Strack & Van Til — Local services in Valparaiso

I am writing this review for the betterment of the community, and the workers at this location. Customers should not be exposed to the levels of unprofessionalism we witnessed.

First of all the coolers with ground beef were not clean, and it looked as if they had been that way for a while. There was old, hard, brown ground beef littering the shelves, with blood and murky looking water floating around in multiple locations, right under the packages of meat. The community deserves attention to health codes and standards.

When my husband, and I, checked out on 4/4/2024, at 18:34:58, Trs#:302919, the bagger, a man with black shoulder length hair, walked away.

Midway through ringing up our $135.70 order, our cashier looked back, and the bagger at the register behind her had no customers. She asked if he could help, since the groceries were piling up. He did not respond. The other cashier waited a moment and said, “Yeah, can you help her?”

He did not respond to either request and started to talk about something unrelated. Our cashier continued to ring up the order, as the other bagger babbled on as if he was on personal time. It was so overtly rude, to all parties.

Towards the end of the check out process, the man with the long black hair came back and started to throw our groceries haphazardly into the bags. The cans were all jumbled up, some on their sides, and some upright, it was truly a mess. My husband asked him, very nicely, if he could double bag it. He did it, and continued to have a robust conversation with the other bagger, while proceeding to bag our items as if he was angry.

He bagged another bag of cans all topsy turvey, then added a glass jar of spaghetti sauce. It was so cringy until the cashiers became silent, along with my husband, and I, as we all stared at him tossing groceries around with no regard. The experience was so unhinged, both of us stayed silent, got our groceries, and left.

Witnessing our cashier, Sierra, being treated poorly was not pleasant. Having our groceries tossed around and bagged with disdain was very upsetting. We don’t like being treated poorly while shopping, we don’t like seeing people being treated poorly at work, and doing both of those things at the same time is a hard pass. The solution is simple for us, we will go to another grocery store, or order from a large online retailer.

Sierra, and the other cashier, can’t address their challenge easily. They will be totally ignored when assistance is needed, store policy requires it, and it’s requested twice.

There are some serious issues going on at this location. Some staff members are not doing their jobs consistently, are being passive aggressive to their co-workers, and aggressive towards the customers. Perhaps the reason the ground beef section of the cooler was so unhygienic, is because a comfort level with poor customer service and lack of focus on job duties has taken root.

Strack should be concerned about the poor reflection this location is on their brand, and the concerning turn the workplace culture at this location is exhibiting. Both the community, and the workers deserve...

Tonight I shopped at this location because we had dinner in Valpo and it was more convenient. I usually shop at the Portage store where everyone is so friendly. I have a large family so when I go grocery shopping my bill is usually quite high. When we got to the cash register there was only one open and it was the 15 items or less lane. I asked if it was ok and the female cashier reluctantly said yes, because she really didn’t have a choice. She did not say hello or greet me in any way, it was like we were an inconvenience. Then a sale item did not ring up and the cashier had to find out the price. I told her it was $3.99 and she said she had to have it checked and then I said I had the sales paper but that wasn’t good enough either. So she sent someone to go get a price check, they came back and told her $4.29. I tried to stop her from putting in the incorrect price and she TOTALLY IGNORED ME. I then repeated myself, she rolled her eyes, and I then showed her the sales paper, she again was very rude and I asked for a manger which she never called. We purchased $332 of groceries and was not offered a carry out by the bag boy, she never asked for my rewards ( which I put in on my own) and other employees were just as rude as the cashier. I must say I have never been treated so rudely in my life. I will also add that I am Hispanic and I was treated like I was less than!!! Even when we were leaving the store the manager by the name of Jeremy walked by without saying goodnight or thank you for shopping. These employees need to be taught that everyone is equal and if you can’t be kind in customer service then you should not work in it. I will NEVER shop at this store...

The recently renovated front end now pleasantly mimics Whole Foods with a very appealing (though deliberately disorganized) produce section, hot and cold food bar, fancy cheese (with samples!) and upscale deli. The wine selection appears to have doubled to match that of either Whole Foods or Trader Joe's. The new layout is an improvement. Selection is good, prices remain slightly high compared to other stores in the area, but customer service also remains friendly and capable. This is the closest grocery store to my house and while some items, such as cereal are priced too high, I will continue to go there for convenience, quality and selection. Since both Trader Joe's and Whole Foods have shunned Northwest Indiana as not being their target demographics, I welcome Strack & VanTil's move to meet some of look, feel and selection that those...