July 2018 by Tarneisha G.
Normally, I do not shop at Food Lion because I believe that it is a basic brand that stock GMO products. Nonetheless, because I did not want to drive to Whole Foods or Harris Teeter for this one thing, so I went to this store because it was close to my house; as expected the store only had ONE brand of vegetable stock that was not organic. I went to purchase my GMO product at register 7, where the cashier was checking out a customer. Once the cashier (Omar) completed the customer's transaction, he made eye contact with me and proceeded to walk away from the register; not to address an emergency but to hug and converse with a lady who was standing near his register. I was utterly taken aback, as well as the other customers who were standing in line behind me. It was so mind-bogglingly that several of use asked the cashier in the adjacent registers if he was serious. She looked at the situation, shook her head, and continued to assist her customers. When Omar finally finished his personal conversation and had received all of the updates on the lady's family wellbeing, he returned to check out the customers in his line. He offered no apologies for the behavior; he just continued as if it was another day a Food Lion, home of the GMO and subpar customer service. I immediately went to the customer service desk to ask to speak to a manager. There, I was greeted by Jonathan who told me he was the Assistant Customer Service Manager. I explained to Jonathan what just had occurred, to which he responded: "Omar is known to do that." That statement alone suggests two things about this Food Lion location. First, that management has accepted Omar's unprofessional behavior as an organizationally acceptable norm; as they are fully aware that this is something "that he does" yet does nothing. Alternatively, two, that Omar no respect for Food Lion, management, or the store customers and he believes that he is doing all parties a "favor" by being an employee of the store. I elect to believe that both are true, as Jonathan also had a dismissive demeanor for the seriousness of the situation. All of this reinforces my fundamental belief that Food Lion is a subpar grocery store. Moving forward, I will resume using my gas to spend my money at better grocery facilities.