WinCo

[Pete]

Winco is employee-owned and offers good benefits.

This seems to be a simple matter of incredibly poor store management.

[barrettd]

I went to Winco weekly for a couple years and had mostly positive experiences but the checkout was always an issue and the parking lot always felt a little sketchy. I recently switched over to Aldi and have been loving their options as well as their check out process which is usually quick. I would love to support Homeland because they are local and near my house but I just can't justify paying the prices that they have. I'll occasionally go to the 36th and Lincoln location if I need one or two items because it's small and rarely busy. I'm always blown away by how expensive some of their stuff is. One thing I really miss about living in Tulsa is shopping at Reasor's, though I haven't been since they were bought out so I'm not sure if they have changed. Would love to have a Crest in the core but it seems like they are only interested in building out in the suburbs.

Aldi's online ordering and curbside pickup is terrific! I've switched over to that from Walmart.

[OkieBerto]

Absolutely the worst experience I've ever had at a retailer.

Went Tuesday night about 8:30; 39th & Portland store was moderately busy. Took my time finding a bunch of little things and then went to checkout.

The entire self-checkout was closed and they had TWO checkouts open. No joke, there were at least 30 carts in each line; I've never seen anything remotely like it.

After standing there for 15 minutes with very little movement, I decided to bail but being a good person, I couldn't just leave a bunch of refrigerated items in a cart in the middle of the store. So, I put every single thing back.

How on earth do you let things get that bad in the first place? That is a massive store with tons of employees including several at the completely vacant customer service desk. As I was leaving, more people were coming in and the lines were just growing.

Spent probably 45 minutes there and left without getting a single thing I needed. Now, will just order through Kroger which I should have done in the first place.


Just an absolute disaster. Because I like the store I'll probably give them another chance but I'm so furious it's going to be a while.

I had this problem a lot there. If you look at the front of the store near the check-out lanes, you can always see abandoned carts full of products. It is pretty sad. It also doesn't take major credit cards, so you need cash, check, or debit card. We go every now and then, but it is always a struggle when you go to check out. Makes no sense.

[Pete]

It always strikes me how much retailers will spend $$$ to attract new customers but not do a darn thing to retain existing customers.

This is all too true.

Here Winco spends hundreds of millions to enter this market, takes out full-page ads, carries an incredible amount of inventory... And yet when people actually make the effort to shop there, Winco can't get their act together enough to just take their money.

It doesn't take a ton of market research to realize that a terrible checkout experience is going to strongly discourage customers from returning; especially now with not only tons of competition but all types of delivery and pickup models. It's like a b-school case of how to completely ruin a business by doing everything right and then failing at the most important thing.

[Ginkasa]

We used to shop at Winco pretty regularly, but we rarely go following the credit card thing. Seems like that was a portent of things going downhill. Its a bummer!

[Chris Gordon]

When "discount" is in the DNA of an organization, it ends up permeating the entire customer experience. It affects staff attitudes and leaderships decisions. They know their target customer probably has to shop there, so there isn't as much priority on trying to retain someone who will come back out of necessity.

[therhett17]

I stopped shopping there last year. I hate our grocery store options. Pruett’s & Winco are a joke. Wish we had a Kroger or Publix.

Never go to Pruett's or WinCo. Crest gets nearly all my business and they always have plenty of cashiers available and well stocked aisles. Have one of their larger format stores about 5 minutes from my house in Midwest City.

[jn1780]

Absolutely the worst experience I've ever had at a retailer.

Went Tuesday night about 8:30; 39th & Portland store was moderately busy. Took my time finding a bunch of little things and then went to checkout.

The entire self-checkout was closed and they had TWO checkouts open. No joke, there were at least 30 carts in each line; I've never seen anything remotely like it.

After standing there for 15 minutes with very little movement, I decided to bail but being a good person, I couldn't just leave a bunch of refrigerated items in a cart in the middle of the store. So, I put every single thing back.

How on earth do you let things get that bad in the first place? That is a massive store with tons of employees including several at the completely vacant customer service desk. As I was leaving, more people were coming in and the lines were just growing.

Spent probably 45 minutes there and left without getting a single thing I needed. Now, will just order through Kroger which I should have done in the first place.


