Food 4 Less

Not as bad a one might expect given the neighborhood but there is certainly room for improvement. The employees are mostly professional and as fake-​friendly as one would expect, but I’ve encountered a few who never should have been hired.
Too often the small food baskets are not restocked at the front door. There is inconsistent product stocking. For example, packaged fruit cups are nowhere near the canned fruits. Frozen meat items can go missing for weeks before being replenished. Extremely dried-​out packaged cold chicken left over from the warm food deli section would have been better off being given to the homeless.
The store often allows the checkout lines to get way too long before summoning backup cashiers. That’s made worse by the fact that the checkout lane is poorly designed in the first place. The two-​lane self-​bagging area is placed at the end of the checkout line so that the entire checkout lane can be held up by a slow bagger until a lane becomes available. Other self-​bagging stores offer a separate bagging area that doesn’t interfere with checkout lanes.
There’s occasionally someone offering to pay for your items with a food stamp discount. But in general the store does a decent job of keeping customers from being hounded by beggars outside and inside. Managing a supermarket in this neighborhood must be challenging so I’m pleased that things are not worse.

Shopping at Food 4 Less is akin to an Easter Egg Hunt. You must look through everything to find food that’s not about to expire, or to ascertain its freshness. How does lettuce supposed to look if it only has 2 days to expiration? Why is it even in the store? This is the scariest shopping experience I’ve ever had. They raise the prices of the food every month near Link Day [the 1^st], week before and the week after, taking a large Folgers from $ 8.99 all the way to $ 13.99 if you don’t know better! Also, the hamburger; the ⁸⁰⁄₂₀ blend is about $ 4.50/lb. on Link Day and $ 3.49 otherwise. This goes on down the line.
But, the reason I’m writing tonight is not because the 18-​count bakery cookies only had 16 ½, or not because the manager told me that they didn’t sell light bulbs [duh!]. It’s not even because all of the meat in the store is about to expire at any minute, usually within 2 — 3 days from the date you’re there.
I am writing because the whole chicken I bought on 02÷21÷13 had GREEN SPOTS on it, near the leg and near the opening. I have pictures, if you don’t believe it. I also have a picture of the packaging label, so you can see the date, price and expiration. THAT was scary.
I asked someone at the alderman’s office when was the last time they were inspected, but of course they couldn’t answer that kind of question. Then, I guess it goes to this — who’s getting paid to allow them to continue? Even the Food4Less in Alsip wasn’t that hot. When they first opened, they didn’t even sell Equal, only a generic store version or the pink stuff. Not good. F4L is a Kroger-​owned store and remember, they just bought Jewels and another store that’s not in the Chicago market. What will they turn them into? Also remember, when the neighborhoods changed in the 60s, Kroger left the Chicago market and went down south. Maybe it’s time to start a cooperative transportation service so folk without cars can get to Meier’s Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s on check day, and not be stuck with substandard food at inflated prices for certain times a month. We can make a killing.

Food4Less is a Kroger store & carries their brand which is dependable, even their Greek yogurt is good. They do a lot of «green tag» sales, representing their low price on an item during a sale, and they can be great bargains. At most of the stores the produce is pretty decent, although I eschew the tomatoes because they are so perishable these days, but apples, melons, grapes, oranges, etc. as well as vegetables can be well priced and fresh! This is not the store for fancy herbs, and baby vegetables, nor filet mignon or rib eye steaks. It’s basic shopping, stock your pantry with Red Gold tomatoes, baking staples and chicken, pork and beef roasts. This is a great store for all the stuff that is too expensive at Treasure Island, Whole Foods & Jewel. I would stay away on «Link» day, it is mobbed and there are no carts. Also like the location at 87^th & Dan Ryan, and 47^th/​Back of The Yards. Someone in the parking lot returned my lost wallet to security for me, so I bless the 71^st St. store!

As it is the largest big-​name grocery store to me, I trek to this Food 4 Less pretty often, like twice a month, to stock up on staples. What is there to hate about this place? From what I’ve seen, nothing.
Nice customer service, nice food selections, great food quality, great prices of course, hence the name, free of a deluge of crackheads and thugs, nice layout, and it’s frequently clean all over. It’s a recommended grocery store, a very recommended grocery store.