Piggly Wiggly

My rating is based solely on the beer/​wine department. But just the beer. I’m sure the wine is great, but THE BEER! Talk about selection. And now their draft to go wall is up to 20 taps, at prices that are unrivaled in Birmingham. I’ve seen Snakehandler here for $ 10.99 for a half gallon. That’s a good $ 5 cheaper than most other draft to go places. Cheers to Piggly Wiggly keeping Bluff Park Craftly Beerly!

The Pig is totally A-​OK. It’s definitely nothing fancy and I can’t use it as my primary store, but it absolutely serves its purpose. That purpose being a convenient stop when you forget a thing or two at the bigger, nicer, cleaner store.
Because of the size, the selection seems to be about 75% of the big stores. With that said, the beer selection is much more extensive that a lot of places. While we are talking about good things, I’ve gotten several steaks here that were as good as I’ve ever had.
Pig, you are like my distant family member that I like seeing every now and then, but don’t want to hang with every day. That means I love you, by the way.

This Piggly Wiggly is in my neighborhood, so it’s very convenient when I need to make a quick run for something.
The good:
They have one of the best beer and wine selections out of any grocery store in this area.
They offer double coupons every day and have great prices all around.
The staff has always been pretty friendly.
Not so good:
It’s a smaller store, so they don’t carry all the things I get on my normal grocery run.
They don’t offer the selection of locally grown veggies that most of the other Pigs have.
I’ve run across some produce going bad on many visits. Usually the onions.

When I lived in Homewood, this was the closest available grocery, so I tended to use it for the quick stop type items: brew, milk, sugar, sassafras leaves, plaster of Paris, the usual stuff. It definitely has its high and low points. Being from GA, I am not used to seeing Piggly Wiggly’s often. In fact, I believe that most of them in GA have gone out of business. When I visited Myrtle Beach on vacation one year, I found a Pig and they sold the «I’m Big on the Pig» shirts, which had a Pigs head on the front and a pigs hind quarters on the back. I love that shirt. Typically, that is the shirt I wear when I am setting out on a quest to consume the best Bacon dishes an area has to offer.
Anyway, I just am not used to seeing Piggly Wiggly stores. The ones I used to see were all dirty and grimy, not a place that you would want to purchase groceries from. This one in Homewood has the initial appearance of filth, but actually isn’t too bad. I do have an issue with the parking. The lot is very narrow, where at times it feels like you could be backing out of your parking space onto Highway 31, which is no good. There is also some confusing parts blocked off, where you get disoriented in how to get out of the parking lot. This is insane, because the parking lot is about 6 feet wide, but somehow, it happens.
Some people like to try the food from their Deli. I tried the Country Fried Steak with Okra and some type of cheese potatoes. It was average, at best. To be fair, it was around 2 PM and I think they were about to shut down the hot foods at the deli, so I may have been getting the scraps. The service was friendly, though, and the portions were large.
The positive thing about this Grocery store is the Craft Brew selection. While it is actually a quite small store, there is a large selection of both local and national craft brews. This makes me a happy boy, typically. So I will continue to utilize this location if I am in the area, even if only for a quick pick up. I have heard rumor of a quite Posh Pig in another area, I may have to venture out and experiment.

I used to be a loyal customer in this store. My husband and I even went out of town just to get to this location. Well, never again!
I was in there the other day and I asked a cashier very politely for a copy of the coupon policy. She snapped, «NO!» I told her to forget it and she once again snapped, «Well, you have to go to our website!»
So, I called up the manager to complain and to tell him that I wouldn’t be back. He apologized and said that he’d say something. Fair enough, but then he said, «I’d hate to lose your business.» I stood there and waited for him to say something else, but he didn’t. He was mute. So I just told him OK and hung up.
I didn’t expect him to start crying and beg me for my business. He didn’t have to give me a gift card, either. But when other stores have disappointed me, the manager would say that they wanted me as a customer. They made me feel valued. It’s not hard to say sorry and then say that you want someone as a customer and their business, instead of just passively saying that you’d hate to lose it and not making any sort of an effort to keep it!
Well, it really makes me feel disappointed that they didn’t care, but oh well. From now on, Publix will get my business.

I gotta give some mad shout-​outs to the amazing management and cashiers of «the Pig» in Bluff Park! The place is clean, the staff is friendly and the management is helpful. NEVER a problem in this place whether I go in at opening time or near closing. These folks seem to have not forgotten the concept of CUSTOMER SERVICE !! Did you big box corporate stores hear that?! FRESH produce and a new produce tent with locally grown veggies and fruits from locally owned farms. Chilton County peaches can be purchased here in season for example. Let’s talk about meat products which are also FRESH! This place has real trained butchers who actually inspect what they put on the shelves. The art and science of meat cutting is still alive here and they will do anything for you FAST. The final thing that puts this place over the top is the great selection of wines and beers. They even have wine and beer tasting on certain nights of the week where new products may be sampled. I am a loyal customer here when I am in town. I go nearly everyday. Oh yeah… you can also pay a phone bill here if you need to do so for a buck-​fifty. This place is a one stop shop.