Hannaford Supermarkets

I love the Hannaford brand, but walking into this store you get an overwhelming smell of bad fish or seafood. I’ve tried to shop here several times, but that smell is very troublesome. Many members of my family and friends who live in the area also detect this odor, so I’m confident I’m not hallucinating about this. College biology taught me that a foul odor around organic products is usually a sign of bacteria.
With a newly remodeled Pricechopper down the street I have to take my business there. I sure wish the brand would investigate this. I can’t believe everyone is ok with the store smelling so foul. Something seriously unhealthy could be going on.

My recollection is that this was the first Hannaford in the area, many years ago. My parents would make the half-​hour drive down to it for groceries, over closer stores in Saratoga. This was my first time in the store, and I feel the store has maintained the high quality over time to which my parents referred. The store is well stocked, bright with wide aisles, and quite clean. Just about all the registers were going, and the cashiers were friendly. And the prices are always competitive. I noticed that several of the newer stores upstate, and others which were smaller and have now expanded, seem to be modeled after this store, and rightly so.

I love Hannaford! Much better than Pricechopper. The store is clean, with a very good variety of produce without breaking the bank. You can normally get a close parking spot to the enterance of the store and they normally have enough cashiers to make the lines manageable (unlike Wal-​Mart).

Seriously, Hannaford? Do you have to hold my hand?
Scene:
I have returned bottles/​cans and need a refund. Upon passing customer service I see an old woman who is clearly an obsessive lotto junkie and another customer behind her. I head to the Queue. Two free registers. All clear behind me.
Queue Guard wants me to go to customer service. I ask why I can’t use a check-​out lane like I always do? Queue Guard tells me they want to sell groceries.
I go hang out behind little-​bit-​o-​luck and WAIT. Still two free registers.
Thanks a lot for your wacky check-​out system that invariably wastes more of my time than necessary when I do business here. People don’t generally like to be told what to do and your system for trading goods for money is condescending.
I’m a grown up. Please let me make decisions.

Speeding up the Queue!
Very little has been written about the new checkout system that has been installed at some of the Hannaford markets. My initial reaction was to be unimpressed. When the store wasn’t busy, no problem — no one was standing on queue waiting. When the store was busy, the queue looked so long that it was snaking into shopping aisles. On occasions I’ve chosen to use the self-​checkout to avoid the queue.
On one occasion, so many people were avoiding the queue and waiting to use the self-​checkout that I even tried using the Service Desk as suggested by another customer who took pity on me with my 2 items to be purchased. But that proved to be slower than the queue when the customer ahead of me had a very involved issue with a purchase.
Today, however, I had an experience that turned my opinion around 180 degrees and demonstrated to me that Hannaford is making a concerted effort to speed up the queue. With only two items again, I decided to go through the queue since no one else was waiting. I was directed to a lane that had two other customers checking out. I was NOT sent to any lane that already had customers with overflowing baskets. The first customer in my lane was having his purchase bagged and the customer directly in front of me couldn’t have had more than 10 items.
And then the dreaded potential delay unfolded. The cashier called for the supervisor to authorize the sale of beer for this customer and there seemed to be an issue — possibly because some of the purchase was being paid with an EBT (food stamp) card. Before I could say «here we go again,» the clerk doing the bagging stepped past the cashier and asked us if he could pre-​scan our items for us. While I wasn’t sure what this would do for us, we accepted and then something I’d never seen before transpired.
The bagger picked up a remote, wireless, handheld scanner (like they use when taking inventory in the aisles) and began to scan our two items. He entered some additional information into this device and then picked up a «special» customer’s purchases divider that he placed on the conveyer belt next to the divider that I had already put on the belt to separate my items from the guy in front of me. The bagging clerk then bagged our two items but left them on the belt. The bagger then proceeded to go through the same process with a customer who was now behind us.
When the guy in front of us was finally paid-​up and leaving, the cashier picked up that «special» divider that the bagger had placed in front of our bagged items, scanned the divider as if we were purchasing it, and then told us what our total amount due was.
Now this may not seem like it saved that much time for us with two items, but remember I said the bagger did the same pre-​screening and bagging for the customer behind us also. That customer had several more items than us and was through the checkout as fast as he could pay his bill.
I commend Hannaford for taking the bank queue lines at least one step further and improving upon an outdated system. Their checkout counters are even specifically designed for this improved checkout process by incorporating an additional bagging area behind the cashier.

Since they redesigned the store, I’ve been blown away by this place. Hannaford was always my favorite, especially for fresh produce (I’d rather cut off my foot than buy produce at Wal-​Mart), but now their selection has soared above and beyond my expectations. The layout is much more intuitive, and now that the organic selection is now mixed in with like products throughout the store (clearly marked by a sign in every section), it’s much easier to pick out organic goods when doing normal shopping instead of having to search for it in the small Organic section that used to be there. They’ve also gotten a lot more interesting gourmet products. The checkout process is much quicker now that they have the single line, and they added several self-​check outs.

Indeed after all the teething Hannaford has improved it’s Clifton Park store. It’s pretty cheap and everything organic and chem treated is all kind of mixed in (which is nice it’s all in one place which makes comparo’s easier) but still labeled. They also have a fresh local foods cart (way too small but they still are trying) up front at the beginning of the produce section.
Things I still don’t like–
The new single line cashier system is dependent on all the person who manages the queue. When they are good it can fly, when they are bad you can get screwed.
The new queue also limits space and the end of a few aisles and I can see it getting awkward.

The customer service at this Hannaford is unparalleled with any other supermarkets I’ve been to (or even retail store). Cashiers are friendly, and usually ask, «Did you find everything you need?» I interpreted this as a generic question/​greeting, but when I actually mentioned to the cashier that I couldn’t find frozen shredded hash browns, he called a manager to see if they had any in the back.
In addition, one time they charged us for 2 packs of powerade when we only purchased one. I showed the receipt and our items to customer service immediately (I’m an obsessive receipt checker, but case in point, it pays off), and not only did they refund the cost of the powerade pack, but they also gave us $ 3.00 for «the inconvenience.» NO, and I mean NO other store would go to such great lengths to keep their customers happy.
In terms of the aesthetics and the actual food, I always buy produce here because it is readily stocked and fresh — the prices for organic are a little higher. I’m here about 3 times a week, and rely on the prices being lower than Price Chopper or on par with Wal-​mart (for most things). The store is clean, well-​lit, and the cashiers and customer service are always friendly and professional. Definitely a wonderful & convenient place to buy groceries.

Hannaford is hands-​down the nicest place to shop for groceries in the immediate vicinity of Exit 9 on the Northway. Alternatives are Price Chopper (on the other side of the street), Aldi, and Wal-​Mart.
It isn’t that Hannaford is so great, it’s that the alternatives are pretty awful. Shopping at Wal-​Mart for groceries is a pretty miserable experience and I never did get the hang of shopping at Aldi. Price Chopper ranks second out of the bunch — it’s cheaper than Hannaford, but not enough so to warrant going out of my way.