Winn-Dixie Stores Consumer Reviews - Page 2

FLORIDA -- Hi I have been reading a lot of peoples reviews on here and decided that I would really break it down for the consumers that issue the complaints about Winn-Dixie. First off I would like to say that I am a former employee of Winn-Dixie and because of the way I was let go, I don't have very much respect for the company in general. But, on that note from a true inside perspective, I would like to say that the real problem with the company would have to be more so the consumers, that constantly complain about customer service.

Every time someone complains about the lack of customer service on here or any other review site, management lets go a hard worker for a not so hard worker that enjoys talking to customers more than actually performing the very demanding, strenuous work tasks involved with the grocery retail business. In doing this, the result is less production and more of the how do you do's and may I help you's. The problem with this is that if you are not able to sustain a certain level of production, overall quality and workmanship suffers especially with the harder workers that are left to deal with the not so hard workers.

A lot of people think that because you stand in a air conditioned environment that your job is easier than other jobs. This is definitely not the case. The people that work at this company are for the most part non glorified athletes, that do not by any means get the credit they deserve. When I say this I'm not talking about the part timers, I'm talking about the full time employees that are there day in and day out working relentlessly to maintain a level of stock on in dry grocery dairies and frozen food Departments (The Hardest Working Departments).

Now lets face it if most of you consumers could throw 60+ pieces of the cans isle per hour in dry grocery up to 300-400 pieces in a 4-5 hour time span, Throw 2-3 2000 lb pallets of ice per day plus 300-500 cases of frozen stock in one 8 hour day, plus file necessary paper work, or load 4 2000 lb pallets of milk alone in to a dairy cooler, plus the 300 plus pieces it takes to fill the dairy shelves in one 8 hour day, you would be doing it yourself. Very apparently this is not the case.

Within the company currently this is the major problem. There is a inside battle going on between the people that believe that it all about hard work and the people that think it's all about how good you schmooze the consumer. Fortunately kissing the consumers butt keeps you guys off there butts for customer service reasons, but not for keeping the items you want on the shelves. Now with an currently undermanned grocery environment that Winn-Dixie has to deal with, it has to really be more about the hard worker then the schmoozer.

Because lets face it, if we go out of our way to constantly ask you how you are doing and see if you need anything, we will not get enough done on the production level and you the consumer will complain about your items not being there. Not to mention the fact that most people will go out of their way to complain rather than compliment. You the consumer would have to realize this before the company can do better. When your in the store and you see a hard working stocker doing his job and he does not notice you, this is most likely because he is on a designated time frame set forth by his superior not because he does not care.

If you were to actually ask the stocker or associate while they are engraved in there work they will almost always try to answer your question timely and efficiently, but if you simply stare at them they don't have eyes in the back of their head nor are they psychic, or they may realize that you are staring and don't want to slow themselves within there designated time frame. Potentially losing there job over not meeting production standards in a very demanding environment.

It's nothing personal toward you the consumer. But like I stated above if you ask, they will most likely have an answer. Now after stating all of what I have above and seeing the common complaints about management and their lax behavior, I would like to point something else out before I depart. In my personal opinion I would have to say that the reason for the lax behavior among the half of the stores management teams out there, at least in the county I reside in is because of a decrease in pay out all over the board. Forced turnover has created a lower payout for management with only younger men and women seeing the pay as good pay.

This breeds room for young less experienced people that have less life experience to mishandle management decisions that would be better implemented by someone of an older age with kids and responsibilities and such of their own. The current half of the company's misguided management that are the schmoozers are following company guidelines to strictly and not using enough of their own judgment.

This I believe stems from customer complaints that are mistreated by the schmoozers because of hard workers being traded for but kissers. The overall demands of the schmoozers to the employee base has caused a decrease in production and an increase in the how do you do's and how may I help you's, that the company currently has little time for unless asked. Thank you for your time and please really think about this one because if we all start analyzing the butt kisser as the hard workers because they're always there to talk to as the one that deserves the most credit, where will the rest of the losing company's threw out America be soon.

Hard work is the back bone of America not how good we rub each other. And also remember in a perfect world maybe you could get both, but in the world of reality you usually cannot. Take Publix for instance, store nearly is overmanned to provide you with the level of workmanship they deliver but at the same time Publix is stationed next to an old fart home while they capitalize off of the elderly, retirement's offering high priced convenience items wile targeting 55+'s. How honest is that. Just Food For Thought.

PINELLAS COUNTY, FLORIDA -- I have been working for Winn Dixie for three years and have been a customer service lead for almost a year of it. My position is one of the managers. I have to say that my store and some others that I have been to in the pinellas county area are really clean. We also focus in on our customer service and freshness policy. Our managers work hard to make sure we are the best. We have special meetings just to discuss that our customers are number one. It is almost hard for me to believe some of these complaints that I have read on here.

