Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Kroger bagels

Last Saturday (April 25th) I purchased 2 packages of Kroger bagels, that were on sale 10 for $10. When we brought them home we refrigerated them as instructed on the package. This morning, when we went to use them for breakfast we found that they were growing mold!!!

Needless to say this was unexpected and disappointing only 4 days after purchasing them.

We do still have one of the packages - I looked for any kind of code or sale by date but did not see any obvious one.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Sycamore Township traffic problems

I am writing to express 2 areas of traffic unpleasantness on Montgomery Road in Sycamore Township.

#1 - Early in the mornings (say, before 8:00 a.m.), the traffic light pattern for the traffic light between Nordstroms and LCA Vision is not commesurate with the traffic. At that time of day, traffic is at least 90% either coming from or going to Interstate 71. There is almost never a car that is coming out from Nordstroms or from the LCA / Staples / Old Navy shopping area (since they're all closed that early in the morning). Similarly, even with the construction at Nordstroms, there are almost never cars trying to turn left off of Montgomery, and even when there are, the traffic is light enough that a left turn is easily accomplished.

It's just frustrating as I'm heading off to work, that I have to sit at a red light for 30-60 seconds as no cross traffic takes advantage of it and then, to add further insult, sit ANOTHER 30-45 seconds as nobody takes advantage of a left turn arrow. Such a traffic pattern is definitely called for after say 9:30 or 10:00 a.m. when the mall and shopping areas open, but not before that.

My recommendation would be to re-program that traffic light for early morning times to be "on-demand", and only provide a green light for cross traffic when there actually IS traffic to use it.

#2 - Slightly further north on Montgomery, when going southbound, it is extremely frustrating having to be backed up by someone turning left into the Starbucks plaza. Since there is no dedicated turn lane, and usually heavy traffic coming northbound, it can really back up southbound traffic. There may not be anything that can be done about this, since I'm sure the businesses in that plaza would not be in favor of forbidding left turns into the plaza, and there may not be enough road to have a turn lane there, but I just thought I would express my frustration in the matter.

Thank you for your time in reading this and your attention to this matter.

Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Sams Club followup

Received a letter from the membership manager at my local Sam's. Now, normally, I don't like to pick TOO much on people's spelling / grammar, but this lady IS a manager, and...well, you'll see.

Mr. Miller,

I understand your frustration with the difference of Sam's Club pricing and would like to explain why our prices are different at each location. Each club comps prices within their local area on a weekly basis. For example, Tri-county and Fields Ertle (sic) (two stores you mentioned) will comp their local grocery stores, but they also comp Costco pricing, as eash (sic) of these stores have a Costco in their local range. Eastgate will comp their local GFS. Until recently, the Oakley store has had no one to comp but the local Meijer and Krogers (sic) which is easy for us to beat prices on (sic). However, we have just started comping Restaurant Depo (sic) as well, which will make a significant difference in our pricing as it is actually someone to compeat (sic) with. We have just gained access to comp them as of last week, so you should see a drop in our pricing. I hope this better explains why you find a difference in pricing between stores as each store has a range we are allowed to comp within as well as pricing autonomy on low on hand items and/or display units (sic for massive run-on). If you have any further questions, please feel free to contact myself or any other manager at the club.

Respectfully,

Ashley xxxxx
Membership Manger

=====================

To which I responded:

Ms. Byrd,

Thank you for your response. I understand your reasoning, since it is your (and your fellow associates') responsibility to maximize profits for your store. I am sure that you will also understand that since it is my responsibility to provide food for my family at the lowest price possible, until such time as the prices come down, I will be doing my weekly Sam's club shopping at the xxxxx store.

I am not familiar with Restaurant Depot, though it appeared that they sell more supplies rather than actual food. I did notice that you did not mention comping with the Aldi on xxxxx, which has lower prices than you on many food items.

Again, thank you for your time. It was nice to actually get a response back (as opposed to previous times I have contacted Sam's)

Dan Miller.

Thursday, April 2, 2009

The "Quality" of Pampers

To Whom It May Concern,

I've been wanting to write this letter for a few weeks now. We have two children: an almost 2-year-old and a 5-month-old. When we had our first child, we tried just about every diaper brand out there and ultimately decided, rather early on, that Pampers was by far the most absorbent and best-fitting brand of diapers. We have not used anything but Pampers for almost two years now. However, within the past few weeks, when we go to put a diaper on one of our children, we often find that one of the tabs completely rips off, rendering the diaper utterly useless. This has happened about 7 or 8 times now and is unacceptable. Diapers are way too expensive, especially these days, to just say, "Oh, well." We have always loved the Pampers brand for our children, but we are very seriously considering switching to another brand. Huggies, for example, is available at Costco and is cheaper than getting Pampers elsewhere, which is what we have always done in the past, because we believed Pampers to be the best. We don't feel this to be the case anymore.

Thank you for your time, and I hope that you will improve the quality of Pampers so that the problems that we have been experiencing do not happen again.

Sams Club

Hi,

I am calling to complain about the high prices at the Sams Club that is nearest my house (Club #xxxx). I got a Sams Club membership (again) a little more than a year ago and for the most part have been very happy. You have a good selection and better prices on some items than a typical grocery store.

But recently, while I was at a different Sams Club also in the Cincinnati metro area, I noticed that the price on cheese was lower than I remembered. Then, after I got home and did a little research on your website, I found that this was not a fluke, that in fact, the prices at my Sams Club were consistently higher (and not insignificantly).

I compared 4 clubs that are near my house: Club xxxx (8 mins away), Club xxxx (22 mins), Club xxxx (15 mins) and club xxxx (23 mins), for the items that I typically buy at your store.

Here are a few of the items, with the prices at each of those 4 clubs
5 lb Cheddar Cheese - $8.24, $8.28, $9.16, $9.22
5 lb Mozzerella Cheese - $7.93, $8.05, $8.53, $8.56
American cheese - $7.42, $7.79, $8.12, $8.12
Pancake mix - $5.68, $5.72, $5.72, $6.48

I did find a few items (mostly non-perishables) that appeared to be the same price at each club.

I just find it frustrating that in order to achieve the "every day low prices" that your company always touts and advertises, that I have to drive around to several different clubs WITHIN YOUR SAME COMPANY!!!

I would like to send this to the manager of my local store (#xxxx) to let him know that he will now be losing my business due to his prices, but found no way to contact an individual store on your website.

Thank you for your time.

Dan Miller