McQuade's Marketplace — Local services in Stonington

McQuade's is a nice store. It usually has very nice, clean produce, stocked shelves with sometimes hard to find items, but not in the area of vegan foods, which is very disappointing. I've asked, but nothing changed. Plus the humanely certified dairy products, specifically Organic Valley, is separated from the "regular" dairy products-though it is absolutely real dairy. It's not due to it's organic nature either. A competitor-Horizon Organic-which is a far less compassion and ethical company, is also organic, yet it takes up a good chunk of the "regular" cheese section making it sell more, so I suspect McQuades displays it for that reason. It's not right. It makes Organic Valley not only hard to find and many don't know about these "special" sections, plus it casts a sense of Organic Valley being vegan or different then other dairy products. I know it's not big to you perhaps, but it should as these foods are becoming more in demand, and i wish you'd get on board. This last trip wasn't so bad, but it has not been up to par in quite some time. There food is fresh and the staff is nice. All this makes for a pleasant visit. I did want to note, however, despite negative visits reported after it happened twice, no one from McQuades contacted me, which was very surprising. I go there-pay a bit extra-so I have good food and a welcoming atmosphere with actual customer service. The next time I went to speak with a customer service rep, the line was so long I couldn't wait. I hope this trend doesn't continue. Remember, McQuades is not exactly convenient or that easy to get to. They need to stay on top...

There is nothing I want to do less than write a bad review for McQuades because I love so much about that store. The bakery is amazing, the deli is fantastic, the product mix is so much better than what anything else offers locally, it's immaculate and the staff is terrific. Add that its locally owned and it's a slam dunk for me - but I feel I have to post this. Over the past two months I have purchased meat and fish from McQuades and it was either rancid when I bought it - which I discovered when I got home, or it became rancid before the expiration date. The store-made chicken sausage - which is delicious when its not inedible and could kill you - was the culprit twice. The other two times it was a salmon burger (I will never be able to even look at a salmon burger again after I opened that package) and cooked shrimp. The additional shocker is the lack of concern when I called to let them know. I'm not looking for a refund incidentally - thats not my goal, My concern is that someone is going to get very ill if they haven't already. The person I just spoke to responded by saying 'Thats not what we're going for" Okay. I can understand that you are a master of understatement but a bit more concern would have put me at ease. And then he offered to 'connect me to the meat department so I could tell them to take the chicken sausage off the shelf'. Somehow I don’t think that is the customers job. I am so sad to say that I don’t think I can buy any meat or fish at McQuades after these four incidents over such a short time. I am posting this so other shoppers can be wary of a potential...

I came in today for the usual McQuade’s re-up and everything went well UNTIL THE END... After every item was rang up, bagged, & ready to go, the card reader went blank. They had me switch over to a different check out lane and proceeded to take each item out of every bag, one by one, scanned everything, and then bagged again. BUT the new total price was $6 higher than the original total from the first register. I asked for a discount but was rejected with an ice cold “No”. I got home, put the groceries away and looked at the new itemized receipt. I found the price discrepancy where they charged me the extra $6 for something I didn’t buy. IT MADE ME REALIZE SOMETHING. I’ve been coming to this McQuade’s location for years and this is the ONLY time I’ve had a less-than-perfect experience. The food is always fresh, produce immaculate. The steaks are much higher quality than Big Y. The staff is super friendly and personable. It’s wild to say, but it took this one bad experience for me to realize that there were hundreds of excellent experiences that precede it. Today needed to happen for me to realize just how great McQuade’s is. Keep up the good work and I’ll see you next...