Econo Mart — Local services in Columbus Junction

It has produce for a semi-decent price. Now that I've given you all of the positives, here are the negatives:

1: Everything here is marked up at least 60% more than you would pay anywhere else. Even with the distance to Washington or Wapello, you're still not spending as much in fuel, as you would to bite the bullet and shop here.

2: The meat is dangerous. It's rare that you will not find at least two instances of meat that is starting to turn green. I'm not 100% sure why they keep visibly rotten meat in their meat section, but they do. You can also smell the rotten meat. So, either go out of town, or have something else for dinner.

3: The overall condition of the building is extremely bad. I don't think any restoration was done after the major floods. I think they quite literally waited for it to dry, and then just reopened.

4: The employees are friendly, but they also all look like they're being held hostage. I'm not asking them to smile, I'm simply pointing out that I never see them smile. Not even having an angry look. Just looking very sad to be there. I feel bad for them. I assume they don't get paid fairly.

5: And this is the big one: The people who own this place already let another grocery store in Wapello fall into complete ruin (including an area of the floor that was starting to cave in), called "Jack and Jill's", and screwed over several of their employees when they did close. The other store had every single problem listed above, and a few others, since the building was so far past the point of no return, that it actually was forced to shut down. The owners of this business are not good people. I know that it's an issue of "I want to support a local business" for a lot of people, but you're supporting a local business run by monsters, who do not care about the condition of their building, products, or employees. It's best to all but boycott this place, unless you have absolutely no choice but to shop there. As I said above, the produce is shockingly low priced when compared to literally every other item they sell in the store, so they are good for that, and only that. Hopefully, this place will close down, and Columbus Junction gets a DG Market, or a different family owned grocery store opens here (with some heavy renovations).

That all said, please be kind to the employees of this place. It's not their fault how poorly managed the business is. They're just doing their job as they're told to by the people who actually own the business. As stupid as the orders of the management are, they risk losing their jobs if they don't do as...

1 star is being generous if I'm being honest. The store is always absolutely filthy, the employees hate their job and you can tell, and you have to REALLY check the dates on everything because chances are it's expired. Today I went in there to grab a couple things because it was the closest place and I found gallons of spoiled chocolate milk that was not even close to expiring which just goes to show what they know about how their products and how they should be kept. When I told the lady (who appeared to be a manager) about the spoiled milk she was already aware of it and not bothered by it one...

Food looked disgusting and freezer burned , most of the lunch meat ranged from 2 weeks till expiring all the way to over 3 months expired. Meat market section had discolored meat , and over priced . Employees looked miserable, the manager does not seem to know how to run. I checked the reviews and he has yet to fix any problems that people have been complaining for 6 years now, don’t believe me go back and check all the reviews for yourself dating 6+ years saying the exact same thing . I refuse to set foot in that...