Stop & Shop — Local services in Winchester

This store is, in short, a hot mess. I go here often only because I live so close. I’m sacrificing time out of my life to write this as I just can’t stand to see this store have a grossly undeserved 4-star rating. The store’s issues aren’t entirely its management though, vice the company’s operations in general.

Pricing - The company takes advantage of its zip code by price gouging. I usually save at least 25% of my total bill by just going to Market Basket…you might as well go to Wegmans or Whole Foods for their better quality.

Food selection/quality - Because of the store’s smaller size compared to your typical S&S, food items and especially prepared foods are more limited…which I don’t fault them for, but the company’s stocking ability seems to be poor and it noticeably struggled vs. other grocery chains in early 2020. If something is out of stock, it’s usually out for several days. YOU REALLY HAVE TO CHECK expiration dates of items - they often put out bread/meat expiring soon.

The parking lot (yes the parking lot) - there’s no reserved spots to leave carts. Naturally, the friendly customers of Winchester leave them everywhere in the lot…and you wondering if the cart that’s now touching your car just slammed into it…There’s also several reserved peapod spots that are rarely used near the front (why?)…and the store often didn’t shovel the sidewalk around Main Street last winter (which deserves it a 1-star by itself).

Customer service - I get it…I used to literally have your job. You don’t owe me a conversation (and I don’t want one)…or a forced smile…you don’t even have to look at me…but SAY SOMETHING…like, “Hello”…”Thanks”…”Have a good day”, or respond if I initiate it. A lack of any human acknowledgement has happened so many times that I just use the self-service scanner rather than feel an aura of nastiness..:at least the computer politely asks me to “please remove the item from the bagging area”…It’s not all/most of the employees of course, but it’s too many of them.

Bagging - I don’t bring my own bags (I’m a terrible person, I know), and so if you’re like me, you’ll find the store’s paper bags to be laughably bad. They often don’t have bags with handles, and the bags that they do have are small and so thin that even a single 2-liter in a bag risks breaking it…is it really worth that cost margin to have bags so thin? You’re going to kill poor Darlene on her walk back to her assisted living home…if a runaway shopping cart or ice on the sidewalk doesn’t get her anyway.

Also, if you walk in and you smell something funky, no need to check your shoes for dog sh*t…it’s just occasionally the smell of the store.

To the corporate employee reading this, before doing a cut and paste response, please forward it along so that corporate can visit the store for...

My son and I went there last Friday. After loading up we drove 3minutes home he helped me put the grossories away. Later that night I went to the fridge and I smelt something funny. I looked in and threw out a couple of things that smelled funny and went to bed the smell ruined my appetite. Next morning opened the fridge and bamb!!!! Nasty smell again. Now I throw everything away in the fridge and freezer except what I just purchased from stop shop Winchester ma the night before. Still not hungry. Saturday night 24 hrs after shopping I open the fridge and the smell is still horrible. I figured that I will have to clean the fridge and freezer out completely but I was starving!! So I pulled out the chicken I just purchased and the smell was getting worse and worse. I cut the wrapper off and the stench was so bad that I puked!! I cover my face and put 4 bags over it and now what to do with the rancid meat. Can't put it anywhere because the stench was so bad.im 50yesrs old and in all my years I have smelt this smell a couple of times and it's been a dead animal that has been left out. I figured to just freeze it until my son can get me back to the store. So I've got no food and a fridge that will have to be sterilized or thrown away just like all the regular good food I threw out. I got to the store and asked for the big cheese, the boss. and i told her everything I just explained. I spent$130 bucks that day, showed her my receipt and asked for a credit of $200.00. I still wasn't ready to buy food cause I have to sterilize the fridge. She said that I left it in the car too long and that she will refund the cost of the chicken!!! Nice place to shop. When I voiced my opinions she had her lack call the police and the guy just smiled at me all the way to my son's truck. I'm going back today and hopefully there is a reasonable manager on staff. I will video the whole...

This store is an absolute disaster and I’m done giving this store chances and any more benefit of the doubt. I don’t have any issue about the staff and I get folks are hard working. Do not trust the products and check expiration dates. And even with a good date, it’s probably bad.

This morning, I needed to pick up buttermilk and milk to make a pancake breakfast. Stupid me I decide to run down to Stop & Shop to get it. For the buttermilk, I even pick the 2nd bottle from the front and the expiration date showed 3 weeks from today. As I’m driving home I think to myself, sure wouldn’t be shocked if the buttermilk is spoiled. Once I got home I put my ingredients together for pancakes and opened the buttermilk. Sure enough, IT POURED OUT CLUMPS!!!

How could I be so dumb to trust this place. I hated to be right. Ok opted to just mix milk and vinegar but why did I just try to buy buttermilk?????? Absolutely atrocious. I don’t want to waste a millisecond to go back to the store to talk to anyone. I don’t want a corporate person to reply here and to call and talk. I’m just here to tell anybody reading that this store cannot be trusted for quality. Even when the date is good, you just never know how the stock was handled.

Can this be one of the locations Stop & Shop closes so somebody else can come in to save a convenient store location? Keep the employees. New management. New everything...