My store manager and all of my other fellow managers would have listened completely and done anything to make you leave happy. If we are out of a sale item we make sure to get it in a timely manner and are instantly trying to find something else to replace it with or write a raincheck. If something would have happened with chair deal we probably would have given for the others price.

We do everything in our power to make the customer happy. My store is really clean as well we have nightly chores that all our front end people are responsible for. The bathrooms are another story. Did you know there are people that come in and completely destroy them I know that I have had to clean them up before, and I did not feel so good afterwards. Sometimes we do not know that the bathrooms are messy and the second we have a customer tell us about, we are out there cleaning asap... a couple times we have had to completely shut down the bathroom, it was so bad.

We also have never stuck out old meat with new tags. I am sorry to say every store including everyones precious favorite Publix has had bad meat before. I also have to say that Winn Dixie does have a lot of cheaper prices than Publix. Of course some of their products might be cheaper than ours but overall I find our products to be cheaper. Our sales are also a lot better. There are somethings I do not like about Winn Dixie but mostly it has to do with internal things such as raises and some of the idiotic things that the upper managers say. But I believe that will be in any company you find.

I also have to stick up for my store manager and co-director. They work their butts off and deserve every dime they are making. OK I think that is all for now. I was just so p.o'ed about some of the customer complaints. One more thing, when a customer comes in on Easter, one of our busiest days of the year and gets mad because we are out of french fried onions... and says next time I am going to go to Publix... just want to let you know they are not FREAKIN open... only we are, aka the reason we are sold out. OK for real that is all now!

OCALA, FLORIDA -- I worked for Winn-Dixie for five years. During those five years I was a great employee and always received an above average on my annual reviews. I was a manager and had been for four out of the five years I was employed at the company. I had never done anything in five years to harm the company and always completed my job duties. I know that the ATF comes into the stores and does alcohol and tobacco stings to ensure that no one is selling to minors. After several times that the company got busted for underage alcohol sales, they decided to update their register systems.

Their registers now require you to enter the date on the id or get a manager's override to sale the alcohol. This is only for alcohol. When you sale tobacco you are still able to make your own decision on if you should enter the date of birth or you feel they are old enough to purchase. Winn-Dixie's register system is flawed. When you go to sell anything that requires a certain age to purchase you must hit clear and override. You only hit override if they are old enough. You can only hit clear and override for tobacco and lottery. Remember that you must get a key for alcohol or enter the date.

If you make a mistake and hit clear and override, the system does not allow you to go back in and enter the date of birth. We had the ATF come in and do a sting. After five years of hitting clear and override, I sold a pack of tobacco to a minor. Clearly I would not do this on purpose as it would be risking my job. I misread the date on the id and was not able to go back into the system to enter the date of birth. The ATF came in and wrote me a ticket to go to court as this is a class II misdemeanor charge. I have never been in any trouble in my life, with my personal life or Winn-Dixie life.

My human resources manager was contacted to be made aware of what had just happened. When I spoke to him on the phone, he terminated me over the phone (how professional) stating that he felt that he needed to be consistent with what has been done in the past to other employees that committed the same infraction and that my time with the company was not being taken into consideration.

I explained to him that I worked there for five years, made an honest unintentional human error, and I have never hurt the company in any way before. I also told him that I had no way of knowing that he was being consistent. He did not offer to suspend me for further investigation even though the policy does not state automatic termination.

I told him that I was sure that there was a girl that committed the same infraction at store 2213 and she did not get fired. He did not offer to check into that before firing me. After being terminated I did my own investigating. There was most definitely a girl at 2213 that committed the same infraction. She was not fired, but six months later was promoted to a front end manager. She committed the same infraction and received a freaking raise for it. My store manager was also terminated, but only after his fifth violation as a store manager. Winn-Dixie's code of ethics states that they deal fairly with all customers, associates, investors, business partners, and competitors.

This is a load of bs. If you are going to fire someone under the statement that you are being consistent then you might want to make sure you truly are being consistent before you fire them. You should make sure they are being treated fairly since that is part of the company's code of ethics. I feel that I made the mistake, but my disciplinary action was definitely unfair because that another person did the same thing, was not with the company for five years, and was not fired, but promoted. I worked hard for that company for five years and it was not taken into consideration.

The human resources manager knows how bad the economy is nowadays and did not take into consideration that I had been an excellent employee with no prior record. I feel like all the five years that I worked there was for nothing. Winn-Dixie is probably the most inconsistent company I will ever work for.

