Jewel-Osco

Cons:
— Multiple packages of expired, moldy bread still on the shelves.
— Not ONE bag or box of salad (10pm Sunday). Not exaggerating, either.
— Two cashiers and NO self-​checkouts.
Pros:
+ Fresh squeezed juice at around $ 2.40 /​12 ounces. The squeezing is done in-​house, too.
+ Parking. I’ve never had a problem finding a spot.
+ A BAR. With, like, six beers ON TAP. IN STORE. (Srsly!) **
So, go shopping for your produce and toiletries and throw back a margarita or some beer. Just inspect the bread first and save your receipt!
** Edit: Sooo, apparently I’m the last one to know about the beer-​in-​grocery-​store phenomena, which means I’ve been approaching this dating thing all wrong. Obviously. Sheyuttt, grocery store + sipping some alchy + squeezing the produce = recipe for success. Noted. #twobirdsonestone

I’m ABSOLUTELY NOT A FAN of the new liquor bar (next to pharmacy) coming to this location. For a patient that get my medications here («do not mix with alcohol») this is a horrible decision to mix contradictory services, not only that — a compromise to privacy.
On that note, when I am at this Osco Pharmacy to pick up my prescriptions, there is little to NO privacy, there is a display right behind me in the same aisle that showcases about 45 Tito’s Vodka Handles (again, all my medicine prescribed from here says «do not mix with alcohol») — literally within arms reach. It is a mixed-​message of pharma and alcohol — WHICH DO NOT BELONG TOGETHER. This should be illegal. Moreover, this bar will only attract loop derelicts and union workers off their break from Bloomer. This is not what our high rise neighborhood needs. Ever since Mariano’s and Whole Foods, Jewel has become a desperate disaster to try to compete — JUST STAY SIMPLE. BE YOU. STOP COMFORMIST IDEOLOGY.
Lastly, anyone considering getting their medications from this location should rethink. They do not have the medications ready on time, especially for refills — EVER. They question your authority and rationale for getting your medication, and it becomes very uncomfortable. The pharmacists consistently challenge my doctor with their own recommendations which makes my skin crawl. I will be switching pharmacies and no longer visiting this location regularly, where the staff could give 0.2% shits.
ALSO: BEWARE OF THEIR PRICES! They brag discount prices, but it will ring up regular price, and you get cheated. They practice illegal skimming.

I don’t know how they do it, but management hires and trains well at this location. I’ve always had good experiences here. Friendly, helpful staff. And fair prices.

Sorry but this place is terrible. I try not to blame the employees but a cashier just told me her shift was over and she was leaving WHILE checking me out. WTF? Seriously I only go here for a few things because I live next door otherwise I wouldn’t step foot in there…

The grilled chicken here is clutch, especially on cheap chicken Mondays. The prices are really great compared to Mariano’s or Whole Foods.

The only reason this store gets a single star is because the management is super responsive to the customers needs, but do nothing to reprimand the poor customer service cashier staff.
If they want to operate the business on «managing customers» then they will continue to lose customers. As for me-​I am DONE with this store and the horrible attitudes of the incompetent cashier staff. Most of the cashiers should be lucky they have a job.
Bye JEWEL, Hello MARIANOS!

The only reason I visit this jewel is for the location convenience. If you visit after 6 pm expect the lines to be long at the register. The management here cares more about overhead costs than customer experience. The deli and butcher lines are a joke. I’ve multiple experiences of waiting 5 plus minutes (with no line) before I was noticed at the butcher. I will be going to Mariano’s and will pay more unless this is my last option.

Jewel seems to have a serious time stocking items consistently especially in the bakery. Although in a convenient location for some, it is seriously short-​staffed especially at night. We’ve discovered another Jewel that is slightly closer and better staffed in the evenings.

I live right across the street from here and obviously this is my go-​to grocery store! But I have always come here even when I did not live around here. It is a very new and clean establishment and is bigger than most Jewel-​Oscos that I have been to. The staff is always nice and helpful!

