had the $10 coupon) to the point of losing that customer vs. simply crediting the $10.00 and keep the business.

By the way...... I have told several people in my town about this and they have ALL stopped shopping their so the lost a lot more business than mine...

One of the self checkout workers, an older woman, decided it was her duty to ignore the other busy checkout machines and customers in order to harass me and only me. I saw her move her position when she saw me coming and she walked over to my machine to stand beside me, staring at me while I was trying to checkout. She was blatantly ignoring all the other customers, only paying attention to me. So I guess other customers who don’t look like me, are free to do whatever they please at the self checkout, with zero supervision.

After I scanned a bunch of heavy items and waters on the bottom of my cart, I decided to bag the ones I scanned to get them out of the way. Something I always do. She proceeded to raise her voice at me and tell me that I didn’t scan the items. I told her I scanned certain items and that I was not bagging anything that wasn’t scanned. I probably said this five times in various ways but she insisted on coming closer and eventually grabbing my items from the bottom of the cart and putting them on the unscanned side of the machine.

There was actually another customer asking for assistance and she ignored them because of how laser focused she was on me. The more I told her I wasn’t done, the more aggressive she became. She kept saying I missed so many items, even though a bunch of the items she snatched were already scanned, so she was prepared to make me pay for them twice because she couldn’t read the screen properly. She told me there was only one of a certain item scanned, when there were already multiple of that item scanned but she was not scrolling far enough on the screen.

I was starting to get confused myself since I needed time to check the screen and point out to her how every item bagged was already scanned. I didn’t even know what on earth was happening anymore. She ignored my attempts to show her what was bagged and how it was already scanned. She must have already decided she wasn’t going to leave me alone. She had all my items mixed up now and I wasn’t able to look after my wallet in the cart. I told her if there was going to be a problem then I was going to the regular checkout. She just kept telling me I missed so many items. I started to point out to her how a bunch of items she stopped me from bagging were already scanned. I read one item out slow and loud because she obviously wasn’t getting it. But she would not back off. I told her once more that I was only bagging what I scanned. Yet again she just told me I did not scan so many items, over and over again even though I wasn’t even halfway done yet! She interrupted my scanning in order to accuse me of not scanning. That makes no sense and the whole ordeal was totally out of line from start to finish.

Eventually I had it and told her again that I am done and I am taking my stuff to the regular check out. Which I did. I did not have the time or the mind for her nonsense and I no longer could keep track of what was where since she touched and grabbed so many items.

The regular checkout workers were nice and accommodating. But guess what happened when I moved to the regular lane. The woman eventually came over to the regular lane to ogle my items and stare at me once again! She left her station, still intent on harassing me.

I frequent this location and have only ever seen two self checkout workers. The older woman, and the younger guy. The younger guy is always pleasant and never pushy. Only bothers you if you ask for assistance or to remove an unwanted item from the screen. The older woman is always a problem, nasty attitude, at least when it comes to me but luckily she is rarely there when I shop. This is actually the third time she has targeted me and harassed me. Is it partly because I have to still wear a mask, so that somehow means I deserve to be discriminated against for having a compromised immune system? The other two times she bothered me weren’t as bad, and it took me a bit to realize it was the same woman. This is clear discrimination at this point. I will be taking her...

Good selection of products but poor management. I've been shopping at Big Y for nearly 20 years. Mainly because it is the closest grocery store to where I live and it is convenient. Little has changed over the past 20 years, there have been no remodels or store upgrades so it is a bit outdated in appearance and features . There is no self checkout and the lines are often long because they don't seem to ever have enough registers open. Big Y is a supermarket chain and I have been to several of their locations in this by far is the smallest of them all. As a result they don't have sufficient shelf space to keep enough stock and quite often sale items are depleted very quickly and you must get a rain check if you truly want the item which is not convenient as their customer service counter is typically backed up with customers. On a positive note they have recently gotten on board with the demand for organic products and now offer a good variety of organic products including dry products, dairy, produce and fruit. They also have a good selection of grass-fed beef and organic meat options as well as a seafood counter with wild-caught fish which is listed as brought in fresh daily. However if these products are a new item or a sale item you need to get there the day they go on sale or you won't get any because they just don't have the Shelf space to keep enough of each item in stock . The prices are fair in comparison to similar grocery stores. They do accept coupons and they double coupons up to a dollar so this is one way to make your trip a little less expensive. They have a Silver Savings program which gives you a discount on certain items that change weekly, the Silver Savings program is attached to your store loyalty card which is free. On occasion you can win a "gold coin" which can be redeemed to take several dollars off certain items - the list of items that the gold coins can be redeemed toward is available for pickup in the store and changes from month to month. The gold coins are obtained by either winning a game on the kiosk as you check out or sometimes they are randomly awarded when your order is rung up.

The real downside I have is with the store manager who is in place at the time of this review. The manager is not easy to deal with and has a kert and disrespectful demeanour about him. Instead of "the customer is always right" attitude it is more like the customer is absolutely wrong and there is no discussing anything. I have had a couple of instances where I needed to bring something to his attention or to remedy a problem with being overcharged and rather than trying to keep the customer happy, or keeping the customer at all , he would rather argue and be rude. He is the type of right fighter that would rather save a dollar than save a customer. I don't see him often and when I do I avoid talking to him because in my experience he does hold a grudge once you have had a disagreement with him. I don't know if his demeanor is this way toward everyone, but he has been very rude to me, as well as two of my adult children and one of my friends. If you use coupons make sure that your coupon matches the purchased item exactly in size, variety, Etc. because they are very very strict and stringent on their coupon policy and have denied perfectly good coupons because they claim they didn't look legitimate even though these were standard issued manufacturer coupons directly from the manufacturer of the product. it is certainly. It is not Whole Foods or Trader Joe's but it is a decent store with a decent selection at...