WinCo Operations

[Super S]

I have been finding myself shopping at WinCo much less as of late. I often end up with something out of stock, requiring a trip elsewhere. I have had too many issues with bad produce and dairy. But the big thing I have noticed is how dirty overall the store is. Floors, self checkouts, bathrooms, entry ways where carts are stored are all getting bad. The produce and meat departments are the worst for the dirty floors with all kinds of spill/drip marks. But I will give credit to the deli & seafood area as I often see those cases being cleaned out somewhat regularly.

I do like the no nonsense pricing structure of WinCo. But it becomes a moot point when there are several items I just can't count on being in stock, or where quality is questionable.

WinCo also tends to draw some of what I will call the "people of Walmart" types, but this isn't an issue if shopping late rin the day.

[ClownLoach]

I have been finding myself shopping at WinCo much less as of late. I often end up with something out of stock, requiring a trip elsewhere. I have had too many issues with bad produce and dairy. But the big thing I have noticed is how dirty overall the store is. Floors, self checkouts, bathrooms, entry ways where carts are stored are all getting bad. The produce and meat departments are the worst for the dirty floors with all kinds of spill/drip marks. But I will give credit to the deli & seafood area as I often see those cases being cleaned out somewhat regularly.

I do like the no nonsense pricing structure of WinCo. But it becomes a moot point when there are several items I just can't count on being in stock, or where quality is questionable.

WinCo also tends to draw some of what I will call the "people of Walmart" types, but this isn't an issue if shopping late rin the day.

I'm not seeing the cleanliness issue at all, or serious in stock issues except for sporadic single items like hash browns which were out for months in all brands, although I mentioned questionable sourcing above. The white painted concrete floors are in very good shape considering it's an old converted California Smiths which means a early 1990s build. What they're doing on top of hourly sweeps is using the robotic 'Brain AI' self driving floor scrubbers that are constantly moving around the store during operating hours, which is arguably more floor care than a regular supermarket receives. In a very busy store all of this becomes a moot point as neither the AI driven scrubber or a manned one can get into the highest traffic aisles. For every "special" customer, I see at least five that clearly are upscale but have decided to trade down. That is something that is unique to WinCo, they can attract that customer because they have a clean and easy to shop environment versus the dirty, cramped, poorly air conditioned, and smelly F4L stores that make you question your decision to shop there.

[storewanderer]

I have been finding myself shopping at WinCo much less as of late. I often end up with something out of stock, requiring a trip elsewhere. I have had too many issues with bad produce and dairy. But the big thing I have noticed is how dirty overall the store is. Floors, self checkouts, bathrooms, entry ways where carts are stored are all getting bad. The produce and meat departments are the worst for the dirty floors with all kinds of spill/drip marks. But I will give credit to the deli & seafood area as I often see those cases being cleaned out somewhat regularly.

I do like the no nonsense pricing structure of WinCo. But it becomes a moot point when there are several items I just can't count on being in stock, or where quality is questionable.

WinCo also tends to draw some of what I will call the "people of Walmart" types, but this isn't an issue if shopping late rin the day.

I'm not seeing the cleanliness issue at all, or serious in stock issues except for sporadic single items like hash browns which were out for months in all brands, although I mentioned questionable sourcing above. The white painted concrete floors are in very good shape considering it's an old converted California Smiths which means a early 1990s build. What they're doing on top of hourly sweeps is using the robotic 'Brain AI' self driving floor scrubbers that are constantly moving around the store during operating hours, which is arguably more floor care than a regular supermarket receives. In a very busy store all of this becomes a moot point as neither the AI driven scrubber or a manned one can get into the highest traffic aisles. For every "special" customer, I see at least five that clearly are upscale but have decided to trade down. That is something that is unique to WinCo, they can attract that customer because they have a clean and easy to shop environment versus the dirty, cramped, poorly air conditioned, and smelly F4L stores that make you question your decision to shop there.

There is a WinCo in North Reno that has many of the issues Super S describes. It isn't the best part of town but it really isn't bad. The store got a lot better when it expanded but still has some of these issues. I don't see these issues in most other WinCo locations or if I do it is not widespread.

