Case study: QFC (Kroger) in Seattle, WA

The QFC in the 45th street market in Seattle is horrible. I made a trip there today, and I thought I'd write a summary of what I experienced:<br><br>* I was mostly looking for groceries to prepare a salad, but I noticed they had a really poor selection of ready-to-eat items and pre-made foods. If you look at the Safeway down the street it has a much wider variety of salads and a deli with a decent assortment of meats and cheeses. The QFC was tiny, and had mostly pre-packaged snack foods. It was a really poor selection overall and the entire store seemed small and disorganized. This isn't really a bad thing for us, since the grocery side was mostly disorganized. After being there for a bit, I realized they had a couple cameras on the roof over the front door, and two more aimed at the produce stands. It was obvious there was no loss prevention staff because nobody was answering the calls at the register, and they were cutting corners on maintenance and organization. I was mostly looking at the cameras, so I didn't notice them right away. I saw a total of 4 cameras, and I'm sure there were more I didn't notice, but they didn't appear to be part of any comprehensive security plan. 3 cameras for the entire store is pathetic. Just for reference, that Safeway down the street had at least 30 cameras. I really can't overstate how disorganized and poorly run this store is. It must be a new one, since I'm a frequent visitor to that neighborhood and haven't noticed it before.<br>* I walked in and wandered around a bit. I found the salad bar, and it was probably about half the size of the one at Safeway. It was really poorly maintained. The lids were all different colors and there was a tiny sign that said "danger: food inspection in progress". That's what tipped me off that the store was poorly run. The first sign of real disorganization was the complete lack of any organized system for moving the food around back to the walk-in refrigerators. I saw a couple tubs stacked on one of the displays, but instead of real tubs they were those rubbermaid plastic buckets that you can find at Costco for about $5 each. They were dirty and looked like they hadn't been washed in months. I'm sure they'd be useless in any real audit.<br>* After I walked around for a bit, I realized I had been in the store for over and hour and the employees were completely distracted by their cell phones. I made a mental note of how many employees I saw, and it was about 10 people, including the two stockers in the aisles. I walked through the aisles a couple times, and one of the stockers said "hi" to me. I walked up to the display case and started looking at the deli items, and he walked up behind me. I saw him in the glass reflection, so I turned around and said hi. He asked how my day was going and I said it was fine. I walked away, and he didn't seem to notice. I kept walking through the aisles. After another 5 minutes or so, I walked up to the register and paid. When I walked out, I noticed there was a theft deterrent device above the door, but none of the other doors had them. I walked in through the parking garage, and the door I entered through didn't even have a bell above it.<br><br>The employees really didn't seem to care, and the store was disorganized, so it's probably really easy to shoplift here. I'd stay away though, because the quality of food is poor and the prices are really high. I'd definitely rather go to Safeway.