Lowery Meat & Seafood — Local services in Buchanan

The worst customer service I have experienced ever. And you might say, oh well it's a grocery store, as long as the food is good does it matter??? I actually left this store appalled and a bit offended by some of the remarks and service that they chose to give me.

Stor of my visit*

My girlfriend and I were traveling from out of town staying with some friend''s family. We stopped in at 7:15pm knowing that we wanted to get a thank you gift for the couple letting us stay with them. We were going to pick up some meat/cheese/crackers. When we walked in to the store we were not impressed by the feel of the store, it smelled a bit but I chalked that up to it being a butcher shop and me being unfamiliar with the smells that may accompany that. Overall we were not too of put by the cleanliness, although it could have been better.

We find the deli counter where were 7 (we counted) employees, GREAT! With 7 employees someone would quickly help us and we would be there for only a couple of minutes. We wait patiently behind the one other customer in line for over 10 minutes. When they finish we continue waiting for about 5 minutes before one of the employees (one who had not previously been helping the customer in front of us even) ask's another employee (also not doing anything but talking behind the counter to help us instead of helping us herself.)

With 7 people, and three open slicers, we thought that we would get our things slices up quickly and be out the door in no time. Wrong, one person begins slicing out meet/cheese, we had a total of 2 pounds of product split between 3 products and I am not exagerating... it took 20 minutes to get 2 pounds of meat.

While waiting the 20 minutes for our product we set the other products (two boxes of crackers) next to the package of meat that they had already sliced on the counter. It is sitting there for a few minutes so that we don't have to hold it while we wait as another employee comes along cleaning behind the deli counter. Apparently it was imperative that the counter be cleaned exactly at that second, and that cleaning the counter was more important than treating their customers well... the employee cleaning stops and looks at us for a few seconds and says "can you move that so I can clean this counter" I looked up expecting for him to be joking with us with his sarcast attitude... he was not. I have never witnessed an employee be flat out rude because the customer they were supposed to be serving was inconveniencing them.

We eventually retrieved our product and went to the front of the store to pay. We get there and wait behind a woman in line. Who was not currently making a transaction and didn't look like she had purchased anything. Was just in talkING with some friends who were working there, showing pictures to the employee on her phone. Which I really don't have a problem with, unless it is at the expense of a customer.

I would have told a manager about my experience. But the two that I saw there during my visit did not do anything to make my experience better either and didn't see the point. One man in a necktie behind the deli counter did not stop his conversation to address me or my girlfriend , did not converse with us about our day or our purchase, or even suggest to his employees to do any of those things

The woman manager up front didn't knowledge us. And along with the cashier. Was talking with the lady who was showing her something on her phone and placed more importance on that interaction than on the customers who were supporting their business.

The two good things about this experience (and I use the term good loosely, overshadowed by all of the bad) were the hard salami and the smoked gouda were pretty good. And one employee (we had not yet interacted with) as we were leaving told us to have a good day.

I am glad that I am from out of town and thus is not my only local grocery option. I would never go here again and if I ever got the chance would discourage anyone else from shopping here....

Since my review has at some point been deleted for no reason, I will post it again. Originally posted on April 7th 2017. Every word of this review is true, and people deserve to know how they may be treated by this business.

I've been going here for my family's meat needs for years. Never once have I experienced anything short of amazing service and value for the products that I've needed. Until today. After years of nearly identical visits, face to face discussions with the owner, and many glowing reviews to family and friends, we were unceremoniously asked to leave over a water bottle. One that not only had seen the inside of the store in the presence of owner, but had done so otherwise dozens of times before. The water bottle is part of a disabled member of my family's mental health regimen that has never been an issue before. After asking this female clerk to clarify, we received the response of "I do not care, I am only doing what I was told." A point reiterated to us after being informed that her actions are likely a violation of the Americans with disabilities act. At this point we became quite aware that our presence and business were no longer welcome or needed. And as such have decided that the savings and spectacular meat counter staff (albeit serving mediocre product) are not worth that kind of treatment. When we called to speak to a manager or the owner, we were told that we would "have to deal with it as the rule has been in place forever" and hung up on. To be perfectly clear. Never have we had any issues before today, but the actions of this clerk and the manager on duty were severe enough that you've lost our business, and likely that of anyone who asks us where to...

Thank you for the amazing stock of great priced meat! My family relies on these prices to make ends meat. I did notice a few things while in the store over the weekend! The cones - they do not work! Whatever purpose they were supposed to serve, they simply were not. You cannot hear the butcher unless you step up to the counter - but then other people think they too can step past the cones. Getting rid of them would actually open up space and keep the aisles from being so congested and Inaccessible to regular grocery shoppers.

I would personally invest in some ropes and block the area off that way + create a funnel to the meat area through one of the aisles - yes you will prob have to move those products or they will be inaccessible except to people in line - but with the current system half of every aisle was inaccessible due to overflow. Another cheap solution would be to use a texting system - have WiFi available for people to hook up to if the service isn’t great out there - so people can wait outside or in their car until their number is called. Also lots of people lining up by the deli with no number, I would separate the two, and have one set employee and a separate set of numbers for the deli. Deli could be D# and meat counter could be m# with two different stands.

Take the suggestions or leave them, we will still fight the crowd to get our meat. But after noticing the great changes you’ve made to the outside of the building I thought you might open to updating your people-moving system as well. Either way,...