We’ve got a relatively new Harris Teeter grocery store near us now that I will occasionally shop at because it’s on my way home from work. There are a few things I like:
- It’s pretty big and spacious.
- Nice selection of produce, even organic stuff.
- The employees are by far the friendliest I’ve encountered at a grocery store.
- One time, my wife accidentally walked out without paying for something (she had stashed it in the bottom rack of the cart and forgotten about it). The next day I had to go by there, so I stopped by the customer service counter to pay for it and they wouldn’t let me. “We all make mistakes,” they told me, “Thanks for being honest.”
- Prices are OK.
- They have a sushi chef. I had some simply excellent freshly made vegetable rolls last night.
- Last night the checkout person repeatedly charged me for regular produce rather than organic produce. Weird, since all the numbers were right on the stickers.
Things that confuse me:
- They mix in their “natural” products with their regular products. You might think this makes sense, but it’s actually harder for me. At Giant, all the hippie stuff I buy is in one place, which means I only have to walk through a few aisles to get my stuff. At Harris Teeter, I have to go through the whole store.
- Their checkout is really, really odd. You bring your cart up to the left side of the register, then walk around to the right side. The checkout people then have this lazy susan-type thing that they put the food on rather than a conveyer belt. It’s bizarre.
All-in-all, though, I like Harris Teeter and give it a thumbs up.
Posted in Consumer Commentary, Food and Beverage
jk March 29, 2007, 11:12 pm
I think I am banned from Byerly’s for messing up the lazy susan check-out. I set something near the scanner and it scanned it dozens of times. The cashier refused to believe he could just void the total transaction and tried to delete it one item at a time….by the time he called for back-up, I was thoroughly mortified.
I agree that the organic stuff should all be together. I am a speed shopper and want all my stuff to be easily accessible!
Adam March 31, 2007, 3:52 am
They closed all of the Harris Teeters here in Atlanta. I never got a chance to shop there because they were gone shortly after I moved up.
Down here Publix and Kroger are the big two. I tend to shop at Kroger a lot because there’s a store on the corner by my house, they are a little cheaper and I love the self-service checkouts. Publix is the nicer store, but I’m a single guy who doesn’t have to do a lot of shopping so cheaper drinks and quicker checkouts make Kroger more convenient for me.