I find the service at WinCo to be pretty terrible at the Reno/Sparks locations. The morning employees who have been there decades are a lot better than the ones in the evening (the ones who have been there the longest seem to have the worst attitudes in the evening). It is a place I am really happy has self checkout. I only started shopping there more once they installed self checkout. Before self checkout, the employee attitude and checkout problems were a huge deterrent to me shopping there. No longer an issue.

WinCo is always in stock and they do a better job on in stock than any other retailer I know. I would seriously consider discussing the in-stock issues Super S with the Store Director of your store to figure out what is going on. WinCo has staffing in grocery at basically all hours and this is intended to fill out of stocks during the day/evening (before night crew comes and does the hard restock). If a perimeter department is constantly out of product that is also something that I think should be discussed because this is not typical for WinCo, the way they order product (a lot at once) is a big hedge against out of stocks, and I think the issues you see with in stock could be correctable if you bring them to the Store Director's attention.

I think the cleanliness issues are also worth commenting on. The sheer traffic in the store may be causing this or there may be other issues- for instance is meat poorly wrapped causing a dripping problem on the floors? Are produce displays too full causing product to fall on the floor and cause stains?

I know there has been the distilled water in-stock issue but that isn't just at WinCo in my area. Safeway for example NorCal has no private label distilled water at all anymore (can't figure this out- other divisions have private label distilled water) and they slot a couple rows on the shelf of "Niagara" which go out of stock immediately and stay out of stock for days.

[Brian Lutz]

I'm actually surprised just how much Tillamook product is available here on the East Coast, since I didn't really expect it to be here. Stores like Lowes Foods, Harris Teeter and even Food Lion seem to have Tillamook ice cream and a fair number of Tillamook cheese products available. Walmart typically has the cheeses, but not the ice cream. I'm not sure if they're delivering the products from Oregon all the way over here, but there's plenty of it available.

Could swear I've even seen Umpqua Ice Cream here somewhere, but I'm not entirely certain about that one.

Last time I visited the Tillamook creamery (a fun vacation destination if you're in the Portland area, plus the nearby coast is breathtaking), they said they were licensing back East. I'm sure someone who is a dairy plant expert could identify who is making product for them. The product assortment is still reduced outside of Oregon and Washington state, even California doesn't get as many cheese flavors and varieties. My guess is the cheese is shipped but all the ice cream and other dairy is licensed. The licensed producers don't get the proprietary flavors and thus are more limited in selection.

To follow up on this, I took a look at some of the Tillamook ice cream being sold at Lowes Foods here in NC and found that it showed a dairy code of 06-26, which corresponds to Super Store Industries in Turlock CA (a bit south of Modesto.) To me it seems a bit inefficient to be trucking ice cream all the way from California, but then again they are selling the stuff for close to $8 per 1.5 quart container (Harris Teeter has it priced similarly, Food Lion is selling the 1.5 quart containers for $5.99.) Then again, even the store brand stuff at Lowes sells for $5.49 for a 1.5 quart container (compared to $3.99 for store brand at Harris Teeter or Turkey Hill brand at Food Lion), so their prices tend to be sky high most of the time. On the higher end there's Blue Bell, which sells for even more, but is still in half gallon containers. Not sure what Publix prices are like, but would expect them to be even higher.

I was unable to locate an identifiable dairy code on any of the cheese products, so I can't tell where those are coming from. It's entirely possible those are coming directly from Tillamook Oregon though.

[ClownLoach]

I'm actually surprised just how much Tillamook product is available here on the East Coast, since I didn't really expect it to be here. Stores like Lowes Foods, Harris Teeter and even Food Lion seem to have Tillamook ice cream and a fair number of Tillamook cheese products available. Walmart typically has the cheeses, but not the ice cream. I'm not sure if they're delivering the products from Oregon all the way over here, but there's plenty of it available.

Could swear I've even seen Umpqua Ice Cream here somewhere, but I'm not entirely certain about that one.

Last time I visited the Tillamook creamery (a fun vacation destination if you're in the Portland area, plus the nearby coast is breathtaking), they said they were licensing back East. I'm sure someone who is a dairy plant expert could identify who is making product for them. The product assortment is still reduced outside of Oregon and Washington state, even California doesn't get as many cheese flavors and varieties. My guess is the cheese is shipped but all the ice cream and other dairy is licensed. The licensed producers don't get the proprietary flavors and thus are more limited in selection.

