March 2021 by Majo John M.
Me and my little Chihuahua Panchita have spent the last year traveling around several counties in western North Carolina. We have dealt with the Ingles stores very extensively - and they sometimes very cordially have allowed us to park our camper van in the parking lot overnight. One observation I have made, which has been confirmed by at least one country Ingles manager, is that there is a huge difference in management style between the city in the country. Country Ingles store managers operate the way that our store managers did at Greenlife and Earth Fare in the seven years I worked in those stores as a cashier. They are friendly to all customers and all staff. They are constantly in motion - filling in and helping out wherever it is needed. They are not above wiping down the deli case, sweeping the floor or bagging groceries. I asked a manager of a country Ingles store, when I observed him out on the loading dock happily exchanging jokes and stories with the produce clerk, "Do you notice a difference between city Ingles managers and country Ingles managers?" He said "Night and day. City managers don't have anything to do with staff or customers. They don't want to get their nice white shirts messy. They stand around and act important." I asked one young high school girl cashier at an Asheville area Ingles about the "white shirts" (the uniform of a group that is almost uniformly white men), "Do you know what they do all day up in that office?" She giggled with a mixture of what looked like relief and nervousness: I had named that which is not supposed to be named. She finally said, "I have no idea." In my visit to this store at 4 p.m. today, front line staff in the café and the cashier area were all very friendly and helpful. When I went up to the office to ask a question of the fortyish manager, he was cold as a rock. I came back to the store 30 minutes later for one more item and this fella crossed my path. I said, "I'm going to write a review of the store and I'm hoping you will do or say something to help me say nice things about you. Why were you so unfriendly to me last time?" I expected him to apologize: "Wow! I'm sorry if I came across unfriendly. I must've just been really busy." He actually said - in the stiffest, almost-hostile voice, "I was not unfriendly."
