Stop & Shop — Local services in West Haven

I rate West Haven S&S with a solid 3.5 Stars ✨

-Friendly Staff -Convenience -Store Hours -Clean -Never a hassle using coupons -Double coupons -Convenience of digital coupons -Shell Gas Station points -Many convenient amenities -Have weekly store Ad OVERALL: Store is kept clean. It's been to standard, since opening in 2004.

Prices are generally higher than Shop Rite, unless there's a sale. The S&S brand isn't much cheaper, the prices have risen, depending on what you're buying. PRODUCE: They have the larger produce baggies, for long & bulky items.

I always get frustrated with the produce section. Countless times, when selecting vegetables, I found many that were mushy, rotten & had white fuzzy mold.

Most of the time, the cucumbers have very soft ends. Grape tomatoes have at least a few that are rotten, check package​ bottom. Produce normally only stays edible, for 2-3 days. Still an issue, even though I've read about & maintain proper storage.

Fruit seems to be more fresh. However, I would be cautious with grapes, assess the entire bag.

I've never complained to Management, because I'd rather give positive feedback. I assume produce staff is aware, as it's their area to maintain.

To be fair to S&S, over the past few years, most grocery stores generally have lousy produce items. DELI: Deli has fresh meats & cheeses, different pasta, meat & seafood salads. Have a decent array of cheeses & olives.

Deli prices are high, unless there's a sale.

Have a "Pre-Sliced" Grab & Go section. Some items available. Cut, packed & weighed, by deli staff. 1/4lb, 1/2lb & 1lb increments. More convenient than picking a number & waiting to be served.

Grab & Go Deli labels can be difficult to decipher ie: American Cheese: Bought "american cheese" that wasn't real, it was a "cheese product". Didn't realize, until I got home. Labels are abbreviated & hard to interpret. CASHIERS: Most of the time, not enough cash registers open. Even Self Check-out lanes have lines. I normally shop off peak times.

There's a front end supervisor who monitors but, they rarely open more lanes.

I'm sure it's a staffing issue. I imagine corporate only budgets for "X" amount of cashiers per hour, based on a customer flow graph. But, in the real world, it doesn't work.

Watch screen, when coupons are scanned Sometimes, cashiers scan coupons quickly & don't realize it didn't deduct, because it needed an edit. Some stores can hassle you about coupons, CVS is now famous for this, but I haven't had any issues at S&S. COUPONS: -Take advantage of weekly Ad coupons. -Scan your S&S Store Card to get sale prices. -Log into Stop & Shop website: Add the digital manufacturer coupons, to your S&S card. They seem to deduct properly, I've never had issues. -Digital Manufacturer Coupons are added weekly, to their website. -Double Manufacturer Coupons. -Do NOT double Digital Manufacturer Coupons. AMENITIES: -Shell Gas Points -Self Check-out Lanes -Double Manufacturer Coupons -Motorized Carts -Handicapped Parking -Handicapped Entrance -Sanitizing Cart Wipes -Bathroom -Florist -Pharmacy -STARBUCKS -People's Bank -Bakery -Seafood Area -Butcher -Organic Foods -Peapod -Prepared Foods -Salad Bar -Propane Tank Swap -Bottle Redemption

SERVICE DESK Carries: -Newspapers -Lottery...

This store used to be so much better but has really gone down hill during the past year or so. I stop by nightly after work on my way home from the train station to pick up a few things for dinner and lunch the following day. The parking lot is constantly littered with shopping carts. Constantly. My car is newer and I'm always a bit apprehensive parking there. There have been numerous windy days that I've just turned around and left. Just not worth risking a shopping cart hurtling into my car. Most of the guys there that are responsible for the carts have been there for years so I'm really not sure why this is such a struggle. I get off of my train at 6:10 PM 5 nights a week and walk into the store at approximately 6:20 PM on said nights. The are never, nor have there ever been, hand baskets at the entrance of this store at this time. NEVER. I have no idea why the management of this store wants my first experience upon entering the door to be aggravation followed by a nightly quest to find a shopping basket underneath the usually very crowded check out stations. I just want to grab a few things and go home. This store is also getting noticeably dirtier, inside and out. I have had many issues with produce that has been allowed to get to cold and or freeze while in storage, particularly bananas and avocados, and ice cream that has clearly melted and been re-frozen. The staff at this store is fantastic and I've been dealing with many familiar faces for years. That being said the store seems to be greatly lacking management...

The store was recently totally reorganized, and the new layout is somehow more confusing and less intuitive than the old one. The poor employees are clearly overwhelmed at the haste in which these changes have been implemented, and so they have a hard time helping frustrated customers looking to track down items they no longer know where to find. And while inflation clearly is playing a role in the raised prices of many staples, it seems as though this reorganization is also being used as an opportunity by the owners to implement sweeping changes to the products and prices over all--everything is more expensive and there are now more high-priced options than affordable ones. I also find it incomprehensible that owners would put money into new signage and a new (and, again, inferior) self-check-out area but decided NOT to buy new carts and hand-baskets. While food and cart/ basket theft are clearly issues that they are trying to combat, this decision punishes paying customers who only want to pop in and buy a few items, without lugging around a huge cart with, often, partially broken wheels. Shoprite has both hand-baskets AND small- and large carts. I would note that several of previous Google reviews of this location have complained about the lack of hand-baskets and small carts, and while the owners express a prompt interest in "discussing" the issue one-on-one, they clearly have no intention of doing anything about it or they would have done so as part of...