Woodman's Food Market — Local services in Madison

Haha! Woodman's replied before I had a chance to write the review! When I got the notification, I hit the five-star but I left it in my notification bar because I was not in a position to actually write a review yet.

So I'd like to start with the bathroom. I often have my two-year-old granddaughter with me and sometimes I have to use the changing stations in the bathroom. Woodmans has them in all the men's room in every location I've been to. It is 2023 and there are still places that do not have changing stations in the men's room, but Woodman's isn't one of them, I appreciate that. In addition, their bathrooms always provide a lot of toilet paper, sometimes 12 or more rolls. And there are options from cheap thin stuff all the way to Charmin or something similar, good, thick, soft, strong toilet paper. And my other compliment is that their bathrooms are always clean. At the Milwaukee Street location, I finally ran into Willie, one of the people responsible for this. I had a little chat with him, thanking him for doing a great job. Not only do the normal things get cleaned, but the changing stations are always cleaned too, and those are often missed at other places. People don't think of it but when you're changing diapers multiple times each day, you quickly learn who has the cleanest ones too. I also told an employee that day I wanted to talk to a manager. She insisted on taking a message so I don't know if management ever got the message, but Willie does an amazing job cleaning. He's friendly and easy to talk to as well, just seems like a really nice guy. Even while talking to him, he was still wiping the stall door. He didn't stop working just because I interrupted him, great work ethic!

As for the rest of the store, I love that the prices are competitive. Aside from specific sales, no grocery store is cheaper. And the selection is vast as well. They have many brands and items that smaller stores just don't have the space for. Many people have said the produce isn't the best. I have bought plenty of fresh produce, enough to say that it's not the best but it's also not terrible. I always find the fruits and veggies I need and in good shape. Just have to sift a little sometimes. I personally prefer farmers markets for produce but usually I end up needing something when they aren't open and Woodman's is plenty good enough.

Most employees are ok and many have been helpful, but I've also run into not great ones. I do my best to find things on my own and for the last year or so I've used the app to help. But occasionally I'm just blind or stupid or just want to get a second set of eyes to confirm I'm not missing something. Usually when I ask, they will point me in the right direction or even walk me to the product, but occasionally I get an employee who acts like I ruined their day. They'll either tell me where to go with attitude or they will just say they don't have any and then I'll find it 5 minutes later. I don't know what kind of pressure Woodman's puts on their employees behind the scenes so I don't ever report them to management. I just accept they're having a bad day and move on with mine.

Back to finding things. Before, the app would tell you what aisle to find things in but they have upped their game! Now each aisle is broken down into sections and subsections. They're labeled at the top so it's easier to find things. Instead of a ¼ mile aisle, the app narrows it down to a 3 or 4 foot wide section of each aisle. Very helpful!

So to summarize, Woodman's has clean bathrooms with great toilet paper and changing stations in all of them, including the men's room. They have excellent selection for groceries, mostly helpful and friendly employees, save great prices. I chose Woodman's for most of my needs. One thing I forgot- it's one of the few places left that are open 24 hours! They only close on Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years Day, I believe. Even Walmart won't open 24 hours anymore.

One more thing: their gas is cheaper than anyone, sometimes by 30 cents or more. Currently 24 cents...

I just got through purchasing groceries from this woodmans location. As always, I paid for my groceries with a check. I've never had any problems with my checks nor the the initial front end worker who approves my checks due to it being a low check number. Needless to say, today I had to get my check approved by one of the supervisors I've never dealt with before. I understand policy getting approval from supervisors, however, this was different because she took one look at me and decided to cancel out my purchase without even running my check. She decided to take my ID and check to the front counter to so-call run my check, which was what I believed she was doing and I was okay with. Nevertheless, I was wondering why this time was taking longer than usual. After I approached her to ask for my information back, she informed me she was not going to approve my check, although, she never ran it through for bank approval beforehand. She stated after running my name in her system, she found a check in collection from 2011 that I didn't pay which was from a totally different bank from my current one. I asked her why she decided to do a background check on me before checking to see if my check would clear first? Mind you, as I mentioned I shop at this woodmans at least 8 times a month and have never had any issues with my checks coming back or other supervisors doing what she did which I pulled up on my phone a purchase for $350 on 1/23/19 I wrote a check for which cleared. This purchase today was only $90. So if its policy to do background checks on all people who uses a low check number, why this was never done to me before by other supervisors. I felt she discriminated against me because I'm black and using checks. I hate to say that about people, however, I truly believe this. Her name is Amy and she is one of the supervisors here at this woodmans location. She was very disrespectful and tried to embarrass me in front of the entire store. I doubt very seriously she does a background check on everyone with a low check number. I've never felt so embarrassed and singled out in my life at a grocery store I frequently shop at. The front end supervisor who has always approved my checks without hesitation actually still ran my check after she did all this. So my question is...why he did it and she refused. What's worst, I tried to explain my frustrations and experience with the manager which his name is Will. He immediately tried to justify her rude actions verses being a leader. I know people are going to say maybe it wasn't race related, but I guarantee its people that doesn't experience these types of situations. I guess it is what it is. I asked the manager for Amy's employee identification to file a grievance and he refused and gave me much attitude. I know nothing will change what happened today and I feel like corporate won't do anything, but I feel I needed to speak up because this wasn't right by any means. I work fulltime and take care of my family and don't deserve this type of treatment. I rather drive 20 miles to another location then to go back to this woodmans which is only 5 minutes...

On July 4th, my older brother wanted to make a quick shopping for groceries for our family gathering to celebrate 4th of July. So we stopped by woodsman's and fyi he is paying for it, and as we're shopping for groceries and me just tagging along, my brother wanted to buy a pack of alcohol also too which wasn't the plan. So as we picked a pack of alcohol and have already self checked ourselves we were just waiting for a staff to see my brothers ID since HE is the one buying it and paying it. The young new white (incompetent) ladies looked at my older brother's ID and then asked for mine also which I was confused because throughout my many years of shopping at woodsman's West side and East side this is the first time ever that anyone asked for everyone to provide ID at the alcohol area. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my wallet because I didn't think I'll need it, intially we came from a friend's place and we were just stopping by for only groceries before heading home because the family forgot some groceries. And then because I don't have my ID she told us to just leave it and she'll take care of it. It's a bit silly because I've been to far stricter areas and I've never experienced this before and I am old enough, 24 years old and almost 25. And it's silly to ask for everyone's ID as if you know their business. It's as if you're asking a little kids ID if the kids mom wanted to buy alcohol, is she the staff assuming that I or kids with their mom will be drinking it too, how does she know? If this is really how it works then might as well don't sell alcohol to anyone at all because you don't know what will happen at home or outside woodsman's once that alcohol goes out through that door. And if woodsman's is so concern about liability then might as well don't sell it. This is probably our last time shopping for alcohol beverages because me and my older brother felt humiliated as we're leaving without the alcohol, seems like they don't want his money. Such a letdown because woodsman's is our primary place for groceries and alcohol (majority of the time only for events) and we've never had any trouble or problems with them until now. I don't understand if this is a fourth of July protocol thing or not, but then again we've shopped here before even on July 4th and we've never had a problem or they've never asked for everyone to provide ID except for the one buying it and paying for it. Staff needs to be re-train and new ones need to relax a bit, job ain't that serious and they ain't paying you enough, look at the customer's ID (who is buying it and paying it) shut up and take the money....