Jewel-Osco

On one occasion I came home with food that had expired and other items that were short-​dated. On the next shopping trip I spent more time in line than I did shopping! I’m giving 2 stars only because the staff is nice. Glad this isn’t my regular shopping place.

This is honestly the worst Jewel I’ve been to… and I LOVE Jewel! I’ve been going since I was a kid. I’ve overlooked the rudeness of some of the employees here for awhile, but after the last time I went I will not be returning. I went to purchase a bottle of alcohol and, after giving her my ID and 2^nd form of identification, was told the photo «did not look like me» and was VERY rude about it. It’s been a few years and yes I HAVE gained weight since then, but that is no reason to be rude to me and treat me like a criminal for trying to buy alcohol. I am 29 and have no reason to have a fake ID! I buy my prescriptions there all the time (with the SAME I.D.) and have a wallet filled with cards that have my name on them. Instead of asking for another form of identification, she turned around with the bottle and sped away. Time to find a new Jewel!

It’s alright; they are open ²⁴⁄₇ and have stuff…

place is getting better. its getting cleaner and staff is more friendly. they need a couple more things like the fresh fish and burger section. its a mess back there. they have no clue young kids and not well ran. i go there to spend money in that part and never buy anything cause you can never see the food due to the widows are all fogged up. i just wish they can get that store right. its so close to my house. maybe next year give it a try again. lets go jewel tighten your shit up please.

I come here for Money Gram. Even though there is a Jewel within walking distance from my dad’s place, it’s worth going a bit out of my way for better service.
The employees, especially Janice Norris, who I actually look forward to seeing work behind the Customer Service Desk, is much more pleasant than the people at the Schaumburg Road location.

Likes, closeby, customer service is good but they do not have a customer service desk (they use an unsued checking lane??), sometimes they dont know or have the items on promotion which is frustrating. You can fine good pricing but you have to go the first day of the sale and use coupons. Self-​checkout is good but why cant you scan your own coupons — whats the point of getting help when you want to exit quickly? They only reduce canned in a cart or small ($ 1.00 to $ 2.50 at the most on expiring meats or bakery cakes). It should be half since they are expiring but thats just a thought. When they have 3 day or one day sales, pricing is good otherwise it can be pricey or higher than Target, Wal-​mart or Butera. They DO NOT PRICE MATCH. Target and Wal-​mart does.

This Jewel-​Osco has a bunch very helpful employees. When they say they have lowered their prices, you will be happy to see that they actually have. Whenever I shop this location, I can usually count on Ryan to help me find an item like BV. He literally knows where everything is in the store. I have been shopping this location for 18 years. They also have a drive-​through pharmacy on the south end of the building.

It’s difficult to review a grocery store because trips there are so frequent that you’re bound to have both good and bad experiences. I find that I am generally pleased with this location. The shelves are (almost) always stocked, and when they are not, they are very generous with rain checks. The produce section and the baked goods section are both consistently good. It loses two stars because I have not had good experiences with management– I have waited many times at customer service only to be ignored by the same woman for pretty much my entire life. When it comes to grocery stores, convenience is always a priority, so I will certainly be back regardless of any negative encounters I have with employees. Not too shabby, Jewel.

Great place to get all your food everything is fresh and they are ready to help for what you need. I think some people that complain about shopping can always use pea pod and pay more and just stay home

Jewel-​Osco is the supermarket super star of this suburb.
Just kidding, I have no idea what I’m talking about. I was with a small group and we walked out with wine, deodorant, tums, and a hairbrush.
Having self check out alone earns any store a star in my books.
Seriously, it’s just a regular old supermarket. What’s not to like?

Lots of improvements have been made, but produce prices still sky high ! The deli team is lazy and very unprofessional. Meat quality is good and the bakery is awesome. I prefer Mariano’s, but if I’m in a hurry they will do.

Not much to say. This is a nice Jewel store.

