Stop & Shop

Good Evening,

I've been a long time customer of the Belchertown MA, S&S, and for the most part, have had no complaints. More recently I have had several bad experiences over the last month, more then I have in the last few years.

First off, the cleanliness of the store has taken a nose dive in the last month. There are carriages all over the sidewalks on the side of the building, as well as lined up in front of the entryway sidewalk. Most of the carriages had some sort of leaves/trash/or circular in them, and certainly didn't look clean. The deli and prepared entrée area is filthy. The produce wall looks like it is growing mold spores, and the meat case... when it isn't 3/4 empty... has blood, chicken juice and slime on the case. I completely walked out after going thru these departments, as I wasn't about to risk my families health buying products. I bought a few boxed and packaged groceries... but actually drove all the way to Hadley Big Y to buy dinner for my family... a total inconvenience when I live IN BELCHERTOWN.

The other issue I have, is why are employees allowed to bring their children to work with them? Is this company policy or some corporate sponsored child care? The reason I ask is one of your store shopping people, a tall skinny female named "Alyssa", was on the sales floor shopping with her teenage son in tow. I wasn't sure what was going on at first, and questioned the cashier after seeing her on the salesfloor pushing her cart with him and sending him to grab items off the shelves from her walkie talkie device. The cashier responded "Oh she's a manager so she can probably do that", this just did not sit well with me. The young boy (I'm assuming her son) was also meandering in and out of the office/staging area which has all the customer orders and a computer... I'm sure this is probably some type of labor violation, as I know in my company provided childcare has to be a building/area completely separate from working spaces, clearly this was not being enforced here.

So it's with these issues and experiences, that I will take the extra time and drive to one of S&S's competition. Very disappointed, and concerned for the few really good associates you have there. James in dairy for example is always very polite and helpful, and has stopped what he was working on to go back in the wareroom to see if a product I was looking for arrived on his delivery. Kudos to James for being the only shining light on this shopping trip.

Sincerely a Now former Customer.

Sam Minney