Worst store experience I have ever had. In Ottawa, at the Cyrville location, 99% of the staff can barely speak English and no one speaks French. Can’t communicate with staff, and when I could they had no idea what I was speaking about. Asked about cinnamon buns, the guy sent me to the cookie aisle???????

Today – Sat, Apr 3th 2021, I had an outstanding experience at the Tecumseh – University Plaza Food Basic store. There were no carts available whatsoever and the place was breaking down under the shoppers overload. The employee, usually disinfecting the cart handles, was chatting with potential customers as he had nothing to disinfect. I asked for carts he said I should go out and grab one for myself. I thought they used to have them inside and disinfect them, therefore his advice was quite out of the well known grocery store COVID 19 contamination control policies. He said, “we are short staffed and there is no one who could go for carts, they want me to go but have no time….(?)”. Meanwhile people were just flooding in to the store with some dirty portable baskets they could still grab at the entrance.

I checked for carts in about 10-15 minutes the situation was the same. I asked an employee to speak to the manager – the employee “busy to breaking down carborads and putting them on a cart, slowly and with endless time available apparently” looked at his watch (was about 4 pm) he said “I am not sure he is in the store” , left and never returned. I arrived at the self check with the few items I could hold in the basket, but the short middle aged blond, short hair cut wearing women made everything possible to make sure she is blocking the way of the customers from the store towards the cashier, staying with her back so she could justify why she tries to be in the way. I asked her where is the manager. She said “right there” showing towards a short, bulky, elder, grey haired man, with long, wavy hair around his head wearing a winter coat and under it a uniform jacket jammed on in a hurry with a name tag “Sandy”. The Sandy named “store manager” seemed as a very coarse fake. He looked like a regular customer who apparently knew the helper cashier women at the self serve and he “dressed up” for the theater. He yelled at me, behaving not at all like managers in this store. At the end they gotten me a cart to get my groceries to the car but, please do be advised:
– you had a customer dressed in manager under the support of the new hire cashier helper woman
– your customers had no carts while your staff were breaking down cardboard and were looking for something to do
– your customers probably would have bought 10 X more if they had carts
– your store looked like a freak circus ; it was a shameful pathetic dilettante freak show of an old man customer dressed in manager and a staff at the cashier who was the “movie director”

Due to the cart shortage and cart overload later, your staff could not disinfect the cart handles properly and in real time – I might not be surprised if someone would report this to the Public Health Unit and you might be shut down for not respecting the emergency epidemics protocol. All this – only to make a stupid show with some poor customers who tried to have theri Easter food shopping at your store.

Yes, I would appreciate a call back from the REAL manager, it would be a good idea to place the pictures of the management on the wall so they would not be so easy to impersonate, and perhaps find out what this terrible sad freak show was about.

I shop regularly at the Pembroke Food Basics location and the comments about the state of the shopping cart area is so true. It’s usually a struggle to get a cart that is not jammed/stuck to another cart. The state of the shopping cart corrals in the parking lot is not much better.

I am wondering why Food Basics doesn’t price match like most other grocery stores? Convenience is as important as competitive pricing.

Thank you for allowing my input.

I stopped in at the Pembroke Ontario store Aug. 25, and the status & shape of the $.25 “rental” shopping carts was deplorable. There were 5 – 6 rows of carts available, and at least three rows were jammed and stuck together. One row, |I noticed,, the back steel “flap” was bent up and subsequently locked the carts. I realize the $25 charge is to ensure the carts are retuened to the store and not left to litter the parking lot.

Something to consider as a major improvement for the Pembroke Store.

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to express this concern, and draw this to your attention..

Dacvid