AVON PARK, FLORIDA -- Okay, to start things off, I am not here to slander Winn-Dixie. I am here to tell things how I see them. I used to work for them for a few months as a bagger and well, from my experience, the particular store I worked for did have valuable customer service - not the best but definitely satisfactory - but they are NOT top-notch when it comes to keeping their store clean and their food fresh. I will explain why:

1. There is a review here about how the meat department puts new stickers on old meat. This is definitely true, as I have had to do a lot of work around that area. In fact the only recollection I have of them throwing away their old meat is not a very good one. One morning, as I was collecting carts from the parking lot, I found a HUGE bag that smelled like a dead dog. You could smell it from a mile away. I was surprise no one had noticed it sitting there all night. I thought someone had killed something and threw it out. Well I open the bag and I found about a couple of hundred pounds of rotting meat in there.

Not only did I inform management, the manager on duty was so grossed out he had me take all of that crap out by myself. It's bad enough they don't clean their meat department well enough, it's irresponsible to leave a bag of rotting meat out in the open and have their bagger throw it all out on his own. This shows that the person that was working in the meat department the previous day was too lazy to properly dispose the meat, he/she left it out in the parking lot, in a bag on a shopping cart and the bagger on duty that night was too lazy to pick up carts before the store closed.

I estimated that, since the meat department closes at around 8 PM there, the meat was sitting out in the open for a good 15 hours before I discovered it upon the start of my shift. The smell was so strong I had to ask customers outside to step back. I couldn't bring all that crap into the store.

2. A lot of times the manager would ask me to take something into the freezer to find that there are a lot of spills. Sometimes the freezer would even smell. I hated going in there. They really need to do something about that. That and they need to organize their products in there a little better.

3. The backroom, where the stockers collect all the products after the truck delivers them to put them on the shelves - no where near clean. There is too much crap on the ground, sometimes it's hard to walk around there.

4. I can't count the times I've gone to the bathroom during my break to find a huge turd floating on the toilet. Once I found one on the urinal. THE URINAL!

On top of all this, they do not treat their employees very well. They certainly didn't treat me like a human being. Besides the fact that the manager called me into her office to nag at me about not doing anything (even though at the time I was bringing out bags) she called me names and would make me pick up shopping carts in the middle of a tropical storm.

I hated working for them. I hate Winn-Dixie. I hate the management in it. I hate the fact that they stole hours from me, I hate the fact that there products are so pricy, and I hate the fact that their baggers/cashiers have to do all the damn work while they sit on their ass and make 20 times more than we do by doing NOTHING. They don't even back up cashiers when there are long lines.

In conclusion they sure as heck aren't the cleanest store. I would also like to say that I am not writing this review because they treated me unfairly. I am writing this review because I have seen these things. Heck, I was treated worse at Sweet Bay, but I would gladly say they have the cleanest store I've ever seen. If you want fresh meat, fresh fruits and vegetables and all around fresh foods, ignore the fact that the people there suck, at least they do their jobs. I could say a lot more, but I think I've made my point across about Winn-Dixie.

CRYSTAL RIVER, FLORIDA -- Didn't want to go to this WD as the last time I was put off by the way they just don't care for your health and safety. No..I mean..NONE..hand wipes or sanitizer at either entrance. I had something to say to a girl behind the front counter about today there were still no wipes or anything to use as a sanitizer. A smart ** remark came from the other side of the wall that I should bring my own next time.. THERE won't be one!! Going to PUBLIX from now on..

MIAMI, FLORIDA -- Had $1 left in cash, decided to purchase 6 bananas at .65 per pound. My cost was $1.01. The cashier took one banana out, FOR ONE PENNY🙈. C'mon, how about when I leave pennies with the cashiers in case someone, like I was, is short a penny. ** was the cashier at the 3275 SW 22nd St; she told me the penny would come out of her pocket. I'm sorry, but if it had been me, I wouldn't had taken out a whole banana for one penny. 👎🏼👎🏼👎🏼

ST PETERSBURG, FLORIDA -- I went this morning to the branch in 4th St. North because I wanted to use their Western Union Services and the personnel that is there specifically Friday mornings is awful, the person was very rude and unprofessional. I am never coming back to the store to do that transaction.

CRAWFORDVILLE, FLORIDA -- The new WD store brand is horrible. The Southeastern Grocers cheese has the taste and texture of wax. The Southeastern Grocers ice cream is over sweet and has NO flavor. Taste like sugar and candy not chocolate or vanilla. Bad choice WD. I will not be buying any of your SG brands. The fact that you are closer than Publix is the ONLY reason I trade with the Crawfordville, Florida WD.

SARASOTA, FLORIDA -- Winn-Dixie is now collecting your driver's license information when you buy beer. I'm 60 and offered to show my ID, not good enough, they want your info scanned into their computers. NO WAY!! No longer a customer.

FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA -- Purchased coffee that was marked 50% off. At checkout it rang up full price. After argument and price check I ended up having to walk back to the coffee aisle and get the sign. No apologies were given.