Fareway Meat and Grocery — Local services in Cedar Rapids

5/23/25 I needed to return an item that I thought had been marked at a lower price. The item wasn't well marked. 2 young women who are your front end team and a manager argued with me and smirked when I said the signs were misleading, or easy to mis-read. When im spending this much for groceries my expectation is very polite service.

The deli guy was polite. My checkout clerk was phenomenal.

At the store today. I needed to refill my water bottles. I always forget that fareway doesn't have water refill machines anymore. I asked a skinny kid with nlasses and a mustache at the deli counter about it. He said," I don't think we've ever had one. I've been here 10 years." The tall 20 something with dark hair standing by the sample table at the deli said, " I don't know. Ask a grocery manager." The stocky dark haired 20 something working in the yogurt section said, " Yeah that was a corporate decision. So..." I asked, " Well, you're in more contact with the corporation you work for than I am. Could you mention it's wanted back by a customer, please?" He said, " They're not gong to bring it back." I repeated, " Again. I'd like you to send this message in whatever method you choose: a customer wants the water refill machine back." If I want to argue with rude young men, I'll be sure to visit your Fareway again. At checkout I mention, " It's so annoying that you don't have a water machine anymore. NowI have to drive all the way out to Marion to get these refilled." A very pleasant young woman with glasses and blond hair in a bun said, " You know, they pulled it when Covid hit." I said, " Ohhhhhh! That's right! I knew it wasn't TEN YEARS AGO." Please train your young male staff to treat customers with great courtesy. I won't be back for a.while. I hope it's a more courteous staff if I...

I enjoyed everything about my trip to this Fareway until I was on my way to the register. I only had 4 items, but one was alcohol and since I knew I would be ID'd, I went to an human cashier. I was about 8 feet from the conveyor belt table or whatever, when an employee rushed in from of me and put her 3 6-packs of soda bottles on the table, cutting in front of me. She didn't look back, didn't say thank you, didn't say sorry, just put her stuff down and looked at the cashier. A few seconds later, they were chatting, and chatting some more, and the the 3 six packs were taking longer than I thought they should to get rung in. Or scanned. All that needed to de done was scan 3 six-packs, pay for them, then we all move on. Somehow, this stretched into 2 minutes. I guess I had a chance to get in another line, but now they had multiple people in them, and I kept thinking, "it's just 3 packs of soda- it can take much longer, right?" But it did take longer. I was very patient, but it was getting ridiculous. The thing that bothered me was the cashier and the employee she was ringing up knew how long they were taking, but didn't say a word to me. Not sorry, not oh, this is going to take ten minutes, not you picked the wrong line, dude, not anything. Fareway employees are the most courteous of any grocery store employees I've ever experienced, they used to be, anyway. Meat department was awesome- great service, exceptional quality product, as always. The young woman at self checkout who mercifully flagged me over and helped me out was super nice and friendly. Thank goodness she was smart enough to coax me out that line. I'll go back, I'm just...

I guess I expected better service as that’s what Fareway is known for.

I asked at one point how much notice to have a full ribeye cut up and was told 20 minutes. The day I called to order I had to wait 8 hours to pick up. Online says average weight is 15.8lbs. Great that’s a savings over the $12/8oz from the case I usually get. Upon pick up I’m charged for over 21lbs. 5 lbs of that was the trimmings that they don’t tell you about, nor do they give you. So I paid $369 for 16lbs of ribeye. But when I asked an employee about the discrepancy I was told that it’s still cheaper than buying from the case. When the 8oz ribeye is on sale it’s actually NOT cheaper to buy a whole as about $85 was spent on trimmings. So buyer beware. Plan ahead and buy when on sale from the case. At sale price I would have saved $50 buying...