Just an absolute disaster. Because I like the store I'll probably give them another chance but I'm so furious it's going to be a while.

Wonder if something was broke down which resulted in the cashiers having to manually take payments or something like that? Seems like having one of those two cashiers running the self checkouts would be a little bit faster than 30 carts to each line.

[jompster]

Wonder if something was broke down which resulted in the cashiers having to manually take payments or something like that? Seems like having one of those two cashiers running the self checkouts would be a little bit faster than 30 carts to each line.

It's always that way after 9 or 10 PM. I've stopped going to WinCo for that reason combined with no debit cards. I'll gladly spend my money where it's easiest.

[Pete]

This was only 8:30 and the self-checkout was completely shut down. I get it at 11PM when one checker could probably handle things from that point forward, but 8 bloody 30?

The truly comical thing about that store is it literally has 16 checkout lanes plus 6-8 self-checkout stations. Why do they even bother to build these? Has that store ever had more than 4 lanes open in its entire history? I bet the northern half of those lanes have never been used once, but they spend tons of money to install them, each with a POS system, then they just sit there taking up space and gathering dust while mocking the huge lines of customers funneled into one or two lanes.

[jn1780]

Yeah, that's crazy. I don't understand why they would close the self-checkouts.

Walmart went all in with the self-checks so at least they don't have a bunch of registers sitting empty.

[oklip955]

Yeah, that's crazy. I don't understand why they would close the self-checkouts.

Walmart went all in with the self-checks so at least they don't have a bunch of registers sitting empty.

Speaking of Walmart, about a week ago I went in to get one item and went through the self check. Ok no problem. I walked to the exit and went by the other self check area, There was a lady with a completely full cart trying to check out. Most of her stuff was food. She had no place to put her food after scanning it except on the floor. The self check area only has the small shelf area on both sides of the scanner thing. Walmart had no regular registers open. This was around 9am. Not way early. If Walmart wants people to use these then they need to make them user friendly. One other time I was shopping and had a fairly full cart. They only had a self check area that was not set up for using shopping carts. There was 3 or 4 self check in a row. YOu had to go by one to get to the other. The one that was open was the one at the end. The other 2 people also had carts. No way to get around them without the folks taking their carts and coming out of the area to let me in. An employee came and said to go to the far one. I said I have to wait for other other people to finish. She grabbed my cart and just shoved those people and carts. Lot what the heck??? Does no one have manners and patience??? Walmart again failed. Do they not expect people to shop with carts??? or make a medium to large purchases? What about older people? How are they to manage this. What about people who cannot bend down to get their stuff that they have to put on the floor???

[oklip955]

Yeah, that's crazy. I don't understand why they would close the self-checkouts.

Walmart went all in with the self-checks so at least they don't have a bunch of registers sitting empty.

Speaking of Walmart, about a week ago I went in to get one item and went through the self check. Ok no problem. I walked to the exit and went by the other self check area, There was a lady with a completely full cart trying to check out. Most of her stuff was food. She had no place to put her food after scanning it except on the floor. The self check area only has the small shelf area on both sides of the scanner thing. Walmart had no regular registers open. This was around 9am. Not way early. If Walmart wants people to use these then they need to make them user friendly. One other time I was shopping and had a fairly full cart. They only had a self check area that was not set up for using shopping carts. There was 3 or 4 self check in a row. YOu had to go by one to get to the other. The one that was open was the one at the end. The other 2 people also had carts. No way to get around them without the folks taking their carts and coming out of the area to let me in. An employee came and said to go to the far one. I said I have to wait for other other people to finish. She grabbed my cart and just shoved those people and carts. Lot what the heck??? Does no one have manners and patience??? Walmart again failed. Do they not expect people to shop with carts??? or make a medium to large purchases? What about older people? How are they to manage this. What about people who cannot bend down to get their stuff that they have to put on the floor???

[zefferoni]

I went earlier in the week and the lady that was monitoring the self-checkout area was saying that for some reason they had all recently started messing up. I don't know if it was a software or hardware issue, but 3-4 were out of order. I'm guessing the rest of them broke down as well, as usually they're online 24/7.
I do agree about their checkout situation, it's wild that they have like 40 lanes and only 1-3 are ever staffed.