8 Supermarket Chains With The Most Unhelpful Staff, According To Reviews

Most people have a preferred grocery store. For some, it's simply the unbeatably low prices or proximity to their homes. For others, it might be the specific store-brand products they can't find anywhere else. But for many, it's employees who are friendly and helpful, and maybe even go above and beyond for their customers. For example, Trader Joe's is known for its friendly staff and has even earned the title of America's most trusted grocery store in 2025. Not only do employees bag your groceries for you, but there are stories of them helping carry groceries out to cars, or giving away free flowers to customers celebrating birthdays. This level of customer service is what keeps customers coming back again and again.

Conversely, certain supermarket chains have developed a reputation for a customer service experience that regularly falls short. Feedback for these stores extends beyond a single bad day or one overwhelmed employee. These supermarket chains show a consistent pattern of frustration with staff that includes long lines from understaffed checkouts, employees dismissing or ignoring questions, and managers who are unavailable or unwilling to resolve issues.

The following chains have been identified by analyzing customer reviews across various sites like Trustpilot and the Better Business Bureau. We also looked at store-specific reviews on Google and social media sites like Reddit and Facebook to find the most frequent offenders when it comes to unhelpful staff.

Walmart is the largest grocery retailer in America, attracting approximately 255 million customers each week across 10,797 stores worldwide. The store's immense presence in the retail landscape is built on the promise of everyday low prices. However, a deep dive into customer feedback suggests this value comes at a significant cost to the in-store experience.

A glance at the store's Trustpilot page, where it holds a bad rating with 1.7 stars, reveals an overwhelming number of grievances beyond just long lines. The dominant focus of complaints is about staff unavailability and apathy. Reviews describe futile searches for an employee to help locate a product or unlock a case. Customers describe experiences of being ignored by staff engaged in personal conversations, both with coworkers and even on their cell phones. The sentiment is echoed at the local level, as seen in Google reviews for specific stores. A store in St. Robert, Minnesota, is just one of three specific Walmart locations on a list of the ten worst grocery stores in the US based on star ratings and number of reviews on Google. Customer consensus at this store is that the staff are rude, with one customer claiming he was yelled at by an employee who wouldn't take his valid coupon at self-checkout.

Reviews across various sites note a lack of open registers, resulting in long and often chaotic self-checkout lines. Defeated shoppers are choosing to shop at the retailer's more expensive competitors, valuing their time and sanity more than Walmart's low prices.

As America's oldest grocery store chain, Kroger describes itself as providing a friendly and engaging place to shop, where customers can find the products they love. A consistent number of customer complaints reveal a vastly different in-store reality defined by frustrating waits and a noticeable lack of staff. Few open registers force customers to long self-checkout lines. At the beginning of 2024, one Kroger location in Dallas ended a three-year experiment testing a self-checkout-only store after customer pushback.

The problem of long wait times can also be found at the customer service desk. Reviews on Google and Trustpilot frequently note unmanned desks, leaving customers stranded when they need help making a return or placing a money order. The location at 2000 East Main Street in Columbus, Ohio, was ranked the third-worst grocery store in the U.S. based on the number of Google reviews. One customer at the location claims the customer service desk is not open according to posted hours, and won't accept returns. This is backed up by another customer at the same store who was told the desk was closed a lot earlier than it should have been.

Comments on community Facebook pages echo the sentiment of long waits, this time at the deli counter. Shoppers vent about long waits to be attended, and when they finally get help, employees move at a glacial pace. One customer claims it took her 12 minutes to get just one pound of sliced cheese. The cumulative waits across different areas of the store leave customers so frustrated that they simply abandon their carts full of groceries to shop elsewhere.

When M.B. Skaggs purchased a tiny grocery store from his father in 1915 that would go on to become Safeway, his focus was on providing value for his customers. Over 100 years later, those customers report a deeply frustrating shopping experience defined by annoyances at the checkout and a lack of empowered staff.

A significant number of complaints on Trustpilot and Sitejabber revolve around the checkout process, where advertised discounts and digital coupons fail to apply to purchases. The problem is not just technological errors, but with employees' inability or unwillingness to resolve them. Reviews describe cashiers who struggle to help apply digital coupons or are unable to perform overrides, causing delays. The issue is worsened by management who are either unavailable or unwilling to help. One shopper on Sitejabber recounts a grocery trip where a new member discount wasn't applied at checkout. The customer was directed from a cashier to a manager, then to the customer service desk, and then back to the manager. A simple price correction turned into a lengthy ordeal for the customer, who says they spent over an hour simply trying to check out.

A Reddit thread reiterates that the customer service at Safeway stores is one of the main reasons people will go out of their way to shop at a different retailer. Multiple Reddit users note that Safeway stores seem short-staffed. One Redditor shares that their local store closes the self-checkouts at night, and no employee is working a register because they are busy stocking, requiring customers to go hunting to find an available cashier. The effect is an environment where customers feel their business is not valued, a long way from M.B. Skaggs original vision for the grocery store.

King Soopers, a Kroger subsidiary, is a supermarket chain located in the Rocky Mountains of the U.S., mostly spread throughout Colorado, with one location in Cheyenne, Wyoming. The 'sooper' in King Soopers is derived from the Archie comic series as an alternate spelling of the word 'super.' However, reviews of the chain's customer service are anything but.

One of the most common complaints across review sites is the exasperatingly long wait times at checkout. Shoppers repeatedly describe scenes where only a couple of registers are open despite a large number of shoppers, leading to lines that reach halfway down the aisles. Numerous reviews accuse staff of being not just unhelpful and apathetic, but sometimes outwardly condescending. Reviewers on Trustpilot and specific store locations tell of instances where they asked an employee a question, only to be made to feel bad by the employee who responded rudely. Another recurring theme is the sight of employees congregating and talking amongst themselves instead of helping shoppers. This perceived idleness is a major source of irritation for customers who are already frustrated by long waits.