To follow up on this, I took a look at some of the Tillamook ice cream being sold at Lowes Foods here in NC and found that it showed a dairy code of 06-26, which corresponds to Super Store Industries in Turlock CA (a bit south of Modesto.) To me it seems a bit inefficient to be trucking ice cream all the way from California, but then again they are selling the stuff for close to $8 per 1.5 quart container (Harris Teeter has it priced similarly, Food Lion is selling the 1.5 quart containers for $5.99.) Then again, even the store brand stuff at Lowes sells for $5.49 for a 1.5 quart container (compared to $3.99 for store brand at Harris Teeter or Turkey Hill brand at Food Lion), so their prices tend to be sky high most of the time. On the higher end there's Blue Bell, which sells for even more, but is still in half gallon containers. Not sure what Publix prices are like, but would expect them to be even higher.

I was unable to locate an identifiable dairy code on any of the cheese products, so I can't tell where those are coming from. It's entirely possible those are coming directly from Tillamook Oregon though.

I figured someone would be an expert who could solve that riddle. So that indicates that some or all of the Tillamook Ice Cream specifically in California might be licensed product. I'm sure that in Washington and Oregon it is 100% made by Tillamook, I believe they both deliver it and stock it direct to the stores the same way that Blue Bell does.

Here's what Tillamook has to say about production today...

"After more than 100 years and growing demand, we’re making more products than ever before where it all began, in Tillamook, Oregon. While there’s no limit to the ingenuity, hard work, and commitment of Tillamook’s people, there is a limit to our natural resources and production capacity. So, we do make some of our products outside of Tillamook, but we aren’t taking Tillamook out of any of our products. We insist on working only with best-in-class partners including dairy farmers, production facilities and distribution centers. The vast majority (more than 90 percent) of Tillamook Cheeses are made at our cheesemaking factories in Tillamook and Boardman, Oregon. A few of our other cheeses are made by industry partners outside of Oregon who have the appropriate equipment and expertise for those specific flavors. Much of our Tillamook Ice Cream is also made at our factory in Tillamook, Oregon. As we’ve reached our production capacity there, we have added some ice cream production capacity with industry partners to meet the needs of our consumers beyond the Northwest. Because of the specialty equipment required to make yogurt, sour cream, butter, and cream cheese spreads, we work with industry partners with expertise in making dairy products to make each of these products. Whenever partners are involved, we work very closely with them to approve the recipes and specifications, and the recipes for Tillamook products remain the same no matter where the product is made. And, our Tillamook quality assurance and sensory teams taste and test every Tillamook product, ensuring all of our partners meet our exact quality requirements to make products with the high standards Tillamook fans have come to expect."

[Brian Lutz]

I don't know how the logistics for all this works out, but another example I've seen is that unlike most stores around here which sell butter in the skinny quarter pound sticks, Trader Joe's butter is sold in the "stubby" stick format common in the Western US. When I looked up the plant code on some Trader Joe's butter I found out that was being produced in California as well. Apparently it's still cheaper for them to truck butter across the country than it would be to have it produced on the East Coast. I do know some of the national brands like Land O' Lakes and Challenge Butter do produce butter in the preferred local format on both sides of the country, but I would assume that they have equipment for both types.

[storewanderer]

I'm actually surprised just how much Tillamook product is available here on the East Coast, since I didn't really expect it to be here. Stores like Lowes Foods, Harris Teeter and even Food Lion seem to have Tillamook ice cream and a fair number of Tillamook cheese products available. Walmart typically has the cheeses, but not the ice cream. I'm not sure if they're delivering the products from Oregon all the way over here, but there's plenty of it available.

Could swear I've even seen Umpqua Ice Cream here somewhere, but I'm not entirely certain about that one.

Last time I visited the Tillamook creamery (a fun vacation destination if you're in the Portland area, plus the nearby coast is breathtaking), they said they were licensing back East. I'm sure someone who is a dairy plant expert could identify who is making product for them. The product assortment is still reduced outside of Oregon and Washington state, even California doesn't get as many cheese flavors and varieties. My guess is the cheese is shipped but all the ice cream and other dairy is licensed. The licensed producers don't get the proprietary flavors and thus are more limited in selection.

