Food Basics — Local services in St. Catharines

Becoming more and more disappointed in this store. Was not happy that in the middle of a pandemic they ad in self checkouts, forcing the remaining cash registers closer together and increasing the likelihood of covid transmission between employees and customers alike. Self checkouts take away jobs. Less people working cash, and increased lineups. Last weekend there was 3 registers open and over 40 people waiting to use them, making maneuvering around aisles difficult. This weekend an employee approaching pensioning age complained to me that they had to beg another employee to take their hours in order for them to make ends meet. Meanwhile, I had to go back outside to get a cart from the corral in the parking lot to use, then disinfect myself as there was not brought to the storefront. Meanwhile there is 4 kids goofing off at the storefront not working, and not going to get carts when I informed customer service. I wonder how we're expected to shop without buggies? Not that there is much to chose from anymore. Sale prices are not sales, stock is non existent in some departments (meat and dairy for example) and the prices for half rotten produce is ridiculous. $4 for a brown head of lettuce?...

BE CAREFUL WHEN YOU BUY YOUR MEAT AT THAT LOCATION. I bought ground lamb ( the 454g sealed package) On December 18th 2023, once I got home I opened the package and the smell was very bad ( sour meat ). I went back to the store and showed them the meat. I didn’t grab my receipt as I didn’t think I would have any reason to return anything. The store manager that was on duty (I’m not sure about her name - Devon or Yvonne or something like that) refused to acknowledge this issue and seemed to think it wasn’t against the public health and safety act. It isn’t okay to sell food that people can get food borne illness from. I wasn’t willing to take that risk. I proceeded to call another location once I returned home (with my sour meat) and they told me that even without a receipt I could receive an in store credit. I wasn’t looking for a refund. I was going to purchase more meat from their store as that’s why I went there in the beginning. Instead I was left unsatisfied and without dinner for this evening. All because someone was too lazy to do their job. And how do so many people working in customer service even have these jobs to begin? Clearly she knows nothing about...

This store smells like rotting garbage everytime I’ve been here the last few visits. Then I’m seeing how the meat is rotten sometimes b4 expiry dates so that gets me thinking either 1, meats not being properly refrigerated or 2 something is wrong with how things are being delivered.

The smell is so off putting I don’t understand how public health would approve this. It’s absolutely foul. If this is garbage related there needs to be a more appropriate way to handle your garbage because there’s really no excuse why the grocery store smells like rotten garbage.

This happened to me at Hartzle Road location and me and my partner were nauseous from the smell and left and I’ve never been back to that location…

Agreed with other reviews, quality of the store is extremely non existent and I only buy packaged/frozen/Dairy at this location because the rotting garbage smell is extremely off putting and all in that main...