Lidl — Local services in Apex

Stopped in here to buy two produce items this afternoon. First of all, the lines were all long and some registers were closed, which seems strange for a weekend at 3 PM. I'd think a brand new store would have more lanes open at this popular grocery shopping time.

I always have the misfortune of picking the wrong line and I picked the wrong guy. With Covid I don't want to stand in a line at a store for extended periods of time, especially with the new more contagious strains of the virus going around.

I got in line behind two other folks. The cashier, seemed to either have slept through his training or not received any. The first couple had about $50 worth of items, the cashier seemed to not know how to ring the items up and it took a LOT longer than it should have.

Eventually this couple was gone, the guy in front of me had a small bag of tomatoes and a bag of bananas. Again, this transaction was taking about 20x longer than it should have. Eventually he calls a manager/supervisor over, I watched the two of them fuss around with the register for a while. I finally had it and gave up on trying to buy my two small items, I'll go get them at Food Lion.

Meanwhile, that first couple was standing to the side staring at their receipt. I suppose the inept cashier must have rung up their items incorrectly.

I don't like to do curbside pickup for produce since I like to make sure I am getting the freshest item, especially when buying fruits or vegetables. I'll probably keep going to the Food Lion that is across the street. I'm not a huge fan of off brand products, which is about half of what this...

Whoever designed this store must have never done any grocery shopping. Outside, there is no cover above the entrance. The area with the carts is covered but no roof above the entrance, so you step right in/ out if the pouring rain. Inside, remember to bear left because that’s where the entrance is for some reason. There are no self checkout lanes (mind you, this store opened in the middle of pandemic). But the worse part is the area past checkout where they offload your scanned items is very small! This would be adequate if people shopped for a couple of items but this is suburbia, so every other person has a full cart like it’s their last shopping trip. At ALDI, they just drop your stuff back into the cart and you can then bag it as you like. Here, the cashiers mostly move with the same efficiency as at ALDI and items pile up on a very short belt that can barely hold the content of a small cart. I usually end up just dumping everything back into the cart hastily (and then there is not that much space for bagging). But I’ve seen people just clogging the line, taking their sweet time bagging a cartful in that small area.

Cashiers are mostly very nice but I wish they wouldn’t push the items out with such force. But again, that’s the problem of the checkout lane design and I guess they have their KPIs to fulfill. If this was resolved, it’d make for a much better shopping experience.

I’m also not finding here some of the items that can be found in other Lidl stores, such as store brand versions of Kit Kat, Twix, and Toblerone candy. And on the last trip, the fish freezer reeked of...

It was a "pot shot". I went to see if they had the raised garden beds that were advertised. Well, of course they did not have any inventory.

It is a new store so I wandered and shopped. There were lots of employees, but 3-5 customers. When you entered the store, it was kind of dim. So, I thought they were closed. The flower racks were filled with wilted and dying flowers/plants. Then I entered the produce section and saw many wilted fruits and veggies(grapes, strawberries, soft skinned fruits). The employees were cleaning and setting the store straight. It looked a little in disarray from the day. Otherwise, I bought a bag of grapes. I got them home and tasted them. They were tasteless and wilted. I wasted money there. I thought I had picked a good bag, but "not"...

I will go back again. I like browsing the shelves for the...