Festival Foods — Attraction in Wausau

Festival Foods recently took over the Trigs grocery store and are in the middle of what I hope to be a short transition. Their inventory of pretty much everything is well below the Festival Foods standard, for everything from the deli to the bakery. It's very sad. When you go to check out, the cashier will ask if you found everything and ignore the answer. Be prepared to leave your cart and negotiate around the parking lot where the one 16 year old kid will load up your groceries because you can't take carts out of the store. Overall a very disappointing experience. Wausau is still without a decent grocery store. I guess I'll stick to overpriced County Market.

Edited 08-03-24 lowered to 2 stars from 3

The inventory has improved a lot over the last two years. The produce section and meat section are good. Store seems clean It continues to be below other locations, such as Marshfield and Appleton. Issues that have NOT improved, as repeated by other reviews, are the cart return situation and customer service. If you use the self checkout, (which I recommend, because cashiers are rude) you now have to hunt someone down if you want to pick up your groceries. Otherwise, be prepared to return your cart all the way to the store because there are not cart corrals. Not a big deal if you aren't elderly or have small kids with you (definitely would not shop here with small kids), but the logistics of return are horrible, as you have to go in through the out door, which is small and crowded, against traffic. Even worse in the winter. Today I asked a cashier if they would ever get cart corrals and received a very rude lecture about "How would you feel if carts were coming out in front of your car on 17th Avenue?" Well, lady, the missing cart corrals are not fixing your problem because people are just leaving carts in the parking lot. Fix your parking lot or get a fence or something. It's so obvious that the employees that work here are...

The store is now a Festival Foods, used to be Trigs. I liked Trigs overall, but I always thought their prices were too high. That is no longer the case with Fstival Foods. They Kept many of the Bakery and deli items that I've always enjoyed And they added beef and turkey I'm gravy Which taste wonderful. I look forward to whatever remodeling they're planning and we'll visit the store more often in the future.

Update: they are more than halfway through the remodel and the store looks very fresh and modern. They added self checkouts which I love. The main entryway features their top sale items for the week, which is nice to have immediately entering the store since that's probably one of the reasons I would go there anyway. Has me looking forward to the rest of the remodel.

The remodel was completed several months ago and i've had the opportunity a shop there quite often. I will say it is definitely one of the cleanest stores in the area and very well organized. I am sure all the Festival's Foods are the same but I have noticed that their prices are very very high,. I think that is intentional because they have wonderful sales. It makes a sale price all that more attractive.

The quality and freshness of all the products has not changed it is still wonderful. The addition of the gourmet popcorn and sushi bar...

I have been disappointed with this store ever since it became Festival - food items past their expiration dates, or expiring the next day, quality/taste of deli items (used to love Trig's deli items...now I avoid anything deli there) being completely out of common items (iceberg lettuce), no longer carrying items that used to be carried, etc. However, today was the last straw. I had purchased quite a few items but not more than could easily fit into 1 cart. I told the checker I would be taking the cart out myself but they put items into 2 separate carts. So, I rearranged and put all things together in 1 cart with room to spare. The bagger at the end of the checkout actually watched me place the items from the second cart into the (empty) bottom of the first cart and never lifted a finger to help me. When I got home, I was missing several items - they had been in neither of the carts. I called the store and they said yes, they had the items and I could come to pick them up. Seriously? I live several miles out of town (Athens)..and I have company coming. The last thing I have time to do is run back into town and get groceries I already bought and paid for. And perhaps worst of all, not even an apology for the incredible inconvenience. Way past time to...