This is the Jewel store on my way home from work. For the most part, I find myself stopping here for last minute needs but I’m not a fan of the layout. I’m more likely to drive to our Jewel on Schaumburg and Barrington roads. They have more friendly faces and I can find what I need there. I didn’t like the layout before and now that they are redoing the stores, I’m even more confused. Please be done with changes soon!
They have all the basics at this store but since the Dominick’s down the street is closed down, this place is a madhouse they cannot seem to keep up with. More registers are needed and additional staff to make up for all the new shoppers. We waited about 20 minutes in line for a few groceries yesterday. I was not a happy camper, to say the least. Mariano’s is not too far away, Jewel, you may want to consider making some improvements.

I strongly dislike Jewel and not just this one either.
As you read the store’s name on the building, it reads Jewel — Osco. Jewel, of course, is a grocer, and Osco is a pharmacy. The sign implies that this is a market that includes a pharmacy. In practice, I think they have it backwards; it’s really an extended pharmacy that includes a market– and all that that implies. Start to finish, Jewel is an expensive, stale, incomplete, and frustrating experience.
When you walk into Walgreens and/​or CVS, you know what you’re getting into. You might need to pick up a prescription when you realize, «Crap! I need milk and shampoo.» You go the the requisite shelves and realize that those items are far from cheap. However, it might be cheaper than buying another tank of gas; plus you have to get your prescription anyway. You’re about to make your purchase when you run into a roadblock– there’s only one register open, and the person at the head of the line has a stack of coupons (expired) and will be paying with check. And if the cashier is a dollar off, a manager has to come over to keep the peace. But you are in a pharmacy. You’ve made your bed. Expect this.
That’s not necessarily what you expect from a grocer, but essentially that’s what you get at Jewel.
Like a pharmacy convenience store, everything is overpriced unless they are having a sale. In that case, food will run you what amounts to pre-​sale prices anywhere else. $ 5 boxes of cereal will get marked down to $ 3.99 at Jewel, while Target is selling them 2 for $ 5. That sort of thing. Although their beef and fish are usually OK, their chicken is wildly overpriced, and usually comes in packages that assume you will be hosting a party of 30. Milk is so expensive that Jewel has been of accused of price fixing in the past (
). Have the prices gone down since? Not really.
Jewel is also notorious for their generic brand. In some cases, generics are fine (like generic medications, Roundy’s brand from Mariano’s, Trader Joe’s brand, etc.), but Jewel’s stuff is not great and mostly not worth trying. Too bad Jewel wastes so much shelf space trying so hard to sell their own stuff– I’ve found over the years that as their generic brand spreads, it does so at the expense of items you’d otherwise normally buy.
The produce is about what you’d expect too– generally hard, poor quality on most fruit. While you can find some decent stuff every once in a while, there’s not much to choose from. The selection is terrible if you’re used to Mariano’s or Caputo’s, or Valli, or Whole Foods, or Meijer… almost everywhere else, really.
There’s also a poor selection of nice cheese/​crackers/​entertaining food. Ten years ago, this was not a big deal. However, as one looks around at other grocers, there’s an apparent trend toward more of a connoisseur consumer. I guess Jewel doesn’t think that applies to them. But it’s about more than having those items for consumption, it’s also about having new and interesting things to notice and try when you visit the store. Not just sharp cheddar cheese.
Furthermore, checkout is consistently painful, assuming you have a basket of groceries. Imagine 20 lanes, 4 of which are open, and thus, choked with the same sorts of people you see at Walgreens/​CVS with a hundred coupons. Only this time, they have a shopping cart filled to the brim. Compare this with Valli Produce, a grocer right down the street, who usually have no baggers on duty and can get through a solid line of carts filled with produce in a matter of minutes. The big difference? No coupons, specific cash/​credit only lanes, and cashiers trained to know every fruit and vegetable key code at a glance.
To their credit, Jewel has tried to manage their checkouts. In fact, in this area at least, they pioneered self checkout. It is faster than their regular lines by a lot, but unless you’re buying only a few items, you obviously have the same time sucking drawbacks that come with all computerized touch screen cashiers. I guess the problem with their checkouts (in my opinion) is that they’re not making their people or their lanes more efficient, they’re just trying to get a computer to do the work.
Apparently, Jewel has been around since the turn of the 20^th century but has not gotten the memo that they now face unprecedented competition. It’s just amazing to me that a grocer could be in business for so long and get things as wrong as they have. Their convenience store mentality isn’t convenient for people that just expect fair prices, quality, and selection with a fast checkout. Good luck to Jewel as they now face what will most likely be a serious uphill battle to win back their patrons in the wake of decades of foolish business decisions.

