Claro's Italian Markets — Restaurant in Upland

I have shopped at Claros Market with my mom, since I was 10 years old… That was 60 years ago. Every year, we have returned for the holidays to purchase authentic Italian gourmet items. It was always such a pleasure to visit their location, in San Gabriel and then in Upland. The last couple of times I’ve been there, it had changed. You could always call your order in ahead of time, long before food delivery was popular. During the holiday season they are super busy, so it was nice to call the order in ahead of time and pick up. During Covid, I was afraid to shop there because it’s not a big store. It’s family-owned. So a week ahead of time, I called in, to place my order and I talked to an older woman. I’m sure I know who it is and she was not pleasant. I am handicapped… However I didn’t mention that to her. When I said I wanted to place an order, she made it sound like they couldn’t do that and told me I should come in on Friday at 2 o’clock and just stand in line. #1, I’m 70 years old. #2, it’s a small store during Covid. #3, I’m handicapped and every grocery store that I purchase from, has curbside pick up or something like that. I went away frustrated. Then a day or two later, I called back and got a different person and was able to place my order, after convincing her that it was not a good idea for me to be in the store with an auto immune disease. She took my credit card but they were out of items that they normally carry. I still went ahead and placed the order for curb side pick up. I called ahead to be sure that my order was ready to go. They said it was and I drove over to pick it up. When I got there, I started to explain that I was in the parking lot and wanted to pick up my order but didn’t know their procedure. I didn’t know if I was supposed to go in the store or wait out in my car. The person I talked to did not even let me finish my sentence, and cut me off. I finally was able to tell her that I was outside in the parking lot waiting. She put me on hold to go check on my order and they couldn’t find it. I told her, it’s there because I just called and I had already paid for it. Then that same older lady I talked to before, came back to the phone and said that the order had not been paid for”.She was abrupt and abrasive. I explained I gave the credit card to the person who took the order. Her reply was “it had not been paid for so I had to give the credit card all over again. They did find my order but the experience was not pleasant at all, from beginning to end. I love this store and the memories that my family has shared because of Claros market, so this experience saddened me. Covid does not give any business the right to be rude to people. We are all suffering. Kindness goes a long way. I wished them Hsppy...

I have been a customer of Claros for over 40 years, beginning at the San Gabriel location. For at least 15 of those years I have shopped at the Mountain Ave. location in the Inland Empire. Yesterday was the WORST experience I have ever had at Claros.

After dismissing the young fellow who began my deli order to go to lunch, a boisterous young lady wearing glasses announced to me that she was taking over for him. Along with $60 worth of other deli meats, I asked if she had the $29 a pound porchuto a fellow customer suggested I try. When she began to cut the meat, I asked if it was the variety I'd requested. Her retort was a short, brusk "I don't know." I explained that I only wanted the variety I requested because it had been recommended to me by an Italian lady who believed I'd really enjoy it. She became even more brusk and put the porchuto back in the case and loudly asked, "Would you like for someone else to help you?" To this I said, "Sure."

A man who wore his mask below his nose and seemed quite confused about what meats had already been cut for me began to cut the meats for my order. He explained that they did not have the variety of prochuto I requested but the variety they did have was also $29 per pound. He proceeded to sloppily slice that variety and sliced more than I requested. All the meat that he sliced was sloppily arranged and wrapped. The cheese was wrapped so badly that the slices stuck together and many were broken and impossible to separate for use on a deli plate or sandwiches.

I believe the bossy, nasty young lady must be a relative of the owners and so may the older man who prepared the messy order for me. That nothwithstanding there is just now substitute for good customer, which up until yesterday I had experienced at this Claros location. Claros is NOT immune to the consequences of poor customer service, even though their meats, breads, etc. are among the best.

I am African American, and I felt from the rude young lady as if I were somewhere in the South during the Jim Crow era. And the man who slopped together my order made the situation even a worse. Additionally, I do recall seeing indiduals of color behind the meat counter in the past, but during my visits over the last few months that seems to have changed.

I sincerely hope Claros will consider reflecting on this matter and investigating how to return to a level of customer service and respect that ALL their patrons should be afforded. Finally, only individuals who can exercise such a level of customer service and respect--whether family or not-- in my view, should be placed in a position to serve customers; otherwise, a longstanding positive reputation CAN be...

I wrote a review a couple of days ago I came to edit it and the review is not here. I'm going to shorten it. This is a combined review from a couple of different visits. Your staff needs additional training. I've been coming to claro's over 40 years I have had a particular person behind the counter who wears I believe a dodger's cap he's older I think his hair is red he has been rude to me and rude to my friend and we had another guy we asked for a sample to decide on a meat, We were told its holiday time and we don't do that because we're too busy. Mind you there were about 10 people behind the counter after we got our sandwiches we did not buy any additional meat we turned and when we did another staff member was handing out samples to someone. I was there the other day I purchased 2 Sandwiches which did not have enough meat, I requested Genoa salami not the dry or the hard salami because we don't like it the girl behind the counter looked at me and said it is Genoa. I thought perhaps I had the wrong sandwich in mind so I didn't say anything I ended up getting the one I didn't want on both sandwiches and neither of us like the hard salami it was very disappointing plus my roll was dry and hard. To add insult to injury I got a spumoni which had no flavor. There was very little of the other 2 flavors besides the chocolate and it was exceedingly sweet. I ate half because I spent $3 on a little cup until I hit the goopy nasty blob that you get in ice cream at your own house but never out in a store. They obviously scraped it off the side and it was gross so I threw it away. I have been coming to the store since I was about 15 years old I am 62 I can tell you things have changed, the staff is not the same. I have talked to George who is the owner and he is the nicest man and I have talked to who I believe is his son he has been there since I've been going there over 40 years and they are great... but you need to look hard at your staff. I have read comments and several mention the guy with the dodger's hat and I think it's the same one. I went there at Christmas time with a friend who had never been and he was rude to her and rude to me. Instead of leaving and talking about how awesome the Italian store was, because we are both Italian, and it was a treat to get to go, we walked out talking about how we were treated. And on another note the girl behind the counter needs to know the difference between the hard dry salami and the Genoa. I was in my car I took a bite I should have went back in and handed her the sandwich and asked her to remake it, but...