Cherians International Groceries — Attraction in Scottdale

*Updated Review: The owner (Tommy) responded to my initial review below. His response was quick, kind, professional, and addressed all the concerns I communicated. My mother and I returned to the store and as promised, received a full refund. Understandably, no business is perfect, but as a customer how the business positively addresses customer concerns does greatly matter. Tommy did exactly this and we appreciate and commend him for his response. Because of this, we will continue to return to Cherians. Thank you Tommy.

————— This review is based on my mother’s personal encounters and experiences:

Absolute terrible experience with the quality of products, cashier associates, and store manager. As an Atlanta native, I have been visiting Cherians Decatur for years. I recently purchased items, including ragi flour and ragi mamra. Unfortunately, after opening the product bags, there was a stale odor and stale taste. I returned to the store with the products to request a return, exchange or store credit.

I explained the situation with two cashiers and they were very quick to dismiss my complaint and essentially argued with me, stating they have NEVER had ANY complaint before at the store. Eventually, they called the manager over, who continued to be rude and unprofessional. He kept stating I should not have opened the bags. Common sense is that I would need to open the packaged food products to cook or consume. Opening the packaged products is how I was able to determine the poor quality/staleness/taste. He still insisted I should not have opened the products and denied returns. I left the stale food products at the store, despite not getting a refund. I told him that he should taste and cook the products himself to confirm the stale quality foods.

I left the store absolutely upset and unsettled. This is the rudest and worst encounter I have ever had any store. Which led me to sharing this review online. I searched low star reviews of this store and there are SO MANY similar complaints, including the selling of stale quality food products and even intentionally selling expired food products (scratching out/hiding expiration dates so that customers cannot see the dates), and finally rude and unprofessional cashiers and manager. Clearly, there have been complaints from customers in the past (unlike what the cashiers told me).

In the United States, it is of minimum standard that a grocery store accepts returns of spoiled/stale/bad quality packaged food. From Kroger to Whole Foods, this is always the consistent standards that I have seen and experienced, as it is not acceptable to sell spoiled/bad quality/expired food products. If you are considering shopping at this Cheriens Decatur location, please reconsider or at the very least, be wary of the quality of products...

The store has been in dirty and smelly water puddles since about a year of my notice, but it was extra bad this time I visited. The floor was ripped off where the puddles were formed and many places. I counted 8 puddles this time, only in the ares I visited. The store was crowded with holiday shoppers, a lot of children in the store and I was holding my breath when a kid came near a puddle. To my eyes, this is a safety hazard. Also, some of the puddles were situated next to food items that may absorb smell / have organic packing that might absorb water (for eg Jaggery, that has jute cover, on the bottom floor of the shelf next to puddle, in the picture). I am not sure what this tells me about the quality of the food inside the frozen shelves if the water puddles have formed due to a leak somewhere in the frozen section. Some puddles had bags at the bottom on the shelf (in the pic with a non-ripped floor puddle, the blue bag on the bottom right to the puddle). I cringe at the thought of whatever there is that grows on such bags on the floor, when the food is stored right above it. I am sure the county has public safety and health standards and rules for the grocery stores, I am not sure how this store is not call...

Today l was shopping at cherians . Once done came to my car and unloaded all the items and left couple traffic light passed and I realized I have lost my cell phone . I came back to cherians looking for it . I remembered checking out and then pickup delicious samosas and sugarcane juice and so I started inquiring about my lost phone . Rozina the checkout lady said she will check camera and the gulnaz the lady at restaurant gave me her cell phone to ring my number and check my car if it’s there and other ladies were also asking around . The staff were very helpful and ready to help . I would strongly recommend do shop at Cherians . It makes you feel like valued customers and social thanks to Gulnaz and Arizona to go extra mile for their kindness . Luckily I found my cell phone in the car within the grocery . You have a loyal...