Wegmans — Local services in Crofton

Grew up in the Rochester and Buffalo area where there are a number of Wegman stores 25 years ago. Haven’t lived in a city that offers Wegmans since. I was excited to visit the Gambrill’s store after moving to Maryland. In the end we have a really mixed report: the produce department was not good at all. Only a couple bad lemons left, tried multiple melons and gave up as none were ripe or nearly ripe, zucchini was wrinkled— obviously old, organic strawberries looked iffy so passed, yams were so damaged and 1/2 sprouting wouldn’t buy, sold out of organic spinach...I can’t go on just too many issues. We did find nice cauliflower and asparagus. At least something. Store fairly disorganized in that organic is sort of all over the place. Didn’t carry any of the popular common non dairy milk such as unsweetened soy and cashew and almond. Nice selection of yogurt. Found last case of San Pellegrino at a good price. Overall, on average, found prices higher on a lot of common things we buy at Giant and Whole Foods with a few exceptions, impossible burgers were $1 less expensive, Martannellis (spelling?) apple juice a good price, bananas were a competitive price. But overall many things were just higher cost and we don’t know why. There did seem to be a decent selection of items (except produce). Seemed hard to navigate the store as well but it was our first visit. It just wasn’t straight forward up and down aisles there were a lot of turns and random displays. We found a number of items with no pricing anywhere: one being the olive bar, some of the produce and various canned goods where there was no signage so we just passed. Checkout was frustrating as I couldn’t sign up for the rewards card at the check out. She said I could do it online or customer service. That’s not customer friendly. Do it at the checkout center. Bottom line: Wegman’s in NYS 20 years ago were amazing, this was not amazing. Disappointed. And maybe the Wegmans in Buffalo and Rochester have gone down too. Not sure if chain wide deterioration or isolated...

Normally, I would never give a bad review. However, today I left the store emotionally distort and embarrassed! To elaborate, I spend a the list 200 to 400 dollars in Wegmans a month. I am a mother of six, a proud grandmother of one grandson and a wife to a wonderful person for 28 years. My parents were raised in the deep south so needless to say I am Southern girl. That is the reason, I decided to handle the matter diplomatically with southern hospitality. To explain, I had to purchase my grandson another cake for his 1st birthday which happened to be today. The other cake we had ordered didn't turn out the way we hoped. Therefore, I just knew Wegmans wouldn't disappoint me and my family. Truly, the bakery was able to decorate a vanilla cake for my grandson within 15 minutes. I was overjoyed! While my youngest son and I was waiting for the cake, I decided to purchase a few more items. Than we went back to the bakery and the cake was just what I wanted for our first grandson. Next my son and I went to purchase the items utilizing the self-checkout. As I was finishing up, a store employee that was standing a few feet from me, asked if I had paid for the fruit platter. I turned and said yes I did, she looked toward the screen and said, you took it from the bottom so I thought you didn't rang the item up! I said to the store employee, didn't you just hear me ask my son if I got the fruit platter and he said yes. She just stared at us with a glaze look. By the way, I asked my son because I felt she was watching us closely which made us very uncomfortable as if we were stealing! Moreover, she never checked or asked any of the cacusion shoppers if they paid for their items. As much as my family and I love Wegmans, we will not be shopping there anymore. You need to send that employee to diversity school so she want make the same mistake and profile other African Americans and I emphasize, she needs to understand what her actions has caused . To add, we never at the fruit...

The Good, the bad, and the AMAZING!!!! So, two days ago I was at the Crofton Wegman’s shopping, and needed to get some salmon. As I was in seafood, I was looking in the frozen salmon section and couldn’t find any Atlantic wild caught. A seafood rep walks by, Susan, and I began to ask questions. This made me venture to the fresh pre-wrapped section. I noticed that the only wild caught was Sockeye which I’ve never had. I made my choice, and decided to give it a try, despite the “strong” adjective I received from a different seafood rep in terms of taste.

I went home, doctored my fish as normal, baked it with yummy asparagus, but there was a bad smell while it cooked; that’s the bad. Once done, taste test, and it tasted as bad as it smelled. Now me never having tried it before, and the odd adjectives I received to describe it, I thought that was normal. Well I couldn’t eat it, and wasn’t going to literally throw away money, so I went back to the store with stinky fish and receipt in tow. (The expiration was fine)

Customer service was awesome, and allowed me to get a new fish choice. Back at the seafood counter, I was trying to explain to another rep what happened, and there’s Susan again. I explained my plight, and she was so empathetic. I got the Sapphire salmon, a new one for me, and she gave me a small sample of another Sockeye to give it another go, because she didn’t want me to totally turn my nose down at that type.

Well, I baked them both, no funny smell. I tasted them both, and a smile like that of the Grinch turning nice came upon my face. They were delicious. Two different textures, and taste, but both delectable.

Susan, you are amazing! Thank you so much for turning my frown...