Stop & Shop

Lately I’ve been all about Stop & Shop. Their Nature’s Promise Organic line is the best thing to happen to me in a long time. I know my life must be pretty boring if the best thing to happen to me in a long time is a line of organic products at a grocery store but hey it’s the little things :)
This Stop & Shop had everything. From a great selection of fresh produce to an aisle full of toys if you need it you’ll find it here.
All in all a good experience. I’ll definitely be back.

Not my favorite Stop & Shop (but it’s the closest). It’s more expensive than other S&S and not the best variety. The self check out is slow and there is hardly any room for your groceries at the end of the conveyer.
What I do like about it is the staff. I’ve had good experiences with them. They’ve been helpful –especially w/​the self check out.

Solid deals every week, a large selection of organic foods. Lines get long but that’s all dependent on when you go. My son loves the car-​carts.

This chain really tries hard but I am not sure where it’s direction is. I thinks it is trying to do the middle road between price and quality and organic vs conventional. Its not the cheapest place to shop and thank the lord not every grocery store is trying to be that or I would be reduced to mass factory farmed food of questionable pedigree. I can do pretty well with quality produce, organic staples, fish so long as i don’t want anything beyond the staples of swordfish, salmon, cod and haddock. The southeast Asian farmed shrimp aren’t worth taking out of the store (google south Asian shrimp an see if you really want to eat that). Meat, forget about it. Plenty of better places around including Big Y as well as the local stores with much better meat. So far i haven’t found a one stop convenient store. I like the meat and fish at local independents, just about everything about Big Y and Whole Foods but either of the last two require an extra trip. Stop and shop gets reasonable marks for better than average staples, some attention to Organics but I can never do my whole shopping there. For crying out loud get rid of the self serve checkouts. The cashiers can scan a whole last faster than I and it would employ more people.

Based on all Stop and Shops, I would give this store a 4.5 star rating. I’m just knocking off half a star due to the lack of a gas station. Based on all grocery stores, it’s getting a two. I don’t even understand how the average person could afford to do anything beside grocery shopping if this was their main source of food. Sure, they have a huge variety of name brand stuff, but the prices are just unacceptable. What’s worse is that buying their store brand products isn’t really an option due to most of them being awful tasting.
Stop and Shop used to be worth the extra money. Now, they stock the same bruised, old produce that you can get at a discount place. I just went there tonight, and the store was packed with the after work crowd. Yet, there was only one manned register open. One. Only one. You’re basically forced to use the self checkout. With all the cost cutting, how do they still justify their outrageous prices? Oh, and those self checkout lanes? They’ll make you want to choke somebody. I scan three items, then I get the inevitable «Please wait for help from an attendant». Don’t bother waiting, you’ll have to go find one on your own. After tracking somebody down, I was informed that the alert just means I have to pick the item up and move it down the belt. I couldn’t imagine what it would have been like if she hadn’t told me that, because it happened at least three more times.
One of the cool things about Stop and Shop is that they have premade and prepackaged food you can grab to go. It’s really hit or miss with what you get. I grabbed a $ 6 premade salad with chicken. The chicken was just cubed sandwich meat. Sure, it tastes good, but I don’t need 4000mg of sodium for dinner. The lettuce was romaine, so that’s a plus. There was a package of croutons and a dusting of shredded unidentifiable cheese. That was it. Can I get some other vegetable thrown in there? Maybe a couple broccoli crowns or something? Oh, and that one free packet of salad dressing? It still rings up as $ 0.39. I wasn’t going to go hunt down yet another attendant over $ 0.39 (because I’m a baller), so I just let it slide. If you’re going to get some premade food here, stick with one of the chicken products. Wings, rotisserie chicken, chicken tenders. they’re all good.
So, I just paid $ 65 for a hand basket full of stuff. Most of it was on sale. That is just unacceptable. I understand that inflation and commodity blah blah blah, but I can fill a cart for $ 80 at other places. Stop and Shop has always been on the pricier side, but it used to be worth it. They cut costs left and right, yet don’t pass that on to the customer. I go here because I live in the middle of nowhere, and it’s another 20 minutes to get to a different grocery store. If you have other options, choose anywhere but Stop and Shop.