Stop & Shop — Local services in Town of Islip

Although I am not a fan of the Stop & Shop stores (the customer service is always awful), the supermarket I usually go to was out of my yogurt so I deiced to take a look at this Stop & Shop. Aesthetically speaking, the store was quite pleasing. I was impressed with the way it looked and took some extra time to view the items. I found my yogurts and a "dairy free" section which is great. Now, if only you had some "dairy free" cheese, I would have spent a lot of money. I was excited to see the Yoplait "lactose free" yogurt and I was equally as excited to see the "6 for $10" sign. I proceeded to pay and that is when things went sour. I went to the cashier, she asked if I had a card and I replied with "no, I ripped it up, did not like the customer service at other Stop & Shop stores." She laughed and said "'ll put a card in for you." As she is ringing me up, I see that the yogurts are not ringing up at the sale price so I point it out and the cashier calls over an associate in a grey shirt (I think her name is Sue,) she then asks another associate to go check the price. She comes back and says "the sign isn't for those." I said "the sign is on the shelf with these and clearly states the sale." The woman in the grey is not doing anything except observing. I said "the price needs to be honored since it is clearly stating that the yogurts are on sale." And then the associate says "well, they were pushed over there but they aren't on sale." I tell her again that the sign states the sale & that is what I will pay. Nasty grey shirt observer tells me to go to customer service and then (I kid you not,) turns to the associate and says "so anyway..." Really? Which training school taught you your customer service skills? Oh, that's right ; the same one that taught the Stop & Shop employees how to disappoint a customer. At least Andrew(customer service) had a good attitude and was looking to do what was best for the customer. Maybe Andrew should improve your systems because they certainly need work. Please go take a look at the sign and the "dairy free" Yoplait (there are not many left because I bought many of them) and let me know where the sign is. We live during a time where customer service should be your main priority. The competition is fierce and you need to stand out from the others in a positive way. As someone who is trained in many fields including management, security, fitness, coaching, acting, etc; one must learn to work with people in all areas and do what is best to make a win-win...

In the past I have come into this store and everyone is so friendly, nice and helpful until I get to the register, where there is one person I dread seeing every time. Normally I just avoid her line because she's usually slow ringing out, but today I decided to give her another chance. The nice woman ahead of me told me I may want to go to another line, when I asked why, she nodded her head at me as the cashier was complaining about having a long line. I started to leave the line, but noticed that all others were very long, but no one was behind me, which seemed off. Three people in her line and no one else would go to her, even though there were probably double that in other lines. I stayed and waited. As I was waiting there, she stopped scanning the woman's mother's items to ask where her dividers were to another cashier and when she found them, she gave the other cashier a dirty look and mumbled under her breath as she turned around. When she was finished with the woman ahead of me, she started ringing my items up. She didn't say "Hi", "How are you?", "Do you have a Stop & Shop Card?", nothing. I had the card on my phone, which I said three times, and she just kept ignoring me. One time she even looked right at me then kept going! I bagged some of my things, but she wasn't even attempting to bag any of it, (I only ended up having 4 normal grocery bags) and was tossing the glass jars I had to the side rather than setting them down. When it came time for me to pay, I turned my phone to her and said, "I have a card" then she rolled her eyes, scanned it, and said, "It's not going to change anything...." I have a card with a chip on it, (which she was also complaining about to the woman that was in front of me) I continue paying. She sighed and said, "What does it say?!" I told her it says it's processing, then my receipt printed. She handed it to me then, we bagged the rest of my stuff and she says, "Did you give me the toilet paper?" (The first thing she scanned in, I had it up on the belt) I said, "Yes you scanned it.", grabbed my groceries and told her to have a nice night as I left the store. Overall my experiences at this store are wonderful, but this cashier (Joyce) really needs to stop being rude. I would be fine with her moving slowly if she wasn't so rude! Made my mood go straight down, and was...

This store is in need of improvement. I have been shopping here for over 10 years, every week, once a week. It was an inviting store filled with everything I need. The renovations that took place a while back did help spruce it up for a fresh look (even though the whole floor had to be torn up again and it was never replaced).

My biggest issue is the smoking problem. I have contacted management more times than I can count about people smoking (workers and customers) too close to the building. Suffolk County's Legislation prohibits smoking within 50 feet of the building. Too often I find someone smoking right by the entrances so much so that the whole lobby is filled with smoke odor. This has gotten worse since more people in the Holbrook area have been smoking pot. On more than one occasion I smell pot smoke coming from right inside the store. Workers apparently like to smoke in the back areas inside the store (the loading docks, behind the bakery, order pick-up areas), but I even smell it in the aisles of the store at times.

This is not only illegal, but it endangers the health and safety of everyone inside. Stop and Shop encourages everyone to wear a mask to prevent COVID, yet all the exposure to tobacco and marijuana is increasing everyone's risk of contracting it.

Staff also leaves shopping carts in handicapped parking areas. One staff member was not wearing a mask, sneezed in her hand, and started touching self-checkout monitors. She did not sanitize her hand or the spaces she touched.

Management needs to quality check the Stop and Shop team...