My wife and I have been frequenting the Hawthorne Fred Meyer, even though it is in a state of great disarray.  They are doing a remodel of the entire facility, and it has been in various states of chaos for many months now.

One of the additions is a new deli.  We went there thinking we could order some sandwiches for dinner since we were running later than usual.  The person behind the counter suggested Lisa look at the paper menu that lets you order sandwiches.  We picked out what we want, which took a couple of minutes and she went back up to order.  She returned in short order with a look of disgust on her face.  “They close at 7:00 and stop making sandwiches at 6:50 because they can’t stay late.”  It was 6:51 on my watch.  With this kind of lack of appreciation for the customer, this latest expansion is not likely to be a success, in my opinion.

We had a cart load of groceries, so we went to check out.  Given the volume of groceries, and the line at the U-Scan, we opted for a line with a person.  We waited, as things seemed to be going slowly.  Three quarters of the way through groceries for the person at the front of the line, a manager stepped in and said to the checker that they had to switch her out because she was on overtime.  This was an unfortunate decision because it took a couple of minutes to make the transition.  No apology was given to the people waiting in line from the manager, nor any acknowledgement that we actually existed.  Normally,  I would have gone to a different line, but I had put about half of our stuff on the belt.  Lisa took the kids to the car, and I waited, and waited.

It look a  very long time, and I was pretty soured on the whole experience.  I think the Fred Meyer employees at Hawthorne could really use some customer service education.