WinCo Foods

The woman checker tonight was not a happy person… She threw my apples down the line kept pushing the food with no respect for my bread at all! If you hate your job get a new one my goodness!

I’ve shopped at Winco for a number of years. I like their prices and employee-​owned model of business. I love that they have added the self-​serve checkout lines as I like to get in and out when I am grocery shopping.
On this particular visit, I had an unexpectedly great customer service experience. People who work at Winco are generally a little distant yet helpful when you approach them. I was walking around, not knowing where to find the items I needed and must have looked lost. The woman who helped me came up to me, unasked, and asked if I could use help finding something. I needed three items that happened to be nearby each other and she helped me get to each one.
The prices are generally better than other stores although there are occasions where you can get cheaper elsewhere. I do my best to go here even though its slightly inconvenient because I want to support their business model *and* get good prices.

I go here for the produce and bulk items. But when I walked past something so disturbing, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
The nastiest thing I saw in this place were their donuts. The case holding the flies was not even enclosed, so flies flew in the 1 inch gaps and ate at the donuts. The flies were laying eggs and and making family dinners on the donuts. So do the workers throw away the donuts after I reported it? No.
After dozens of house flies doing repeated marathons on all the sugary donuts, it definitely becomes unsafe to eat. Flies land on feces, garbage dumps, and every nasty place you can imagine. You don’t know where their feet have landed! They track unsanitary yuck onto these donuts and I bet it is not only to the donuts, but to all the other exposed foods.
If the FDA came and inspected this place, they would fail. What a disgrace.

Staff is super friendly at 3am. Had to go a bit far from my house but it was the closest 24 hour grocer that carried what my daughter was craving after waking up from a bad dream. Will stop by again if in the area.

Winco comes in lower in price with a good selection. I see them weekly for my grocery needs.

I have some history with this grocery store. I’ve lived next to it for a majority of my life and have always came here to satisfy my needs. But a couple years ago they went through a remodel and it changed the good friendly experience I came to know and love at the hazel dell winco, everything is just mixed up now. But the costumer service is good and it’s open 24 hours. This was a happier place with the original layout

I like Winco prices but I can see why (some) people refuse certain Grocery Stores just based on Cashier/​Customer Service, just to pay a little more elsewhere.
If I was the owner of a business and was a Mystery Shopper on my own employees, I would fire, Cashier #7, Amber F., whom performed very poor customer service as a Cashier, last night.
I will still shop at this Winco Store, but, like last night, if you speak rudely to me first, I will be triple rude to you in return and I WILL NOT allow you to win the conversation.

Why is it every time I try to read the one star review, this page won’t allow me to? It only takes me to the more ‘positive’ reviews. And yes, I agree with the other buyers, the new lay out of Winco does make it an expedition to shop. Maybe I’ll re-​think where my major shopping will take place.

When a shopping trip turns into an expedition.
As far as grocery stores go, you could do a lot worse than this one. The quality of the produce, meat, and deli has vastly improved in the last couple of years. You won’t find cheaper prices on anything in the store anywhere else unless it’s a fluke or gimmick sale. It does what it’s supposed to do — provide a well-​stocked selection in a clean environment for a good price.
Bonus points for letting me bag my own groceries and picking how many sacks to waste myself.
2 Reasons for missing that 5^th star: The 2 Time-​sucks.
1. The place was recently remodeled and expanded. This should be a bonus, right? It is open and clean and more inviting. Unfortunately the layout is almost as confusing as the outdated layouts of places like Albertsons and Safeway. It’s all good navigating around the edge of the store where all the usual fresh/​cold products are, but once you get to the middle, it’s hard to figure out how to not criss-​cross the store 15 times (which, frankly, is probably what they want).
2. The lines are almost never short or quickly moving. I never understand why these places under-​staff predictably busy shifts and only open ¹⁄₃ of the available check stands. It’s just one more thing that makes the shopping trip more of an expedition. Many times, I’ll opt for Freddy M’s higher prices for the better experience. (Side note, this is exactly inversely proportionate to the cost/​benefit of going to Whole Foods or New Seasons!)
The Bottom Line for WinCo’s Everywhere:
I would reliably go here more often than I already do if I could guarantee myself that the money I’m saving outweighs the painful excess of time I’m spending.

I don’t buy a whole lot at WinCo. Mostly I hit up the meat section to stock up on various cuts for our dog who eats a raw diet. They usually have more than one type of organ meat in stock which is a huge plus. They have beer at a good price, and their bulk section looked pretty comprehensive.

Overall I LOVE WinCo. Before I go out of town on the weekends I make a special trip to stock a cooler because the sticker shock and poor selection if other grocery stores always makes me wish I was at WinCo.
I’m especially fond of the bulk food section. Nothing is quite as rewarding as scooping out just as much of the items you want into your own bags and searching the free recipe cards for ideas.
My only complaint is the usually poor customer service. I have a special order that I’ve picked up weekly for 5 years. Even after this long it’s never ready when I get there, I can never reach anyone on the phone, and I get the same blank stare when I ask for it.
That’s OK though! The low prices make up for it. I’ll still be back for all of my groceries, every time.

