IGA Famille Barcelo St-Zotique — Local services in Montreal

This is not the first review, nor the last review, of an IGA that is in need of upgrades.

It is relevant to mention that as per several other reviews, yes, it needs to be sanitized, and no, there were no ansjovies to be found.

Upon entering the store you will notice a trash bin quite close to the bread. Unacceptable. On further entry you will see there are no smaller shopping carts. Apparently, they prefer shopping with a “go big or go home” attitude.

In the produce aisle, we witnessed a full grown tomato on the floor. Will the workers throw it away or simply place it back? It remains to be seen and we did not stick around to find out. However, two smaller tomatoes were noticed hiding underneath the produce table. Absurd.

Continuing on we found there to be condensation on nearly ever freezer. There was so much fog and condensation that I was unable to properly identify where to find the frozen chicken nuggies that I so desperately was craving. And I admitted my defeat and left this aisle, once again, appalled.

Did you know they were also charging 13$ for 5 pomegranates? And 8$ for a carton of eggs? What kind of store prices things to this degree?? As another review mentioned, we found the 20$ guacamole a well. I almost gagged at the site of this- clearly taking advantage of hardworking breadwinners of Canada.

And dont even get me started on the box of 4 moffins containing...

Yesterday(on Saturday morning), I did groceries and when I checked out by using the counter for less than 12 items, the black lady was very impolite with me. I was the one saying bonjour, merci multiple times, being polite all the time, and reminding her I have the point card. But the whole process she just ignored me on purpose, with her look at me not that friendly, the only phrase she said to me was vous payer comment? I thought she may just have had a bad day until a white male after me started to check out with her while I was packing my stuff, she was behaving totally like a normal civilized personnel to him, saying what I said to her to this male customer. That’s how I got to know she behaved like that to me was because I am obviously an Asian woman, a minority, that’s all. I still gave 4 stars because she was the only racist bad employee I have met there, I have done quite some groceries there and generally other employees, especially the senior ones were really responsible and nice, I have never felt I was discriminated for being an Asian...

In general, I find it difficult around the St. Hubert shopping area to find a public washroom. I'm usually a few coffees to the wind by the time I get there and before I can even think about spending money to support the local economy I need to get to a bathroom. There are a million stores in this area, tonnes of people - bathrooms are a necessity! I asked in the IGA..."oh, ok, oui...ah...we have one...but...we need an employee to escort you to the back warehouse where the bathroom is protected by an advanced security system...and if you could just wait a bit because as you can see we're all a bit busy now..." They didn't say it exactly like that, but that's the system. There is a washroom that is available to their customers but it's a big hassle - it is in the back employee area and the door is passcode protected. It would be nice if it were more like Maxi, where the bathroom is...