Customer service at Whole Foods

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's the generation of workers, especially the demographic that would work stocking shelves, putting together online orders.

It's typically late 30s-50s working in WF not young folks.

Not at the one we go to - younger than that for sure. Late 20s, early 30s.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I was at the one in Pentagon City a couple of weeks ago and it was so packed with workers shopping the aisles for online orders that you couldn't get around the store.

That’s basically all the stores exist for at this point. People who shop in person are very uncommon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Everything Amazon touches they ruin. Amazon ruined everything. The end.

Then how do you explain the same phenomenon everywhere? At any supermarket? I swear the local Giant is staffed by only four people in the entire store and the customer service desk is always grumpy or empty. My local Whole Foods is fine but all stores do have fewer staff than they did in the past.

The people who work there don't decide how many people to staff. When people are overworked they get grumpy. All stores are competing with Amazon now and so it is a race to the bottom.

Grocery stores are not competing with Amazon. There has been tremendous M&A in the space and new a few companies own almost very grocery store in the US. Amazon is less than 3% of the market.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's the generation of workers, especially the demographic that would work stocking shelves, putting together online orders.

This. It has nothing to do with WF. This is true at all the big box hardware stores. They could care less if you need something and are trying to find the right item. Target and Lowes have the worst employees who could care less about their customers. Home Goods employees also do this a lot. Sometimes they will get in your way if they think you are shoplifting. They will also send someone to walk buy you, buzzing you, as close as possible. If any store does this to me, I leave my cart and refuse to buy anything. These stores clearly don't need my money. I refuse to shop at Lowes because of how horrible they are.

Yep I have seen them do that with customers and a few customers have done same thing --- walked out, one even had items they left behind in their cart. Is there something about this demographic of workers at these stores (not only at Whole Foods)? Have the workers been told to repeatedly go down the only aisle where there is a customer when other aisles are empty? One lady had her resuable shopping bags neatly folded in the area of cart where you can place a small kid. One employee kept walking by her looking into that area of the cart. She didn't even have a thing in her cart at that point (we were behind her). She eventually placed a few items in her cart but nothing in the area with her neatly folded reusable bags. This one customer again comes by. She continued shopping and we didn't see her after that section but makes you wonder if that same worker or another worker "followed" her or continued to walk by her again later.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I was at the one in Pentagon City a couple of weeks ago and it was so packed with workers shopping the aisles for online orders that you couldn't get around the store.

That’s basically all the stores exist for at this point. People who shop in person are very uncommon.

After workers very aggressively went into aisles where in-person customers were shopping, one of our friends decided to start placing online order for items that come prepackaged in boxes or cans and go in for produce, meat and dairy (the outer rings of the store). So it's less time spent in the store.

[Anonymous]

Do NOT shop at Silver Spring Whole Foods in person!

[Anonymous]

I can’t believe I just saw this post. I recently had a terrible experience with the customer service desk and the store manager (I don’t even think he was a manager, but he was the most senior person in the store when I was there) at the River Rd WF in Bethesda. It was so bad I thought about elevating my experience up the chain, but quickly realized what a waste of my time that would be.

[Anonymous]

shop at Moms and trader joes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can’t believe I just saw this post. I recently had a terrible experience with the customer service desk and the store manager (I don’t even think he was a manager, but he was the most senior person in the store when I was there) at the River Rd WF in Bethesda. It was so bad I thought about elevating my experience up the chain, but quickly realized what a waste of my time that would be.

That one is so congested inside and the parking lot is almost as bad as the Trader Joe's' lots

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do NOT shop at Silver Spring Whole Foods in person!

Yeah there is something odd

[Anonymous]

Are the employees upset people are still shopping at WF? Spending on food?? Do employees get discounts in the store?

[Anonymous]

Usually stores are understaffed and they work for minimum wage. Show some grace and kindness.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Usually stores are understaffed and they work for minimum wage. Show some grace and kindness.

Nah that's not it bet most shoppers do show grace. If this is happening to many people and at various locations, the businesses need to change their style and practices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Usually stores are understaffed and they work for minimum wage. Show some grace and kindness.

I would take it a step farther and say show the parent companies that they need to pay the staff a living wage and give them a few benefits. The days of expecting a smile and "how may I help you sir" at $15/hr are long gone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It has nothing to do with the workers and everything to do with Amazon owning WF. The workers are tiny little cogs in a much larger system - it’s ridiculous to blame them and not the system.

This.

Bezos is squeezing every penny out of Amazon. AWS is also a tough workplace with lots of churn.