Read ALL about it!

I am sure by now most people have heard that Consumer Reports annual ranking of the supermarket industry is on the newsstands. After all, tidbits of the rankings have been picked up by most of the major newspapers across the country. We all know that Wegmans once again came out on top, Pathmark was near the bottom and Walmart came in dead last. However, to find "real news" about the survey -- and more importantly to see what your customers think about your actual stores -- I suggest you read the online version of your local article and click on the "comments" link or balloon at the bottom. That is what I did when I read a link to the philly.com version of the article that I received with my FMI Daily Lead last week. At last count some 233 shoppers wrote in about their experiences with even the high-ranking chains getting slammed. After Radnor Voter wrote: "Wegmans hands down is the best." Christopher Donald felt compelled to write: "Wegmans has gone way down hill lately with fewer consumer choices available. If you do not want to buy Wegmans house brand, in many categories you are out of luck. It's closer to Soviet Russia than most folks want to admit." That prompted pshulze to chime in: "I shop at Wegmans in Great Valley all the time and find that it frequently runs out of thing I want, doesn't carry the brands I like, and pushes its own private-label garbage vs. brand name products I prefer. It may be #1, but there is lots of room for improvement." Seven more shoppers wrote in with mixed reviews regarding Wegmans, with some wishing they would open up shop within the Philadelphia city limits. All these comments caused Bette -- who judging from her photo bears a really uncanny resemblance to the 1930s screen siren -- to ponder: "Is Wegmans better than Acme? Acme is one of a kind. Where else can I get inferior produce, meats and shop around in a filthy dirty store. Where else can I get terrible customer service and stand in long checkout lines because only one line is open? Where else can I expect the employees to smell and be mentally challenged? Only at Acme!" To which Citylady 52 replied: "Hmmm -- that does sound pretty bad. The Acme in Jenkintown is really a pretty nice store and nice employees that are helpful too." The comments continued, taking more pot shots at Acme, Wegmans and Super Fresh too. I think the moral here is retailers need to hire someone to monitor what is going on in the blogosphere. True, most of these people are probably crackpots with nothing better to do, but if more than one person starts writing in about a particular dirty store, bad food or rude employees, maybe there is something to it. Upper management should make an unannounced visit to that location and see for themselves.