I'm a ranting non-fan at the moment ... sent this to the corporate headquarters of the grocery chain here in Milwaukee.

Your store at Midtown Shopping Center on Capitol is the closest grocery store to us and has the largest variety of foods as compared to either Lena’s or Sentry on Lisbon.

It was the store we shopped at almost exclusively since we moved to Milwaukee in the summer of 2007.

It is no longer a store I shop at except to visit the liquor store (and then only because there really is no alternative in the area).

Why?

I have had only one good experience shopping there since we moved – and that was the result of one of your employees actually saying no to a person who went into a 20 items or less aisle with a full cart.  And then that employee was moved off the line and (probably) reprimanded.

I’ve had a few “ok” experiences where nothing happened that made me really happy but nothing stood out as disappointing.

However, the majority of times I’ve visited your store on Capitol, I’ve experienced some of the worst customer service I have ever had in a grocery store, and that includes shopping in them for 40+ years in 6 states and two foreign countries.  Even in China, with a few hundred people in the store at the same time as me and virtually no ability to communicate with a limited amount of knowledge of Mandarin, I was better served and my questions answered better than at Midtown.

Rarely is one able to get through the checkout line in less than 15 minutes.

Rarely is a person helped with bagging groceries, even if there is clearly a backup at the terminal when two customers are bagging groceries and a third is waiting for his/her groceries to be checked.

If a person IS being helped to bag groceries, I have never figured out a rhyme or reason – a woman with an arm in a sling bags her own groceries while another young adult is given personal service, for example.

The employees have always seemed more interested in talking to each other than in doing their jobs.  I have waited 5 minutes at the checkout, groceries and items on the table and ready to be checked, while two employees stand there talking about daycare issues.

May the Lord help anyone who is looking for an item and can’t find it in the store.

You’ve got good prices and quality items, yet I’m now shopping at Sentry on Lisbon.  The choice there is limited in comparison to Pick n Save, and the prices a bit higher.  Produce is not as good quality.  Yet – the employees seem to actually believe that the customers are there to be helped.  I can go in, shop, and leave in the time it generally takes me to wait for a checker at Midtown.  And they bag my groceries. Always.  I’ve never encountered a surly employee there.  They even smile.

I’ve shopped at other Pick N Save stores around the Milwaukee area when in their neighborhoods and it was convenient, and have not yet encountered customer service to compare with that which has stopped me shopping at Midtown.  You guys are doing something right at most of your stores, why not that one?