To follow up on this, I took a look at some of the Tillamook ice cream being sold at Lowes Foods here in NC and found that it showed a dairy code of 06-26, which corresponds to Super Store Industries in Turlock CA (a bit south of Modesto.) To me it seems a bit inefficient to be trucking ice cream all the way from California, but then again they are selling the stuff for close to $8 per 1.5 quart container (Harris Teeter has it priced similarly, Food Lion is selling the 1.5 quart containers for $5.99.) Then again, even the store brand stuff at Lowes sells for $5.49 for a 1.5 quart container (compared to $3.99 for store brand at Harris Teeter or Turkey Hill brand at Food Lion), so their prices tend to be sky high most of the time. On the higher end there's Blue Bell, which sells for even more, but is still in half gallon containers. Not sure what Publix prices are like, but would expect them to be even higher.

I was unable to locate an identifiable dairy code on any of the cheese products, so I can't tell where those are coming from. It's entirely possible those are coming directly from Tillamook Oregon though.

You would be surprised. WinCo in TX trucks dairy products from WA to the stores (they had yogurt from Yami and Fit N Fruity which is Auburn Dairy Products in Auburn, WA; sour cream from WA, and more). Safeway used to truck a bunch of Lucerne yogurt, sour cream, cottage cheese, and various other products from CA out to both Dominicks and Genuardis (and to East Division).

Publix prices would be lower than Lowe's Foods.

Look at the back of the labels on the Tillamook products for more information.

Some items say "distributed with pride by Tillamook Creamery Association" - the ice cream will say that (the one you got). Sometimes Smiths has some ice cream that is made in OR, usually limited random flavor or two, and those containers say "made with pride by Tillamook Creamery Association."

On the cheese out west it is interesting. If you get a shredded straight/no blend cheddar the package will say "made with pride by Tillamook Creamery Association." If you get a Mexican Blend (containing said cheddar, and some other flavors) it will say "distributed with pride by Tillamook Creamery Association" as they do not make all of the flavors that go into said blend. Their shredded cheese out west at least is their cheese, trucked to a plant somewhere in ID, then shredded.

Tillamook Yogurt is made by an OR Safeway plant.

[Super S]

I'm not seeing the cleanliness issue at all, or serious in stock issues except for sporadic single items like hash browns which were out for months in all brands, although I mentioned questionable sourcing above. The white painted concrete floors are in very good shape considering it's an old converted California Smiths which means a early 1990s build. What they're doing on top of hourly sweeps is using the robotic 'Brain AI' self driving floor scrubbers that are constantly moving around the store during operating hours, which is arguably more floor care than a regular supermarket receives. In a very busy store all of this becomes a moot point as neither the AI driven scrubber or a manned one can get into the highest traffic aisles. For every "special" customer, I see at least five that clearly are upscale but have decided to trade down. That is something that is unique to WinCo, they can attract that customer because they have a clean and easy to shop environment versus the dirty, cramped, poorly air conditioned, and smelly F4L stores that make you question your decision to shop there.

There is a WinCo in North Reno that has many of the issues Super S describes. It isn't the best part of town but it really isn't bad. The store got a lot better when it expanded but still has some of these issues. I don't see these issues in most other WinCo locations or if I do it is not widespread.

I find the service at WinCo to be pretty terrible at the Reno/Sparks locations. The morning employees who have been there decades are a lot better than the ones in the evening (the ones who have been there the longest seem to have the worst attitudes in the evening). It is a place I am really happy has self checkout. I only started shopping there more once they installed self checkout. Before self checkout, the employee attitude and checkout problems were a huge deterrent to me shopping there. No longer an issue.

WinCo is always in stock and they do a better job on in stock than any other retailer I know. I would seriously consider discussing the in-stock issues Super S with the Store Director of your store to figure out what is going on. WinCo has staffing in grocery at basically all hours and this is intended to fill out of stocks during the day/evening (before night crew comes and does the hard restock). If a perimeter department is constantly out of product that is also something that I think should be discussed because this is not typical for WinCo, the way they order product (a lot at once) is a big hedge against out of stocks, and I think the issues you see with in stock could be correctable if you bring them to the Store Director's attention.

I think the cleanliness issues are also worth commenting on. The sheer traffic in the store may be causing this or there may be other issues- for instance is meat poorly wrapped causing a dripping problem on the floors? Are produce displays too full causing product to fall on the floor and cause stains?