This jewel is close to my childhood home so I have been coming here for years. I have never had any complaints and the service is consistent. They have decent sales and it’s easier than Walmart to get in and out of. I actually really like the taco dip from here. I’ve tried Meijer’s and Kroger’s and they are not as fresh. I wouldn’t do all my shopping here since some of the prices can be high but it’s great for picking up small things like dinner.

To me, This Jewel is like a stale cupcake. Why:
1) Even though you know there are better things out there, you end up going back again and again until you finish it off. (or in my case, get the groceries you need)
2) It may not taste the best (nor do Jewel’s groceries), but it’s just good enough to suffice.
3) Said stale cupcake is on your counter so you might as well eat it. This Jewel is right down the street from my house, so I might as well shop there.
It’s fine all the way around, but if Mariano’s was about 10 minutes closer, I wouldn’t think twice about spending time in this Jewel.

Meh.
It’s Jewel, and nothing in here stands out or makes the consumer go out of his/​her way to shop here.
Unfortunately, this Jewel loses a star because the customer service is blah. I came here before work to pick up something for lunch. I was looking forward to a 7 Layer Salad, but the only one I saw in the deli case was brown and unappetizing. I went to the deli clerk and asked if she happened to have any more in the back. She took the salad from me without a word, and went to the back. A moment later, I see the same clerk come from another part of the store, saying, «This just came in this morning,» dropping off my salad without eye contact, a smile, or a thank you. Excuse me for wanting to spend my hard-​earned money at your place of business. :-/​
The fresh salad wasn’t even good. The grab-​and-​go from Dominick’s is much better.
It’s here if you need to pick up a gallon of milk or loaf of bread, but for routing grocery shopping, there are much better places to go.

Meh. It’s Jewel. The only reason I have quite a few check ins here was because I’d swing by to pick up some things for breakfast or lunch before work. This was the only place open in the mornings on my route that was kind of quick and isn’t fast food. Otherwise, I stay away. I don’t go here for grocery shopping — prices are kind of high for what the store is, the health/​organic selection is slim, and there’s not many people around to help you. They also got rid of their rewards card! No such discounts/​sales anymore. Lame. Workers have been friendly though, and there aren’t any big lines, so that’s a plus. Compared to other Jewels I’ve been to, this is one of the better ones.

It’s just a Jewel. And yet… there’s something about this Jewel that makes me forget it’s a big faceless corporate chain grocery store.
We totally take advantage of their 24-​hour schedule. Late at night, it’s weirdly peaceful, the same cashiers and pharmacists are always there, and they’re competent and friendly. I didn’t even realize how competent they were until I started experiencing incompetence while checking out at the Schaumburg Whole Foods, ha.
Once in a while we get a glimpse of something *more*. One day there was a stand by the entrance offering free salsa samples from the deli workers, one of whom proudly explained he was hoping to get it approved so they could start selling it. They were also doing pineapple cutting demos. Another day there was a charmingly hand-​drawn sign explaining how to cut pineapple. «ENJOY!!!» was the last step. It’s inspiring to see people putting personality and effort into a potentially very blah establishment like this. However, I haven’t seen much of this stuff lately, so maybe it didn’t catch on with the bosses. Going to have to ask the cashiers some time.

Just 3 issues —
1. They need a bell for the meat/​fish counter if there is no one there. The butchers want it too so it’s hard to understand why management hasn’t done it, especially with the big remodel they did recently.
2. There are times, not always, when there are three people behind the deli counter who will not stop what they are doing to wait on people regardless of how deep the line.
3. As soon as most of us learn a new layout, they will change it to something less logical than the most recent layout.