Randall’s Food & Pharmacy

Management is a joke. Fruit always has mold or a million fruit flies. Multiple times I’ve bought something only to realize when I got home that it was two weeks expired. Everytime my Randall’s card doesn’t work I have to get out of line and fill out a new one so I can get the better price which seems to happen everytime I go there. I’d rather drive an extra 15 minutes to get a fresher selection of fruits and vegetables.

First, I shop here a few times a week for 2+ years now because its convenient (I live in the subdivision behind the store). The employees are NOT friendly, not even close. I don’t pay much attention to prices… it might be more but I don’t care because its convenient, and hate standing in line at other places. I used to think the store had a slight upscale «Flagship» feel. However, they have recently replaced a lot of the lighting with rows of tube florescent lights… and now it looks horrendous… almost as bad as walmart. It in no way has any Flagship appeal now… looks very low brow and cheap. EVEN WORSE… The machines at the front of the store allowing all the neighborhood riffraff to exchange gift cards and cell phones for cash isn’t drawing in more customers, it is scaring the ones away who frequent this place and spend money. Randall needs to understand who their customer is and make the store look nicer and dump those machines in front.

I’ve been shopping here for years, there are other markets in the area, but Randal’s HAD always been a bit nicer, and of fresher quality. That’s been changing. Today I popped in to get several pounds of short ribs, I didn’t care for the ones in the meat case so I asked the butcher if he could get them from the back for me. Without saying a word, he SLAMMED the slab of meat in his hand on the counter; thunderously walked out to the meat case, and DROPPED the very same meat I hadn’t wanted to purchase into my basket and walked off without saying a word. I was speechless. With a piss-​poor show of service like this I will NEVER spend my money here again!

Only place that I can get decent apples and fruit in general. So happy with the assortment of fruits and vegetables that randalls had, they were so fresh. I loved the strawberries they were fresh and sweet and not molded like Wal-​Mart. I used the self checkout, something that I didn’t like is the stairdown from the guy that is by the self checkout, other than that I had a pleasant experience. Also checkout the flowers beautiful.

I absolutely loathe shopping in this Randall’s. The staff is not very friendly. It’s beyond my comprehension as to why there isn’t at least one cashier on duty at all times. Being forced to check out my own groceries at overly high prices is insulting. I’ll take the extra time to drive to Sam’s in lieu of shopping at this archaic stinky store less than 2 minutes from my house. I stopped in today to purchase sandwich meat because Sam’s package was more than what I needed. I walked past an employee who was cleaning the salad bar area. I started looking around for someone to help me. After standing in front of the meat case for a couple of minutes, the lady asked if I needed any help. Mind you, she was less than 10 ft from me the entire time. I said no, that’s okay and walked out. I guess we’re back to only going into Randall’s when there is a really, really awesome sale.

Friendly service with slightly higher than normal prices. There’s also a Starbucks in the store, although it has a limited Starbucks menu and doesn’t redeem Starbucks rewards.
The deli area has some excellent grab and go options, though.

Every Kroger store in the vicinity is grimy and crowded. This story is an oasis compared to Kroger and the store is always empty, very clean and appealing. However, the groceries are overpriced but more reasonable now that Randall’s has been acquired by Safeway.
My one complaint is that they have no checkers after 10 p.m. and you have to use those stupid machines. Every time I shop there I bitch about it and it never changes. Perhaps if the managers read it here they will make that change, otherwise it’s back to HEB despite this store being less than a mile from my house.

Only one previous review from back in 2009…
Here goes… Prices have gotten better with competition. I love the bakery, fresh, fresh, fresh.
Produce is much better quality than Kroger or HEB.
They have a great big selection of wines.
Also has a Starbucks inside… how about that!
This Randalls Rocks!

Randall’s… the most expensive grocery store in Houston. Randall’s Flagship… even more expensive.
But you know what? I don’t do my daily or weekly grocery shopping at Randall’s. I come to this one specifically because of their bakery, pharmacy, and Mallomars.
The bakery: Everything is fresh (if you go early) and they have a huge variety. French bread, sourdough bread, muffins, cookies, bagels, you name it and they have it. More importantly it’s good.
The pharmacy: They always have everything… specifically medicine for children. A year ago, my daughter got really sick (she couldn’t keep any food down). Her pediatrician prescribed this medicine (I forget what it was). I went everywhere… several different Krogers, Walgreens, and CVS pharmacies but no one had it. They had to order it. This was the only pharmacy that had it. This wasn’t the first time that I had to hunt for medication that this pharmacy had.
Mallomars: The best cookie in the world in my opinion. It’s a cookie more commonly found in the Northeast but not widely sold in the South. They have it here. It’s a marshmallow cookie covered in dark chocolate. It’s a good thing that it’s not sold everywhere. These cookies are pure evil.
I’m still wondering what the difference is between a regular Randall’s and a Flagship. If anyone knows, please enlighten me.