November 22, 2009

Store Manager
Stop & Shop
60 Everett Street
Allston, MA 02134

Dear Sir or Madam,

I like your store for several reasons: it is the closest supermarket to my house; I like the “Scan It!” system; and you give five cents back for reused bags.

Unfortunately, these positives only go so far, since your inventory lacks many things I need. Today, I walked out of your store empty-handed when I found that you were missing so many items that it wasn’t worth my time to ring up a purchase, and I went to Shaw’s and spent $137 there instead.

You simply don’t stock some things I need; other things are usually there but missing when I go to buy them. Tonight, I knew that there were several things on my shopping list you do not stock, but I was willing to tolerate that for the sake of the advantages listed above. What propelled me out the door was the fact that you were out of something that you usually stock, and I needed to buy it this week. In particular, I found no 72-count boxes of Sabbath candles, a product which I’m pretty certain you usually stock, in your Kosher aisle.

Here are some other items I buy on a regular basis that you don’t stock but Shaw’s does (I bought all of these today at Shaw’s):

• large bottles of Smart Balance cooking oil (I’ve seen them in the store on very rare occasions, but most of the time you stock only the small bottles)
• Osem “mini mandel” soup croutons
• Kosher beef hot dogs from a brand other than Hebrew National (we are among many families in the Boston Jewish community who do not consider the Kosher status of Hebrew National to be reliable and therefore can’t purchase that brand)
• Kosher boxed macaroni & cheese (either Fould’s or Wacky Mac)

I would shop at your store more often and spend more money there if you stocked these items and did a better job of keeping things in stock.

Thank you for your time.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Kamens

Greetings,

I want to commend the performance of the cashier, [name elided], who rang up my groceries last night.

I bought three bags of pizza dough.  While ringing up my groceries, he checked each of the bags carefully and noticed that there was some discoloration in the dough in one of them.  He brought this to my attention, and I was able to go back to the refrigerated case and get a replacement.

When I got back to the checkout aisle, I noticed that he was checking my eggs to make sure that none of them were broken.

I was impressed by, and grateful for, [name elided]‘s conscientiousness.