Last Day of a Dying Grocery Store

[Becks]

How sad.

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=581240

[Rahmota]

Rather sad indeed. One more outpost in the retail wars lost and forgotten.

Heres an even sadder yet true comment from the news article

Free speech is not encouraged in the retail world.

That's all I have to say about that.

[Ljt09863]

this is so weird. my mom worked at one of the "dying" stores. she was there until the last day, which, for her store, was this past friday. i went into the store ALOT to keep her company. let me tell you...that reporter had it right. it was VERY weird. all the aisles are blocked off like he said. pretty much, the employees just stood around talking. i went in one evening to see my mom and her BOSS and her coworkers competing to see who had the worst and best blood pressure. my mom had the worst, and her boss had the best.

it was VERY weird walking into that store, to see only 20 or less items left. on the plus side, i had gotten two loafs of bread for a total for 42 cents.

BUT! there is good news. the store my mom works at has been bought by Sentry(i don't know if allthe old jewel-osco stores wer bought, or just hers),and luckily, my mother was hired into her old position at the same pay. she gets a month off of work.

she had alot of SC stories, but she only gave me bits and pieces, so i didnt post any of them. but alot of them were about people getting things for AT LEAST 50% off and then wanting it cheaper.

the last thursday it was open., i went in there to chat with my mom. on my way out, the manager of the store stopped me, and gave me a grocery bag, and said,"fill it up with whatever you want, and take it. its free. im giving it away." hee hee. i got away with lettuce(i can't understand why nobody took it), croutons ive never tried before(but really yummy) and a bunch of little packets of thousand island salad dressing. i went home and had me a salad. when i walked in, i saw my moms coworkers and her were packing up the oscos side and was told they are shipping it to a milwaukee store, but i never expected to get free food.

they got rid of EVERYTHING on thursday, but didn't close till friday. the employees who were scheduled for friday were told,"there is nothing to do on friday. if you want to come in, you can. if you don't, then don't." hmm..let me see...go to work, sit around and joke, and get paid for it? hell yeah!

i HAVE to show my mom this article. thanks!

[XCashier]

I'd share the workers' stories with you, but they said they were threatened with losing their severance pay if they talked to the news media. Free speech is not encouraged in the retail world.

I see things haven't changed much since I worked at one of those stores (this is the place I refer to in my posts as the Drug Store From Hell). Frankly, I'm not surprised Osco is going down the drain. If they were all run as badly as the one I worked at, I'm surprised the chain didn't fold sooner.

Still, I do feel rather bad for the employees. It's rather depressing to watch your store disintegrate around you, and knowing you're not likely to see your coworker friends again. I hope they all find new, better jobs very quickly.

[Bella_Vixen]

At least 2 of the J-Os by me were bought out by and turned into Pick-N-Saves. One J-O is still open (the one I hate, but luckily it's out of my way, so I seldom go there anyway), and I'm not sure about the one in Waukesha.

The Jewel-Oscos around here were great. I liked them a lot (esp. the one in New Berlin), and their prices were better then the other stores. ::sigh::