This Stop & Shop has very little going for it. I'll start with the positive. There is a *decent* (not excellent) selection of vegetarian, vegan and natural food options. There is a dry goods section, a refrigerated section, and a frozen section all dedicated to the above-mentioned products. I do buy vegetarian items, but usually I don't purchase the organic and/or "natural foods". If those are things that are important to you, you can find some of the things you may be looking for.
Some of the staff that work here are nice. There is a 20-something year-old guy who works at the customer service desk who is polite and accommodating. The cashiers can be hit-or-miss, but I've had some pleasant cashiers.
The online coupons are helpful. They are downloadable on the app or website by connecting your savings card account. The tech glitches with it seem to be ironed out finally. For over a year, the app wouldn't remove a coupon once you used it, so you never knew which ones you had used but you can use each once only. Corporate's "fix" was to have a popup message on the app saying you can use online coupons only once, even if they're still showing in your account. That caused headaches for many (like me) who couldn't keep track of every single online coupon I'd used. I'd end up paying full price for an item I thought they still had a digital coupon for.
The gas points are a good perk. For every $100 you spend at Stop & Shop while using the savings card, you get 10 cents off per gallon at a participating station. I use Stop & Shop gas station in Colchester. Sadly, there is a cap of 20 gallons at the discount price, which was a new caveat as of about a year ago. Unfortunately, my husband's gas tank holds more than 20 gallons. The Stop & Shop gas pump will cut off the gas supply at 20 gallons while you are fueling.
Now for the bad: The prices here are OUTRAGEOUS. The prices at Colchester Stop & Shop are a reflection of the fact that there is NO grocery-chain competition in the immediate area. Bear in mind that the East Hampton Stop & Shop has the same district manager and the same weekly sale prices as the Colchester store. I do notice a slight disparity in prices between the two stores on SOME regular-priced items.
Many of us hope that the opening of Big Y in Marlborough may force some competitive pricing. I've noticed that within the past 2-3 weeks, the prices of things I buy regularly have risen. An item that had a regular price of $2.79 2 weeks ago now costs $3.19. Another item regularly priced at $4 (but was often on sale for $3) has risen to $5. This week, the "sale price" on that item is $4.79. Um, that's 79 cents above what the regular price was recently. It seems they're doing what jewelry and appliance stores do: Raise the regular price of something. Then mark the item a bit lower, calling it a "sale", while the "sale price" is higher than the regular price was a short while ago.
The quality of the produce can be bad at times. I have come across moldy peppers, bruised peaches, old corn, mildewed carrots and rusty lettuce. When you're paying way more than most other grocery stores for these produce items, the fact that some of it is inedible is insulting.
Stop & Shop sells outdated food. I nearly purchased a salad dressing that had expired months ago. The label design had changed and whoever stocked the item put the newer-labeled bottles behind the old ones. Obviously they knew the date was several-months expired. I was able to get a bottle that wasn't expired, but again, it was BEHIND the expired ones. I saw an employee doing put-backs in the same aisle. I told her of the expired date on the front bottles and gave her the expired ones. She didn't apologize or even feign being shocked they were selling old items. She took the bottles and just said "Oh. Ok".
I have also mistakenly bought expired dairy products there, not checking the date. A few months ago, I was checking dates on yogurt and saw that one was way past its date. I checked the yogurt cups behind it and found some that weren't expired. Again, there's no way they didn't know the ones in front were old, since they had to stock the newer cups BEHIND the expired ones.
The weekly sales start on Fridays. Expect that if you go to buy sale items on Saturday, the shelves of many sale items will already be 100% empty. If you ask someone to check in the storage room for more of the item(s), they'll say there are none back there. Shift managers never know when deliveries of certain things are due in. Obviously, whoever is in charge of ordering is doing a poor job. So, you'll have stand in line at the courtesy booth for several rainchecks. Then when you'll stand forever in line for 1 of only 2 open checkout lanes to pay too much for low-quality food. More than likely, you'll also be bagging your own groceries.
Lastly, speaking to a manager about any of this is completely futile. Nothing will change. read more