Haggen — Local services in Bellingham

It's not normally my prerogative to review supermarkets, but I had such an exceptionally bad experience today that I couldn't not say something. While the normal checkout and meat section employees are always helpful and attentive, the deli section as of late has been an abysmal train-wreck of inattentive, dismissive, argumentative and generally unskilled customer service.

One would expect a simple greeting of "How can I help you?" upon approaching the counter, instead I am greeted with silent stares and an eventual "How is your day?" followed by more staring in what I can only assume is an attempt at telepathically discerning my order, either that or it is an intimidation tactic so I will walk away. Lately I'm leaning towards the latter.

On my most recent trip, I placed an order for a hot sandwich, not only did it take 15 minutes to make, but it was stone cold when I unwrapped it to eat at my home a short distance away. The best part was that the girl behind the counter actually walked away when I put my order up for them to take. I had to wait and flag down an employee from another department to make sure my order was placed.

I can only assume one of two things from my experiences at this Haggen's deli: either the employees abhor their positions and lack all semblance of work ethic, or the actual work conditions these employees are under have caused them to resent the customers they are being paid to serve. Either way I would urge anyone and everyone to avoid giving business to this side of the market until they can ensure their patrons don't have as terrible an...

My suspicions have been confirmed. When the FTC mandated that Albertsons (owner of Safeway's VONS in SoCal as well) sell off the stores in monopoly markets, the bid was won by Bellingham based Haggen. However, Albertsons wasn't about to give up so easily and so in a backhanded action to remain the monopoly in certain markets, they worked the system so that Haggen was given the stores that would be the hardest to convert and the most difficult to maintain financially and in a community status form. Yesterday, Haggen announced they are forced financially to pull out of their newly acquired locations in California, Nevada, and Arizona and will be focusing on Oregon and Washington where they are more accepted. For the time being, Albertsons has now evaded the government's checks & balances to avoid price gouging by killing their competition through deceit and sabotage. In their eyes, Albertsons has won. But for how long? Aldi is coming to SoCal early next year. The now empty stores are palatable for other companies to move in. Haggen may have been attacked and plundered in their quest into the south-west, but the saga is...

Friendly, personal service, but vastly overpriced compared to say WinCo. (WinCo is, of course, furthermore owned and operated by its employees, whereas I believe Haggen has recently moved from being a local institution to being part of a big national chain [Albertsons?]).

In my case, where I live on a tight food budget but also live only a couple of blocks from Haggen, I find that if I stick to inexpensive items and "loss-leaders" such as milk & eggs, I can get away within a few dollars of the price I would've spent at WinCo. But for any more than a few items costing more than a couple of dollars each, I find I easily save 10 and $20 a trip by going to Winco instead.

But! — as a neighborhood store that I can walk to quickly, open pretty late and pretty early (5 a.m. to midnight), they have a very very good selection of items when I I'm in a position where spending a couple of extra dollars looks more attractive...