Sub standard service, No care, No passion

Spar Olivedale has reached a new low. From January 2024, I have spent thousands of rands here. Over the past few months, I have purchased hot food from the food counter. Only to have hard rice (like eating sand) - here I complained and was given a leftover gift pack of baking powder, flour, Iwisa porridge etc. This was acceptable - I appreciate that and Benedict was the manager who immediately assisted. This is how you handle an unhappy customer and immediately win them back !!

I recently purchased a full chicken which was completely raw on the inside. Unacceptable - this is a massive health risk. My family and I could have lost our lives to consuming raw chicken that only looked cooked from the outside. The reason? The timer went off early. Okay so then there's no quality check? Don't the kitchen teams ***** the food to check post oven cooking? I went back and returned the chicken, received a refund and a free chicken. Great, but given the high risk situation, I don't think it's fair. The next day I visited the store as was asked by MJ the manager to speak to Renita the kitchen manager. When MJ approached Renita, she had no idea what we were talking about. I immediately interjected because here is another issue. I complained and returned the raw chicken the day before 7 Dec at 18h30. It's 8 Dec afternoon and the kitchen manager doesn't know about it??

Then found expired stock in the cheese section - I very kindly took a sample to the counter and informed the cashier.

I always find empty shelves - it's annoying to shop in a store like this.

There is also huge room for improvement on the hot food section and on the ridiculous price increases for some apparent reason. When I spoke to the managers for the umpteenth time and suggested to get individual covers for each dish while it lies in the food bar, the response was that the hot rice is now being moved to the cold counter - okay so no cover and hot rice will now be cold rice?

The sushi bar had a change of chef - it's hard to explain what was previously made to the existing guy. Why did they let go of the previous guy! His sushi was incredible. Now it's less quantity, less passion and more pricey.

I reached out to the store about 11 days ago (during the raw chicken incident), I thought that I need to be compensated for continuously saving this store over and over - I never made a scene or wrote to the head office because I'm passionate about making it right and a good experience in the most kind and polite way. The response I received was that this will be discussed and the store took my details down when I returned the chicken. 11 Days later, I visited the store yesterday 18 Dec. I speak to Renita, she says she handed this over to the store manager. Then proceeds to get a blank till slip and rewrite my issues down with my contact details and that they will discuss the situation. Hold on, we already had this discussion and promise 11 days ago, why are we doing this again? A few minutes later, I was home and received a call from Renita - great, she followed up promptly, and asked if I'm in the store. Her response was that the store manager John Maistry is 2 weeks old and he said he can give me a box of Bon Bon chocolates. I was told he has a lot on his plate. Seriously? I told Renita the box of chocolates is an insult. Am I a 3 year old kid that once fed chocolates, will happily continue to purchase from this substandard store? My response to Renita was that I will go to HelloPeter, Head Office and possibly make a video of this poor service. She accepted what I had to say. So there's no care that I will try to reach higher powers to sort the issue out? Wow.

What baffles me is that the thinking capability stops at a box of chocolates for a customer that constantly provided constructive feedback over months. It is definitely not about the money. Nor am I employed by Spar but I chose to take my time and do this because of the person I am. But why then must I come up with solutions for my own compensation? E.g. if I were the manager, I would give the customer a voucher to make it worthwhile, take AT LEAST 30 seconds of my time to apologize in person and win them back. This is called Customer Relationship Management and Time Management.

I know it's that time of the year when everyone is tired. But do I take that attitude and apply it to my work where I just don't give a damn? No. The shop gave me an impression that they. just. don't. give. a damn.

I hope that this letter does not result in retaliation from the store because I have made good relationships there giving great feedback to enhance the shoppers experience. If that happens, I will be forced to let my friends and family know on social media and how subpar this Spar is compared to other stores like Checkers and Pick n Pay.

Lastly, please don't contact me and ask what's the issue. It is all written in this review. Print and review the issues here before contacting me. I'm not going to explain over and over.

Thank you,