Stop & Shop — Local services in Town of Poughkeepsie

I walked in this store today to buy canned foods for a food drive. Upon entering, I noticed all of the carts required quarters for use, which I didn’t have. I was looking to purchase about 10 cans so I needed something to carry them with. There were no baskets at either end of the store either so I asked an associate if there were any other options and told her I needed something to carry my groceries with to which she carelessly replied “nope!” This woman was standing by self checkout with her arms crossed and was not helping anyone else so I’m not sure what was bothering her but by the time I got back with all my cans, she was equally unpleasant. I began to checkout, juggling all of my cans and she yelled at me to put them down on the right side, (the paid side), after I scanned. To which I did. She then yelled at me to move them back, insisting I didn’t scan them. She came over and started moving my cans. I told her I did scan them and she said “no you didn’t, I watched you!” She began touching my screen and saw then, that I did scan them. She said “oh you did scan them.” I said “I told you I did.” No response, no apology for embarrassing me, nothing. I saw at the end of the transaction that I didn’t get the sale prices of 75 cents per can and instead of asking for her help with that, I paid 1.39 for ten cans because I’d rather pay more money than have another interaction with this horrible excuse for a customer service associate. I walked out of that store and I will never go back. Additionally, I’ll never encourage anyone else to go there. Also, what era are we in that quarters are still required for shopping cart use? This is the town of Poughkeepsie, get a grip. If you’re worried about the security of your shopping carts, stick the lady at self checkout on that. She’ll make sure no one...

• Update * I previously rated this store 4 stars but must downgrade it for two big reasons.

First are the prices. This supermarket went from being very reasonably priced to being ridiculously high priced. Many staple items can be found much cheaper at other area stores even on this inflationary period.

Secondly, certain aisles still look like they are suffering from pandemic hoarding. There are a lot of items out of stock that are plentiful in other stores.

What they do have, such as produce, is of good quality, but it's just not worth paying a premium for it when I can find really good produce much cheaper elsewhere.

• End of update *

The positives of this store are:

has almost everything from food to being a virtual chain drug/automotive/hardware store.

very good prices on produce and high quality produce.

extremely well organized, easy to find whatever you are looking for.

Fairly wide aisles. Provided other shoppers don't think they are the only ones in the store, you don't have to squeeze by anyone

Clean. Though the wandering robot that checks for 'clean up' areas is annoying and forces unrelenting announcements when it finds a 'mess'.

Stop & Shop gas rewards points. I'm always getting at least a $.20 discount when filling up my tank.

The negatives are:

Tons of processed foods (though some folks may like this), not enough minimally processed offerings.

Organic section is somewhat limited and fairly expensive, although that's unfortunately to be expected everywhere.

Not enough variety of in-store prepared meals although they always have roasted chickens available.

Lots of self-serve checkout lanes but sometimes too few actual cashiers.

very difficult to get someone to the bottle...

The customer service desk at this store is terrible. They don't even look at you when they do a transaction such as lottery and returns. I had a return today for a gluten free bean side dish because I purchased in in December and went to make it and realized it had been expired since 7/24/22. I went to the desk to ask for a refund. They asked for my receipt which I did not have. Then I told them I had purchased it in December. The lady went to the back to get a manager. She came out and immediately said there is no way this has been on the shelf since last Summer. I said well yes it was because I moved here in August and I bought that in December (I went gluten free in December and thought it looked like something good to try). She then said theres no way. I said I promise you I am not lying. She proceeded to tell the customer service clerk to give me a refund and then walked back to the back after telling the same clerk to have someone go back and check the shelf to make sure there wasn't anything expired. She didn't even look at me again. After I was done, I went back myself to check and there were about 10 packages that had the same expiration date. I brought 3 back to show them and the only person who apologized was the person they asked to go back and check the shelf. The customer service clerk again didn't even look at me or acknowledge me at all. I am very frustrated and disappointed in this store and will think twice before coming to shop here...