Raley's — Local services in Fremont

"Hate" is a strong word! But it still isn't strong enough to tell how I really feel about this place. I have been going there for years because it's the closet place near my home, and they carry some things we like that others don't. And for years it has just shown, time and time again, to be terrible! The employees are so unhappy, gossipy, unwilling to provide assistance unless they accidentally make eye contact with you, and they are sloooooooow! Today, I leave work early to go to the Dr. I get my prescription and go straight over to Raley's to get it filled. I go the Pharmacy counter and there's a sign saying it's closed until 2 something. I go to the meat section and the guy behind the counter is arguing with a customer about getting help. The customer is saying he was told someone would be there to help him at a certain time. The employee was arguing with him about it. I walk over to the dairy section and pass the Pharmacy again. This time, the lights are out, and the gate is down. The pharmacist was arguing with a customer who needed his medication. I take my other items to the front check out to the line with only one person in front of me. And just like always, there's a blunder at the register and people that were behind me go to the other lines and I watch them as they move through their new line. I finally get to the register... The cashier is talking to the bagger girl (for lack of a better term) about whether she is going out this weekend instead of watching what he's doing with the sale. I grab my receipt and whatdyaknow!!??, it's wrong. He missed a $5 discount that was plainly marked in bright red. I leave the store and pick up my kids from school, and on the way back I have to stop back in there to get my IBU. As we're walking up, I tell muy kids, "watch, it won't be ready and we will have to wait 15 minutes!" I tell them my name, and of course there's nothing there. They look it up in the system, and whatdoyaknow... it's there. "It'll be about 15 minutes!" she told me. LOL So we walk over to the sushi section to kill the time. Against my better judgement we decide to share a sushi. We grab the item and stand at the register for a few minutes until someone finally came up and asked if we need help. "Yes" I politely said. "Let me see if I can find someone for you!" she replies. Are you kidding!!?? An employee even had to look for help. All of this is on the same day. I have about 100 other similar stories from that store. Reading the other reviews, you get the typical response from the owner... "We appreciate the feedback as we're always trying to improve... bla bla bla!" In once review they said they are striving for "world class service". Not sure how you will do that when you're own employees can't back that up. I wrote a review similar to this one a few years ago. The manager told me he felt for me, but there wasn't much he could do due to the unions. I will finally just take my money elsewhere from now...

It looks like the reset is done and it's a cosmetic step up.

Salad bar, soups, slightly bigger deli, much larger wine selection and the layout makes MUCH more sense. Practically an entire Hallmark store inside.

That's where improvements end.

The check out experience is odd.

Bagging is iffy. IF you get a bagger, odd things will be bagged together. IF you have enough reusable bags, they'll act like they're "extra" bags and then place random small things directly into the cart. Makes no sense and just looks lazy.

Four or five people in line? They'll call for help, but as soon as it /looks/ controlled one (or more) people leave. Then they're called back within two minutes. I've seen this multiple times. Regardless of day of week or time of day.

Front end looks consistently understaffed. Consistently. This is getting bizarre and awkward. My girlfriend and I, both, are increasingly confused by our experience. It's surreal.

Bright side: They ARE now being very disciplined about getting the very next person in line. Great to see and it avoids awkwardness. If they didn't do this, however, with the way they run the front end, customers would leave in droves.

But... Overall it looks like window dressings with a return to LOW service levels. Much lower and we'll prefer Lucky's again, tbh, and that's with us driving /past/ Raley's.

Raley's: Consider having an industrial engineer type look at your front end process. Or rebrand as Food Savr. At this point its one or the other.

Huge opportunity for...

Typically I have no problems here at The Fremont location but there is a lady named Margarita in the deli who gives me dirty looks every time I am there. I have always ignored her but today when I asked a question about the bread she responded in a short harsh tone and wouldn’t even look up at me. She was blatantly rude and when I asked her why she was being so rude, she continued to be rude, again refusing to look at me. When I told her I no longer wanted her help she said “fine don’t talk to me.” When I asked why she felt the need to be so rude she rolled her eyes and when in acknowledged that she said “I have eyes don’t I.” Again when I asked why she was being so rude and why she constantly gives me dirty looks and mentioned her possibly not liking black people, she made no comment and raised her eyebrows before retrieving her things and going to the back. As a black women unfortunately I am use to rude treatment but today was just over the top and my children were present and in complete shock as well. I have escalated this complaint up but unfortunately I doubt she will be reprimanded in a way that’s appropriate or effective. Thank you Bella for stepping in and making my sandwich and John for taking the time to speak for me about the incident. People like Margarita definitely should not work in customer service. Thank you Margarita for allowing me to show my kids how NOT to be and how to appropriately handle people that are rude to you for no...