8.10.12: I am a fan because of the prices. The associates are hit/​miss when it comes to Customer Service.
The neighborhood is not the greatest, but if you want better prices on name brand foods, this is the place to go.

Winco is glorious. I can find the cheapest prices (generally), decent produce, bulk bin items that are DRASTICALLY cheaper than other like-​items.
Generally, it’s clean and organized. Weekends can be kind of a zoo, so as long as you are prepared for that life is fine.

I never go to WinCo. They’re just not close enough for me but recently a friend said she went to one and I was in Vancouver to buy some fireworks and passed WinCo and thought, «What the hell.»
My kid thought it was like the Home Depot of food which I thought was great. No, I would not buy produce here but you can find some bangin deals… particularly on processed foods.
Place was busy — granted it was 4^th of July. Some interesting folks up in there… think ‘People of Walmart’
But, hey, it is what it is. I was quickly WinCo’d out but I don’t have anything bad to say about this place. Shit is cheap.

There is a small price you have to pay, you have to bag your own groceries, wrestle your way through the store with everyone else and their mother that has to be shopping here the same time you are but if you are ok with that then this is the place to come to save money!

Winco is just fine. I buy most of my produce there (the other I buy at Gateway, which is usually cheaper), all staples, milk, meat, fish. I cannot fathom why anyone wouldn’t buy produce from Winco, since it is about half what it is at the bigger guys. If I have to look at what I am buying before I buy it (i.e., checking for bruises on the peaches) at Winco, that is exactly what I do at Fred Meyers, Safeway or Albertsons. I think Winco pizza is awful, so I don’t buy it. Some of their bread is wonderful, if too salty. I am sorry they don’t make granola any more, but they gave me the recipe and I make it myself!

winco is for any shopper who is on a budget. i wouldnt by produce there but for the staples you will save and you know, these days, every penny counts!

I trust WinCo, a chain of supermarkets, they’re not out to shaft anybody. The price signs in their stores are not knowingly or intentionally located «near» confusingly similar, but inapplicable products. If you point out this type of inaccuracy, WinCo personnel would of course correct them, not leave them there. I have never noticed them putting price signs up early, taking them down late, or chastising customers for not reading the small print — because WinCo doesn’t manipulate with small print. These types of actions or inactions would result in fraudulent charges to duped customers.
WinCo doesn’t «tie» inflated «regular» prices to a shopping card, in order to arrive at a so-​called discounted price. Therefore there’s no incentive for them to render any so-​called discounts null. WinCo doesn’t even have a shopping card, so there’s no worry about it being scanned incorrectly, or your phone number being entered incorrectly if you forget your card. So there’s no oops, where you would be charged the «regular» price, on «all» items.
WinCo receipts are straight-​forward and easy to understand. For each item purchased — there’s one simple line item on the receipt. So there’s no need for a so-​called discount code on another line, which may not even appear, somewhere on the receipt, and thus not be reduced from the total — based on fraudulently induced customer «mistakes».
WinCo is a straight arrow. Charges have always been what I «understood» they were going to be, for each item. They don’t nickel-​dime, chisel, or cheat — on a item here, an item there.
I also like (Kroger owned) Fred Meyer and QFC stores — both have SELF CHECK-​OUT STATIONS. Here’s my writeup about the straight-​arrow use of self check-​out stations at Albertsons
– Crooked grocery stores do not deploy self check-​out stations, which would reveal any fraud, «before» you pay.
PS: If you whistle blow like this on the Internet, prepare to be aggressively harassed, with massive resources, and relentless follow-​through. And you probably won’t be able to put your finger on the kingpin that originally initiated it. If you don’t back off, this kingpin may commit felonies, by expertly fabricating «facts». And skilfully manipulating legitimate firms and people, into fighting their battle for them — and convincing them to feel quite righteous about it – if they believe the falsehoods and exaggerations they were fed.
I suspect that many of the active harassment professionals are just doing their jobs. But start taking (cell phone or digital camera) pictures, and the they’ll scatter like cockroaches. They’ll turn their heads, hide behind their bangs, play peek-​a-​boo behind objects, and come unglued if you catch them in the open. Nevertheless, the harassment will increase to even more extreme methods. It would help to have trusted friends watching out for you, and taking lots of well documented pictures. You can pay a huge price for whistle blowing, even when your free speech is completely true.
1. Thank you (employee owned) WinCo Foods, for being a straight arrow.
2. Thank you (Kroger owned) Fred Meyer and QFC stores, both deploy «self check-​out stations». See –
3. Thank you Albertsons, for deploying self check-​out stations at your Padden Parkway store. See –
4. Thank you Unilocal,for providing this forum.

I first heard about WinCo when I saw an ad on KTLA here in Los Angeles. What’s really weird though is they may have been advertising to the entire Los Angeles market… but good luck in finding one! You got to head up to Bakersfield or Fontana or Lancaster. All of a sudden, Stater Bros. is really convenient. So when I was driving to Seattle I saw one off the 5 and decided to check it out. Pretty plain but big. Reminds me a lot of Cub Foods out in the Midwest and South in the way it looks and how the aisles are spread out horizontally instead of the traditional vertical approach. Selection was OK and prices really weren’t any better than any place else out in Washington or Oregon. So there’s not much of a reason to go unless it’s close.