Fleet Farm — Local services in Owatonna

I have been a Customer of Fleet Farm since the early 80's. Loved the fact they had knowledgeable employees and great Customer Service. Which is why I always chose to drive an hour to get to one Well, yesterday (11-15-23) changed all that! Needed a ton of barn lime. Been buying this regularly for over 40 years. No tickets, now computerized, ok but can't find the NBR to use kiosk. Found small label on board, (so small I had to take a picture, so I could enlarge it to be able to read, nbrs didn't work) took me 15 minutes to find an employee. That person apparently needed training, he goes off for another 10 mins to find someone to ask. He doesn't find anyone! Finally writes some nbr in a piece of paper and tells me to go up front. Ok, I move on. Then, with no one working in the farm dept to help, I struggled to get some 50lb bags, but so far not that big a deal. Finished shopping. I go to check out, not 1 check out open! At 66 years old, I don't need to lift heavy bags more then necessary. Also, I shop with cash, can't to that with self checkout. I wasn't the only one not happy, 3 of us went to the front desk at one time, asking to have a check out opened. We were all told a flat NO. I pushed the subject and was told "too bad, if I didn't like it I could talk to a manager". We didn't need a manager, we needed someone to open a check out and provide kind/sympathetic customer service (like your store used to be known for). Then your employee told me I was rude. And followed that up with a very snide/sarcastic "have a wonderful ddaayy" I don't know when fleet farm turned into Walmart, but is not a good look! I walked away from several hundred dollars in my cart. From now on I'll be willing to pay more at the local farm supply that still believes in...

Hello Fleet Farm Mgmt Team. I would like to share my experience of shopping at Fleet Farm this weekend . Fleet Farm is 1 of my husbands favorite shopping adventures.. This weekend we went to our local store in Rochester Mn to purchase a galvinized fire ring for our fire pit . We have been out there several times in the last few weeks because they always say they don't have any.. Why the ad then week after week and its the same story so yesterday i asked them to look at where there was some the sales person looked and said Owatonna and Winona So today I thought I would call before the 45 min drive to either place . The person in Winona was just down right rude. 1st I called 5 times they keep hanging up on me they would just say NO when I asked I finally said you sold 3 rings since 5 pm last night .. whatever and hung up . Then I called the Owatonna store where the lady that answered the phone was very nice her name was Jean and she connected to a guy named Jake who in turn was very helpful . When we arrived every thing was perfect Jake had the ring up at the service desk with our name on it waiting for us and Jean was right there helping us . I also asked where I could find Jake to thank him in person and she found him for me . She rang us up and called a young man to help us load it.. Its those kind employee's that make a business successful.. KUDO'S to Jake and Jean for their excellent service...... Winona guys hmmm not so much ! Thanks so much for doing things right most of the time.. I know times are tough right now but kindness and being helpful are pretty cheap David and...

Very large selection of household items like canning supplies, clothing, especially work clothes for outdoor workers or construction or farm work. Shoes, equine supplies, feed for most farm animals like cows, goats, swine. Also large and specialized selection of high quality and grocery store regular dog and cat foods, cat litter, cat furniture, dog houses, dog beds etc. Animal dewormers and medications. Auto parts section also and an auto repair garage offering oil changes and brake jobs etc. Patio furniture, large selection of bulk nuts and candies. They have a rebate center at the front of the store that's easy to access and search for any rebates that are referenced on your receipt. Large clean bathrooms. Camping, hunting and fishing supplies of all sorts. Prepper supplies such as food kits with 25 years worth of food for 4 people for a few hundred dollars. Home furniture, a relatively small selection, but more than any other department store, comparable to half of the offering of a big lots. They do sell some low quality bedding and decent pillows. Electronics department consisting of flashlights, headlamps, lanterns, batteries. Outdoor cooking supplies like turkey friers, smokers, grills, also fire pits. This store is the epitome of a department store packed full of only the most useful things, not too many frills, but large selection of utilitarian supplies...