If you’re looking for the packaged cheeses they’re not by the other dairy items but in a case in the frozen food aisles. (???)
This place is quite large and somebody could have planned the layout more approptiately.

This Jewel location is my closest grocery and right on my way home from work. That being said, I try to avoid it whenever I can. It’s good for last minute grocery needs, but don’t plan on doing your weeks shopping there. Milk, yogurt, produce, etc are all more expensive than Marianos. On the whole, most items are more expensive than at Marianos. The majority of the food offered is more processed than I typically look for. Most of this I can put up with, but the one thing that made me swear this place off is the meat. A lot of it looks unhealthy. Grey, yellow, and brown tinted chicken. The chicken breasts are so big and bloated that it’s concerning. And to add insult to it all, it’s pretty darn expensive. $ 3.50 + per pound for family pack chicken. $ 4.75 + per pound for the «better» stuff.
If you think of this place as one large convenience store, then it’s pretty decent. But I will never again attempt my weekly grocery shopping here.

If you want a bagel for breakfast in the morning with cream cheese, don’t come here. They don’t have single serve cream cheese.

I love this place. Tons of free parking in an area where parking is impossible to find. Full size store that has everything any other Jewel would have. Friendly staff. My only complaint is that some areas of the store are a little tough to navigate with a shopping cart. Oh, they mail a $ 5 off coupon every 10 days.

The one star is just for the bakery, and specifically the bakery on 4.25.2015 at 9:25am. Your bakery employees are rude. I picked up a custom image cake, and the image was smudged with a little bit of frosting.
Without even bothering to look at the cake, the employee kept insiting that the image as scanned had the defect… the ridculousness of the situation was compounded by the fact that they had given back the image they scanned to me, and no, there was no smudge on the image.
At least look at the cake, look at the image, and see what I’m talking about, before arguing with me.
I can tell what frosting accidentally smudging a cake image looks like.
It’s the stupidity of the «the original image had the defect» argument when I’m holding the original image in my hand, and there’s no defect in the original image, that’s defies logic.
This went on for a few minutes — this alternated along the lines of «No, this couldn’t have been our fault, the smudge was on the image» to «There’s no way we could have accidentally smudged the frosting on the image» to «you’re looking at it wrong.»
Employee FINALLY comes over to take a look at the cake and takes it away to the work station away from the counter. Mind you all this time I’m talking to someone who couldn’t bother to walk to the counter where i’m at, to talk to me.
she manages to remove the frosting, and shoves the cake back to me. A simple, «sorry, you were right, it was frosting on the cake and I tried my best to remove it» would have sufficied.

If all Jewels were like this Jewel, I would shop at Jewel more often. Dare I say this is the jewel of Jewels? Yup, I said it.
They have a juicing area and sell fresh squeezed juice that is actually friggin affordable. Can I get an amen? I’m a beetliever!

Fancy schmancy. This Jewel-​Osco seems a whole lot more like a Whole Foods than a basic food store. Besides the carpeted Bylery’s back in MN, I’ve never seen a grocery store so impeccably clean. It seems a bit smaller than other locations but they manage to cram a lot of things inside without making you feel claustrophobic.
I come for the soup and salad bar. They have a large hot foods section and I almost always walk away with a bowl of broccoli cheese soup and a La Brea Bakery French demi-​baguette. They also have a liquor section and aisle upon aisle of anything you’d need for a food run.
So far my favorite surprise find has been the fresh squeezed orange juice at the front of the store. It’s just as good as Whole Food’s and about ¼ of the price.

