Giant Food,

7200 Cradlerock Way, Columbia, MD 21045

"Never buy avocados at Giant again, just like the meat is always rotten, zeroooo star ,"

"We visited from out of town and decided we wanted late night sweets, so we stopped for a bakery run. First, we noticed that one set of doors seemed to be shut down. Second, there was a grumpy looking police officer as soon as we walked through the doors. Third, the smell of fish permeated the entire store and accosted our nostrils from the front entrance onward. Fourth, no cashiers and the automated checkout machines were awful! Why are the machines so loud and sensitive? They were also visibly dingy and dirty. You can't scan and then bag your items; you have to set them on the scale in the bagging area, or the machine will not let you scan your next item. The machines would completely dissuade me from visiting again, and it called for cashier assistance for no reason, which slowed down the whole process. Fifth, apparently, you have to be a loyalty member to take advantage of clearance prices (discounted after Christmas candies), but the cashier gave us the discount since he was already wrangling the machine. Sixth, we were unimpressed with the quality of our baked goods (individual tiramisu, lemon raspberry cake, and lemon meringue pie). Even the kid in our group said, "we should have gone to Wegmans.""

"This location has a better produce section than your average Giants in the area. They have a lot of holiday stuff currently on clearance. The Floral department has seen some serious improvement over the last few months."

"You may have noticed that Giant has now closed half of their store entrances, labeling them emergency exits. This is especially inconvenient for anyone who now has to haul their groceries to the opposite side of the parking lot. I did it last week in the rain and it was awful. Does anyone remember the days when Giant offered "parcel pick up" for all their customers, with employees at the front to help you load your purchases? Those days are gone - part of the sad decline in Giant's level of customer service. With winter coming, their closed door policy will be even more annoying. When I asked as to why they were closing doors I was told it was to help reduce the enormous level of shoplifting they're encountering. If you ask me, it's their own fault. When Giant decided it was good customer service to close down almost all of their full service registers and force their customers into their self check "corral" as they called it, they were inviting their own problems. In many stores, self checks are 15 to 1 - and yes, I can't count the number of times I've visited when there was only 1 register open for a full store. In a bid to maximize profits, they left the front of the store largely unstaffed - almost inviting criminal elements to come into our communities and steal from them. Years ago when you went into Giant, someone almost always greeted you and you knew there were not only people there to help you - but keep an eye on things as well. Giant has had a gradual decline in their level of service - mostly at the hands of the foreign entity that now owns them. They are no longer our "neighborhood" store. They're one more cooperate chain with profit as their only motivator. I will no longer be shopping at any of these locations. If crime in their stores are so bad that they have to close entrances to the public, then it's time for me to find a safer store to shop in. If you're in any of their stores, please join me in suggesting they increase the quality of their front-end service. They may actually find a reduction in store loss as a result."

"So far so good. I often use the curbside pickup which is a wonderful feature. The few times I have been inside the building seemed clean and the staff is nice. Downside, they seem to frequently be out of things I need."