I know there has been the distilled water in-stock issue but that isn't just at WinCo in my area. Safeway for example NorCal has no private label distilled water at all anymore (can't figure this out- other divisions have private label distilled water) and they slot a couple rows on the shelf of "Niagara" which go out of stock immediately and stay out of stock for days.

I have yet to see an automated floor cleaner at WinCo. But I will say that the only part of the store that does NOT look dirty are the general merchandise areas which get lower traffic. I have brought up the cleanliness concerns several times, but nothing ever seems to be addressed. Produce and meat spills tend to get tracked down the aisles.

And the self checkouts have dirty scanners, the attendant can't be bothered to at least wipe them periodically, which bugs me because they also serve as scales. And there is visible dirt always present in the nooks and crannies around the scanners.

I have also brought up the in-stock issues and have always been told it's a supply problem. But it's funny how similar products are always in stock elsewhere when WinCo can't ever seem to get them. Distilled water is a good example. WinCo can randomly be out for months at a time, but it's easy to find private label product at Fred Meyer and Walmart.

WinCo, when running properly, truly can be a great store, but a lot of their stores seem to have varying areas which are slipping.

[storewanderer]

I have yet to see an automated floor cleaner at WinCo. But I will say that the only part of the store that does NOT look dirty are the general merchandise areas which get lower traffic. I have brought up the cleanliness concerns several times, but nothing ever seems to be addressed. Produce and meat spills tend to get tracked down the aisles.

And the self checkouts have dirty scanners, the attendant can't be bothered to at least wipe them periodically, which bugs me because they also serve as scales. And there is visible dirt always present in the nooks and crannies around the scanners.

I have also brought up the in-stock issues and have always been told it's a supply problem. But it's funny how similar products are always in stock elsewhere when WinCo can't ever seem to get them. Distilled water is a good example. WinCo can randomly be out for months at a time, but it's easy to find private label product at Fred Meyer and Walmart.

WinCo, when running properly, truly can be a great store, but a lot of their stores seem to have varying areas which are slipping.

The dirty self checkouts are an issue I encounter at many stores. It is to the point that I don't even want to weigh product on them as they are so dirty. Oddly one of the places I go with the cleanest self checkouts -CVS. I attribute this to a lack of perishable/wet products.

They should program a timer into these self checkouts to prompt the employee to come clean them every hour or something.

The attitude sounds very broken at that WinCo. I've said it many times I find a lot of the WinCo employees to have terrible attitudes specifically in the evening specifically in South Reno and more specifically on the front end but despite this the store still runs well and the sales floor is stocked/maintained very well.

[ClownLoach]

I have yet to see an automated floor cleaner at WinCo. But I will say that the only part of the store that does NOT look dirty are the general merchandise areas which get lower traffic. I have brought up the cleanliness concerns several times, but nothing ever seems to be addressed. Produce and meat spills tend to get tracked down the aisles.

And the self checkouts have dirty scanners, the attendant can't be bothered to at least wipe them periodically, which bugs me because they also serve as scales. And there is visible dirt always present in the nooks and crannies around the scanners.

I have also brought up the in-stock issues and have always been told it's a supply problem. But it's funny how similar products are always in stock elsewhere when WinCo can't ever seem to get them. Distilled water is a good example. WinCo can randomly be out for months at a time, but it's easy to find private label product at Fred Meyer and Walmart.

WinCo, when running properly, truly can be a great store, but a lot of their stores seem to have varying areas which are slipping.

The dirty self checkouts are an issue I encounter at many stores. It is to the point that I don't even want to weigh product on them as they are so dirty. Oddly one of the places I go with the cleanest self checkouts -CVS. I attribute this to a lack of perishable/wet products.

They should program a timer into these self checkouts to prompt the employee to come clean them every hour or something.

The attitude sounds very broken at that WinCo. I've said it many times I find a lot of the WinCo employees to have terrible attitudes specifically in the evening specifically in South Reno and more specifically on the front end but despite this the store still runs well and the sales floor is stocked/maintained very well.

Haven't seen these cleanliness issues in SoCal. The scanners have a light that blinks when they have dirty lenses detected, and beeps when they are not operable due to dirt. Sounds like a bad store or two. The automatic floor cleaner makes a big difference, it's the same drive on unit with the "Brain" module attached.