Hannaford — Local services in Bangor

As I'm writing this review I am still in shock at how I was treated this morning by an employee at the self checkout. This would be at the Bangor Broadway Hannaford. My husband , daughter and I were making a purchase. The register required a login and we needed to wait for an employee to assist us. We were the only ones in the self check out area and 3 employees at the register closest to the self check out we stairing at us and could see we need assistance but ignored us. After about 15 seconds of this, I walled over and said "excuse me, you are all standing here clearly seeing that we need help...." One lady cut me off as I was speaking and told me the lady that can help us will be here but they couldn't help us. I just turned around an walked back to the register. The person we needed came up to me and got uncomfortably into my face (which I didn't understand because I was not looking for aggression, I was just looking for an acknowledgement that someone would assist us.) I kept trying to explain this to the employee (Taller, older, short hair, dark glasses) she kept cutting me off and telling me she couldn't be everywhere and I had to wait because she was the only person available to help me. Again fine ...but you could have employees not ignore your need no matter how trivial they may be - just acknowledge that someone will be there instead of staring at you. I felt so attacked. Her voice was extremely patronizing and I was being spoken to like a child....all for just asking if someone was going to help me. How dare you! She did this in front of a child! I've never experienced anything but kindness in the 20+ years I've shopped at this location. I wanted to ask for her higher up as this was so unnecessary, but she walked off to another office as I was trying to speak. (I felt like a fight was being picked with me. Someone being so aggressive towards me was disturbing.) I still have no idea what caused this reaction from her and I will not be finding out because I unfortunately will find a different...

This Hannaford started implementing new security tech that analyzes everything you do at the self check out. Sounds like a bright idea to decrease theft and have those few not ruin the self check out for everyone, right? Only if it actually works. Today was the 3rd time the system has decided that I'm stealing items when I'm not. Instead of the associate being helpful and understanding, she immediately believed me and my spouse were attempting to steal something. She forced us to remove everything from our grocery bag instead of just looking inside of it, counted the amount of items on the screen incorrectly, and proceeded to debate with us for 5 minutes about how we must be doing something wrong. In front of everyone. When a 2nd associate came over and they realized their mistake, we got no apology- they just walked away without communicating anything. Me and my spouse don't look like the average Bangor Hannaford shoppers. We dress alternative and are young. This girl wanted to believe in her assumption that we're sketchy people despite the evidence right in front of her.

This was extremely demoralizing, embarrassing, and inconvenient. When I spoke with a manager she tried to tell us some "tips and tricks" to not activate the system's inaccurate triggers. She said it often gets triggered when people are trying to teach their kids how to check out items. How family friendly. When I asked why don't they just have human cashiers instead of having to rely on extremely expensive, crappy tech she said, "because no one has wanted to work since the lockdowns". Sure thing, lady. Her quote, "this tech is the future and it's obvious it isn't going away". Well, for some weird reason I believe that there are enough people willing to work as cashiers to give customers a positive human experience, and I'm done being falsely identified as a thief, so I'll go overpay $1000 a month somewhere else to...

I usually have a good experience at hannaford. In fact, this used to be my favorite hannaford due to their wide selection. Sadly some of the employees are extremely rude. A couple of weeks ago I had a bagger who bagged my groceries beautifully! I smiled at her and told her thank you when she was done (I always do this ofc but she really did a great job at bagging the stuff… it was very neat). Unfortunately she was not so friendly. She literally rolled her eyes at me, sighed, and looked away. Good grief!! I know the job is tiring (I’ve worked at hannaford) but there is absolutely no need to be rude to customers. She was a younger girl around my age… perhaps she thought this would be okay to do since she sees me as her peer? Did she think I was being patronizing or something? I really don’t know. I’ve never had an experience like that at other locations. I know this isn’t really hannafords fault of course… it must be the population this store is located in. Either way I was a bit disappointed. Hopefully it was just a...