Worst store ever… I avoid at all cost!
Never anything stocked. Super small selection. Awkward layout
Staff is lazy but nice.
There is a disaster parking lot that’s an accident waiting to happen.
The only reason I go here is when I’m lazy as hell. Shame on me…

For a quick fix on getting staples this place is the best but really for convenience. This location has the poorest selection of truly vegan food. For my money, I’d rather walk out of my way to Mariano’s which has all of my favorites and then some. Whole Foods is opening next year (2015) so that will supersede both Jewel and Mariano’s unless something drastic changes in line of vegan foods.
Today’s experience was the worst as far as customer service goes. The «speedy checkout» was backed up. I guess it was hard for management to understand it’s the afternoon before a major U.S. holiday (4^th of July). There were two registers open and of course, as my luck would have it, I ended up with the worst of the two. The cashier was more in a hurry to exhaust the line than to give two flips for throwing bagged salad (and I do mean throwing… as well as shoving and slamming) and fresh, soft produce into bags with jars and other hard items.
No sooner than having the haul thrown back to the front side of the register and the transaction processed she was screaming for the next person before the receipt could even print. I prefer to skip over this store as it needs attention to customer service and a broader selection of truly vegan products.

It’s no Mariano’s or Whole Foods but Jewel recently revamped their layout and went a little more upscale. They did a good job.
You walk in to a fresh squeezed juices section to the left. They sometimes have samples. Carrot juice is actually really good; celery juice not so much! But the OJ is divine. No one should ever buy that pasteurized crap with this available!
Beyond that is a nice produce section. Good quality offerings at okay, not great prices (at least not by suburban grocery store standards, but hey, we’re near the West Loop here, what’cha expect?).
Good cheese/​hummus section. Do yourself a favor and try the Reypenaer 1 year aged gouda. Holy hell!
Beer/​wine/​liquor selection is excellent with craft beers aplenty, $ 10 make-​your-​own-​6-​pack option, and a separate high-​end wines section. Purty nice.
Checkout is pretty smooth with helpful friendly staff.

FACELIFT
I feel like I’ve been shopping at Jewel for the last 100 years. It has been 1 of 2 stores that everyone in Chicago knows. But times have changed with mega grocery stores like Whole Foods and Mariano’s. Jewel is trying to keep up with «The Jones» right now!
The store has been going through construction the last few months and most of it is a reaction to Mariano’s. I remember the week Mariano’s opened this Jewel did a customer appreciation week and it was just horrible. I give an «A» to management for trying but an «F» to the employees trying to pull it off. The Jewel employees giving out samples were afraid to even talk to customers. Most of them wanted to crawl behind the table and hide. It was really sad to watch. And all I could think was they better step up there game or there gone.
After that didn’t work, Jewel decided to copy Mariano’s. They just added a fresh juice machine right when you walk in with free samples. Hmmm that seems familiar to the competition. They also expanded the hot items bar and added tables to eat at plus roll out a mobile cash register to pay for your hot food right next to the hot food. Yeah it’s a complete copy of Mariano’s.
But it doesn’t stop there. The bakery and fresh fish cases have been expanded. Jewel even has the same fresh fish motto like Mariano’s. At the end of the day, it still is a Jewel that is trying to look like the new store down the street. At least there trying but there not fooling me.
Now you’ll have me if you add a bar and allow me to drink through the whole store while I shop. Go to a Whole Foods on a Friday and it looks like a singles bar with shopping carts. Wow the dating scene has really changed. Personally I’m lucky I don’t have to worry about dating. But drinking a craft beer while shopping is a plus on my list. You can beat them to the punch by adding a drink holder to the cart. That is how you get them. Invent it and install and it will be an instant hit.
Besides all these changes the store is huge. It has a nice big parking lot with a great view of the city. We really love the bakery too. The staff there is really nice and they make a great sheet cake. It is under $ 28 and is moist and delicious. That is the way cakes should be. I’m sick of these designer cakes that cost over $ 150 and taste like crap. Cake is suppose to taste good. So 5 stars to the ladies here. Keep up the great work.
So Jewel is trying to be hip and young like the competition. I give them an «A» for effort and look forward to more changes. It’s a better effort then Dominick’s which has decided to roll over and die (Bob Mariano finally got his revenge)! Jewel the face lift looks good, now you have to learn how to dance.