Terra Madre Northcote — Local services in Melbourne

PART 1: During my mid thirties fuedal Japan was home. One small settlement in particular. Totsukawa. Contemporary Japan's largest village in terms of size. Mountain forest cconstitutes approx 95% of the environ. Many years ago, the noble sun would rise over land, trees, animals, and the Buddhist hamlet that adopted my gaijin glutes. The townsfolk were kind, the weather an pre capitalistic/pre social media systems in place created unity, not division. The local water supply was looked at with gratitude. No leaking taps/ excess water use like caucasian muddleheads. The flora also was viewed as precious, with a variety of plants boasting potent immunity and HGH properties fit for health supplement marketing. But financial profit was the furtherest thing from my mind. Totsukawa was stunning on every level: Each morn i would hike to the summit of Mt. Bananasaki: Watching a community -All the resources, individuals, sincerity & integrity- in fluid motion is a sight to behold. Being accepted an valued within a community (something more than self) is the purest experience a mammal can hope for. Unfortunately, I fell for a native. Now as we all know most versions of community feature rules, utilitarian logic preserving order: Often unspoken e.g. 'Late nights, while others sleep, one must whisper'. 'Early each morning it is clement to tippy toe' . While I tippy toed 2wards the summmit each morn my heart was unable to communicate in whispers: Sakura Churo was her name. Effortless external beauty was her game. Churos inside was quite toxic, but her shell left me hypoxic. In her prescence a love fog, So i did as scorpion to frog. In rapture, as is my nature, my soul pondered "will she date ya?" Samurai culture i did defy, upon asking- sakura's reply: ..... "Hai!". Like artic terrain in a boiling pot: Sakura was icy, but her body was hot! While both of us were free from the cold, heavy chains of monogamy and earnest in our love/lust (i could never discern which in chief), the Totsukawans had other ideas for Sakura's...

Despite the fact of purchasing from this store for several years now and spending an average of over $200 a week and some weeks well into the hundreds the service by onsite staff and check out staff is appalling and the worse ever experienced in a store. I agree strongly with many other reviews on the rudeness, chatting amongst themselves, eating while serving etc. There is barely acknowledgement of hello how are you or thank you have a good day. The wait period in lines is also pathetic. The store as made attempts in expanding the space within the store but it’s extremely frustrating to navigate when extremely busy. The range is reasonable as to organic lines however many of Terra Madre’s own branding lacks quality and detailed information of origin of food sourcing. The quality of their own brand is not high compared to other companies. It has slowly stopped selling other popular brands which makes it difficult when you have to run around from one organic store to the next finding that exact brand. Management needs to seriously consider how to introduce better customer service. As this would be the most disappointing aspect of this expanding and popular store.

Eventually if this does not improve I’d rather pay a few dollars extra and give my money to a business that actually cares about customers.

I took an interstate guest there today who is in major businesses across the state and he was horrified at the service of staff and how they casually were eating while serving customers (Who wants someone’s germs all over their food) and couldn’t even be bothered to greet the customer in front of them but had the time to have a conversation with another employee. And on top of all that didn’t even listen to the customers instructions about how to pack the cold products in the cooler bag. As we left the store he said that kind of service is enough to...

I have been a regular of Terra Madre for many years and have consistently shopped there on a weekly basis.

Terra Madre was once a place where you could find many items and brands not available in other stores at a reasonable price, and many other foods available in bulk for self-serve and weigh. In recent times a shift has been made towards packaging bulk items in single use plastic, and slowly doing away with the variety of brands and products they once sold for their in in-house branded products. Additionally, they do not like you to bring your own reusable containers. This seems very counter-intuitive to their wanting to appear eco-friendly and progressive.

Alongside this the customer service is non-existent, which seems to be a common theme amongst the negative reviews below. If it is not the floor and counter staff ignoring your existence and acting like you have overstayed your welcome as soon as you have arrived, or incorrectly and overcharging for items whilst scanning them, you will be treated like a criminal and have your bags checked thoroughly whilst being spoken to in a patronising tone and left embarrassed in front of other customers.

Whilst their bag-checking policy is apparently conducted with an "egalitarian" approach, their method seems to dictate you will be singled out if you appear to be of a specific demographic. With half a dozen people walking out ahead of me without their bags being checked, the young door security person literally watched me pay for my items and requested to check my bags whilst still at the counter packing them away. Perhaps Terra Madre's security team needs to work on their people skills and become better at targeting who they believe is stealing, because their photo "wall of shame" shows they are clearly missing the culprits and are instead leaving a wake of unhappy...