Stop & Shop — Local services in Stoneham

I wish this Stop and Shop was better. It's really convenient to be able to get gas at the same time as groceries, plus they have an ATM. But it's just not worth having to shop there: the products are overpriced and the selection is poor, they're perpetually understaffed, and what staff they do have tend to be incompetent.

The first time I went in, I tried to get a Stop and Shop card. The cashier told me that this wasn't possible, as I'd have to go to Customer Service for that. Unfortunately, the only person who knew how to work Customer Service was her, and because they didn't have enough cashiers, they moved her over to cashier duty.

The second time I tried, the Customer Service person said they didn't know how to do the Stop and Shop card, and the person who knew how to do it was on break for 20 more minutes. I went around, did some more shopping, and came back when that person wasn't on break. They tried to do the card, but they apparently got logged out of the machine, and they didn't know the password (why does the customer service person not know the password to the customer service computer?). The manager comes around, enters the password, and apparently the system crashes and now they need a technician to look at it. No card again, half an hour spent.

And today, I waited in line for a cashier who was trying her best, but clearly had difficulty reading and was constantly asking the manager for help with everything. Said manager was pretty clearly fed up by this, as she annoyedly pointed out each of the numbers to the cashier, in front of customers. Meanwhile, another manager was complaining loudly about how some other employee was on break again. I quietly grabbed my groceries and scurried out of the store, vowing never to return.

On the bright side, the orzo I got is pretty tasty. But I think they also have it at Market Basket, which is where I'll be going...

The renovation of the store gives more options to choose from. So that is great. Store is clean and that is great too. The awful part is checkout. The self checkout, for years, has been problematic with unnecessary machine stoppages and automatically calling for help (to a poor associate selected to constantly reset the machines) because it is way too sensitive. Now that Stop and Shop has followed other companies’ foolishness in charging for each bag and the machine’s over sensitivity in determining if a bag has been placed and/or item has been placed in the bag, the machine stops again and again. Even our kind helper had the same issues when she was trying to help us. There is no way to quickly scan and place items in the bags and move bags around without causing the machine to stop the process many times. These machines are truly awful and even the ones that came before them. With many items it is faster to use the traditional check out line with a real person scanning. This is true but defeats the purpose of self checkout. Target’s self checkout machines are far superior. And I will limit my shopping to select fresh fruits and vegetables that can only be found at Stop and Shop. My suggestion is to reprogram the machines to ask at the end of transaction, how many bags? That would solve part of the problem. Self checkout saves stop and shop tons of money on help so if a few people aren’t honest about how many bags they have then who cares? Really these Stop and Shop self check out machines are terrible except if you are buying...

Updated review 4 stars: I know my old review got a lot of views and included a couple photos which really illustrated issues the store was having at that time (I'm removing those photos now). However this location of stop and shop is in process of making huge updates and improvements to the store, including better lighting, new shelving, new floors, etc. I've only been in a couple times lately (as I had gotten used to going to a different supermarket after previous review), but I'm impressed. They're investing a lot in these improvements and that deserves recognition. I'll actually stop by later this morning and check it out again. Have to give credit where credit is due - if you haven't been here in a few years it may be worth stopping in to see updated shopping experience. My initial issue has been fully resolved.

Old review 2 stars: Hi, I'm not trying to be negative or critical. I know people do best they can but I challenge you to do better for your customers - and please clean shelf tops. I like and frequent these products and these shelves have looked like this for over a year now. I don't know if it is a workflow issue - where task is not clearly defined between stop and shop employees and delivery people, but I hope you can assign task to someone and check up to ensure it gets completed. Especially in these times, going a year leaving large messes on shelves isn't ok and really it's kind of uncomfortable buying drinks off of old dirt. Thanks...