Service sucks at the Fresh Market
I've finally had it with the Fresh Market and have decided never to shop there again. Their customer service is nonexistent and at their prices, they should be ashamed of themselves.
Any given weekday, at lunchtime, say between noon and 3 pm, there are maybe 25 to 30 customers at the deli waiting for service. Behind the counter are about 7 people, 6 of them with their fingers up their you know whats, and one incompetent one serves the masses.
The one serving never has a clue and never gets the orders right and always has their mind in the clouds. Today I literally told them to cancel my order and I walked out. I had about $100.00 worth of nonsense that I really didn't need (Mediterranean salad, salmon, panini sandwich), all luxuries, which they overcharge you for and you think they would bend over backwards to get you to buy more of this nonsense that you could live without.
So I left the stuff because the person helping me had no clue and had a nasty attitude.
I ended up at Milam's deli where it is worse. There is this dude that looks like Mario from Super Mario Brothers, and he does nothing. An old lady was waiting to be served and "Mario" just fiddled with the food. After 10 minutes of this he asks the lady if she needs help. I had arrived late so I assumed he was already helping her while he was fiddling with the food. She says, "Yes, I thought you were going to help me."
I just walked out. This village is full of fools.
Any given weekday, at lunchtime, say between noon and 3 pm, there are maybe 25 to 30 customers at the deli waiting for service. Behind the counter are about 7 people, 6 of them with their fingers up their you know whats, and one incompetent one serves the masses.
The one serving never has a clue and never gets the orders right and always has their mind in the clouds. Today I literally told them to cancel my order and I walked out. I had about $100.00 worth of nonsense that I really didn't need (Mediterranean salad, salmon, panini sandwich), all luxuries, which they overcharge you for and you think they would bend over backwards to get you to buy more of this nonsense that you could live without.
So I left the stuff because the person helping me had no clue and had a nasty attitude.
I ended up at Milam's deli where it is worse. There is this dude that looks like Mario from Super Mario Brothers, and he does nothing. An old lady was waiting to be served and "Mario" just fiddled with the food. After 10 minutes of this he asks the lady if she needs help. I had arrived late so I assumed he was already helping her while he was fiddling with the food. She says, "Yes, I thought you were going to help me."
I just walked out. This village is full of fools.
posted by Tom Falco at 2:35 PM
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14 Comments:
Honestly, I think retail and foodservice in general has gotten this way everywhere. My girlfriend and I go places, and though we keep our composure and demeanor, we feel like telling the people "How hard is your job?!" I mean, some of things these people fail to do properly are so stupid and easy that we could go around behind the counter and do them ourselves.
Not that I particularly like the deli at Fresh Market, Milam, Gardner's or Publix, but the way you sound I can almost visualize you as being one of those arrogant asses that annoy just about everyone. I mean, you picked up, on your own free will, $100 worth of stuff. No one put a gun to your head to do it. And you walk out because you did not find the service behind the deli good. What does this say about you? Not about Fresh Market. About you?
I love how every time I complain about the service in this town, I am the one blamed for being rude.
When in all honesty, I am never rude with people who are handling my food. I am quite the opposite.
I walked out because the whole $100.00 was from the deli and the girl couldn't get one order right. I think she was just confused due to the overwhelming crowds and not having any help. I was nice about it. I just left.
I avoid all grocery store delis in Miami at all costs. When my wife tells me to please get a half pound of sliced ham at the Publix deli, I feel like I'm being sent off to buy shoes in 1980s Moscow.
And I totally support Grapevine's criticism of Fresh Market. FM is a premium grocery store, with the attendant high prices, so one should expect good service in exchange for the money being spent there; at least, service that is appreciably better than Publix or Milam's. Anybody who would stand for less is a masochist.
I often wonder if such poor service is tolerated here because so many Miami residents come from places where they never learned to expect better, either from the serviceperson or, in the case that they are the serviceperson, of themselves. I know that I rarely encounter this sort of problem when visiting my home town of St. Pete, or visiting relatives in Memphis, where most service still comes with a smile.
Doesn't the fact that the deli counter is piled deep with people at the lunch hour register that this might not be the best time to shop? After all, with your basket filled with $100 worth of "stuff" you're probably not one of the crowd waiting to pick up something on a lunch hour and then return to work. (or where would you put the rest of your $95 remaining order). FM may not be on the cheap, for sure, but for my zip code, it's got the freshest, tastiest, largest organic selections around.