Once you make it through the long checkout process, you're met with the presence of security guards checking receipts. Multiple shoppers report negative and sometimes aggressive encounters with the guards. Reviews point out that the lack of staff and presence of security guards, who are sometimes armed, creates a perception of a store prioritizing the security of its merchandise over providing good customer service.

Food Lion describes itself as having a longstanding heritage of low prices and convenient locations, working to provide the easiest grocery shopping experience for their customers. Unfortunately, customers frequently report issues with staff behavior that detracts from the shopping experience. A common complaint on review platforms like Trustpilot and the Better Business Bureau is inattentiveness and outright rudeness. Shoppers describe interactions where employees are dismissive and unengaged. One customer claims a cashier stopped in the middle of ringing up groceries to answer her cell phone and later to make a call.

Another specific and recurring problem involves stockers who block aisles with carts and show no awareness of customers trying to pass or reach products. One shopper details being met with a bad attitude from a stocking clerk when they needed something that was blocked by boxes. Outside of inattentiveness, there is a significant issue with a lack of helpfulness. Multiple reviews state that when staff members are asked a question, they will simply respond that they don't know the answer and make no further attempts to help.

A Facebook post seeks commiseration about a customer service counter that always appears to be closed. Comments flooded the post with their own stories. One customer claims to have waited by the service counter for 45 minutes before receiving any help. Another made a game of going into the store at different times of the day to see if the counter was open, and nine times out of ten, it would be closed. For customers, a frustrating shopping experience where receiving assistance becomes a challenge, undermines any potential loyalty built through low prices or convenient locations.

Jewel-Osco primarily operates in Illinois in the Chicagoland area, but has stores in neighboring Indiana, and one location in Iowa. The company is a consolidation of Jewel Foods and Osco Drug. Today, the two stores operate as a single entity, founded on the philosophy of offering customers the products they want at a fair price, with lots of "tender, loving care." Regrettably, the chain faces substantial criticism for the quality and efficiency of its staff, with reviews highlighting a pattern of poor service.

On Trustpilot and PissedConsumer, employees are frequently described as incompetent, dismissive, and outright rude. One shopper experienced a cashier who seemed annoyed that the customer chose their register as opposed to using self-checkout. When customers do opt to use the self-checkout and run into problems, they're faced with long waits for help, with one shopper waiting 10 minutes for an override. Another reports being met with sarcasm from an employee when trying to scan their coupons.

There are also multiple reports of staff members displaying a clear lack of interest in assisting customers. One reviewer states that they waited at the deli counter for five minutes while three employees looked in the direction of the customer, but never acknowledged them. A post on Facebook recounts a Friday night at the store with only two registers open and lines reaching the middle of the aisles. When customers began asking employees if they could open another register, they were dismissed and eventually cursed at. This reality of disdainful and sometimes hostile staff strays far from the tender, loving care promised in the company's philosophy.

Meijer is a regional supercenter chain primarily operating in the Midwest. One of the company's values is its customers, focusing on meeting their needs and exceeding their expectations. As a superstore, a common customer complaint is the sheer difficulty of finding an employee on the expansive sales floor. Customers report walking entire sections of the store without encountering a single staff member available for assistance. A customer in Canton, Ohio, claims they wandered the store for ten minutes trying to find an employee, and when they finally did, the employee was unable to provide assistance.

The frustration of understaffing is also evident at checkout. One customer turned to TikTok to show the long lines at both self-checkout and registers, claiming he stood in line for 30 minutes waiting to check out. Another customer reported being completely ignored when they experienced a problem with a self-checkout machine not accepting their payment. The shopper contemplated abandoning their groceries to shop at the store across the street when the machine started working properly again, and leaving the customer to wonder how long they would have had to wait for assistance. The overall experience at Meijer, as reflected in reviews, is one of disappointment with service that falls well below customer expectations.

When Joe Albertson opened the first Albertsons store in 1939, he knew the key to running a great store was all about working hard for customers. Unfortunately for Mr. Albertson, recent customer feedback for the chain's stores consistently points to problems with staff attitude and inefficiency. One Trustpilot review from a customer claims they entered the store to purchase only three items, and ended up waiting 35 minutes to make it through the self-checkout. A Reddit user took to the online forum to vent about the lack of open registers during rush hour, speculating that the store doesn't want to properly staff the store, prioritizing profits over customer convenience.

Customers also report problems with employee interactions, frequently describing them as unenthusiastic and idle. A detailed account on Sitejabber describes a cashier who was busy chatting with another coworker and displayed annoyance when having to ring up the customer. The transaction itself was then performed at what seemed to be a deliberately slow pace. These examples of troublesome customer service experiences are a far cry from Albertsons' original philosophy of working hard for their customers.

Good or bad customer service is subjective. What annoys one person may not even register to another. Even beloved grocery chains receive complaints. However, to compile this list, we sought out patterns of dissatisfaction with staff that pointed to systemic issues rather than just isolated incidents.

Our research was based on aggregating and analyzing customer feedback from a variety of sources. This included examining reviews on customer review platforms like Trustpilot, Sitejabber, and the Better Business Bureau. We also looked for discussions on social media sites like Facebook and Reddit, paying particular attention to comments about staff interactions, checkout efficiency, and management. It's important to note that service can vary by location. A chain with an overall poor reputation for customer service may have individual stores that excel in the area. Before heading to one of the retailers above, we recommend checking reviews for your specific store to get more accurate information.