People - understand: All $100.00 worth of stuff was from the deli. NOT the rest of the store. It took her forever to serve me each item, that is what I was mad about.
She took 5 minutes to scoop up potato salad and 10 minutes to get a piece of salmon, etc. That is why I got pissed. She was taking an hour to give me 5 items!!!!!!!
And she would grab the wrong item or mix up items (like tuna and egg salad). She didn't have a clue.
Grapevine is right.
This village is full of fools. Every village is full of fools.
And they work behind a deli counters. I did. Then I moved on. It's evolution.
The key is to minimize or avoid contact with those who make our lives unpleasant.
Actually we are fortunate. I believe that there is a low ratio of unpleasantness in Coconut Grove. After all, don't we choose to live in the area with the least amount of aggravation? It's only logical.
Every place has its share of fools, but it seems like they all come to live in Miami. Whenever I travel somewhere, whether it be domestically or overseas, it takes me a bit to get used to people with basic manners. Just the other day I went to Casola's for some pizza. The guy taking the order must have been mute or a non-human. He did not utter one word throughout my order even though I used the basic "please" and "thank yous". I know he doesn't have the best job in the world, but it comes down to simple manners, something which is lacking in this city.
I work for The Fresh Market. I constantly bend over backwards to make my customers happy. Please don't say that ALL of us are like that. If you want to see bad customer service go to Home Depot.
Sarah
Fresh Market Floral Specialist
Alpharetta, Ga
Just returned from the new Fresh Market in Baltimore and had the worst customer service I have ever encountered. Of course, it was the deli which was staffed with one person. Meanwhile, the store is crawling with customers and employees stocking shelves. Where is the manager and why isn't the manager monitoring the counters as is done at Trader Joes. I don't need to pay Fresh Market prices for half-assed services. I will avoid Fresh Market like the plague and remain grateful that there are plenty of other gourmet markets in the Baltimore area!
I am a former Assistant Manager at The Fresh Market, I agree that the service industries have lost the knack for customer service and in most cases we are now left with "Customer-No-Service".
As for The Fresh Market in general the company does try to coerce their employees to give the best servce that they can, i.e. never loose eye contact, use "engagement points" to create conversation, apologize, actively listen, and act to problems.
In retrospect the lack of customer service comes from the lack of compensation to the employee, clerks, counter persons, and cashiers are in the $7 to $8 per hour pay range, specialists are in the $9 - $11 per hour range, department assistants are also in the $9 - $11 range, department supervisors are "Salary" in the low to mid $20K range but the do get "chinese overtime" which pays them less for every hour they work over 40 per week. Assistant managers are paid a salary of $30K to a max of $42K, and a store manager is paid salary in the range of $45K to $55K.
I left The Fresh Market after deciding to return to a non-retail career.
I would not recommend working for The Fresh Market to anyone, anywhere, anytime.
I doubt anyone will read this, but I feel I have to comment as a current employee of TFM. As the most recent person pointed out, employees at TFM are treated like dirt and payed next to nothing. It becomes very difficult to give one crap about customer service when you have to work two jobs just to keep your head out of water financially. For a company that makes over $650,000 in sales annually, their pay scale is disgraceful. So, the next time you start to get pissed because someone behind the counter doesn't lick your butthole to your satisfaction, think about their life, how little they earn, and how they are treated by management. Don't expect high-class customer service when the people serving you make $2 less an hour than that $10 NY strip you just bought. Case in point; I've been with the company for a total of 3 years, and I still make less than $9 an hour, and I work my ass off. Just think about it.
And yet everyone else that works there treats the customers with respect. Only the one bitch is the nasty one. Go figure.
Fresh Market employees are underpaid and overworked, especially now when the company had slashed their staff by at least 30% to save money. Those ppl aren't paid enough to smile -- I know a few who work there. And those guys have to put up with stupid arrogant customers on daily basis. And to those who complain about the prices --- guess what, an employee has no control over that so stop harassing them about an overpriced product. And if something doesn't taste to your liking -- an employee has nothing to do with that either - most stuff comes in pre-made.
I've heard enough stories from my 2 friends who worked for the company and I've become more sympathetic with the 'liitle man' in retail.
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