Hi- I usually only buy produce at Jewel that is lost leadered. I bought a bunch of sweet potatoes at Jewel when they were on sale around Thanksgiving for $.29 a pound, and I bought a three pound bag of clementimes for $2.99 there recently.

In Evanston we don't have any produce stores, and I find that the lemons at Whole Foods are cheaper than any I can get at Dominick's or Jewel. Even their organic lemons are usually cheaper, and 50% of the time, when I purchase organic lemons there, they make a mistake, and just charge me for conventional ones.

I still have lots of stuff left over from the farmer's market, plus when I went home to Michigan for Christmas, my sister gave me about 15 pounds of golden delicious apples, which was all the apples she had left. I was actually surprised that she had that many left. She had a really small crop of apples. She told me that she had 22% of a crop of peaches this year, and she had one of the largest peach crops around. Her apple and cherry crops were much smaller than that. She also gave me lots of winter squash she had left over. I am going to try to make some soup this week with one of the butternuts she gave me. Thanks, Nancy

The produce at Jewel is a joke. I stopped by yesterday to get black eyed peas and leafy greens to saute for New Years day. They had absolutely NO leafy greens unless you count spinach (I don't).
Thankfully, Mariano's is just across the street. They had at least four different kinds of Swiss chard, organic and regular, turnip greens, kale and probably others I missed. Nothing was old looking or sadly depleted. What is the produce buyer at Jewel thinking???!!!

Jewel sold to investor group.

I found myself at the huge Jewel on Skokie Blvd just south of Old Orchard at 6pm. I had to buy chips and candy for a road trip and thought I would pop in. The place was packed. The regular check out lanes were mobbed with shoppers with over stuffed carts. The self check out lanes were mobbed and no one could work them without an error. It took way longer than it should. If one must go to Jewel I recommend the Jewel in Plaza Del Lago in Wilmette. It is smaller and does not have an Osco.

Hi- I live in Evanston, and the Jewel I go to the most is probably the one on Green Bay in Wilmette, but I have been to the one in Skokie and the one at Plaza Del Lago on numerous times. Actually the one at Plaza Del Lago is my favorite Jewel. The people that work there are super nice, and there aren't the big crowds that there are at the other Jewels. I think the quality of their produce and other stuff is higher too. I have not bought any there in ages, but that Jewel used to have excellent fresh seafood, because they were competing with Burhops. The only bad thing about that store, is they don't have as large a selection of stuff there. The last time I was there last week, I wanted to get some Melitta coffee filters that were on sale at Jewel that week. I was looking for the 100 count boxes, and all they had were the 40 count boxes which were not on sale, and which were the same price as the 100 count boxes on sale at the other Jewels. The Plaza del Lago Jewel does occasionally have really good clearance sales though. I have gotten Healthy Choice frozen dinners for $1 before.

The busiest Jewels are the one in Skokie, and the one on Howard in Evanston. Those are my least favorite Jewel stores. The Green Bay and the Chicago avenue stores are not that bad.

It will be interesting to see what happens when the investment company takes over Jewel. I've heard that they own some Albertson's stores already, and they like to decentralize there stores. They do not have one ad for all the stores, and each store is allowed to have their own coupon policy. There is a chance that this company will turn around in a few years, and sell Jewel to Kroger's anyway.

Hope this helps, Nancy

Hope this helps, Nancy

Elfin wrote:The self check out lanes were mobbed and no one could work them without an error. It took way longer than it should.

At our Jewel, the self check out lanes aren't usually mobbed, but it is absolutely true that no one can work them without an error (in my observation). This means the store has someone there to help--so I wonder how much labor cost the store is saving. (I also wonder why customers bother with self check out--a scheme clearly designed to benefit the store more than it benefits customers--when it probably takes less time to go through the regular lanes. But that's not my problem.)

I go to Strack, but to generalize, I like the self-checkout because usually I don't have to wait. Even if it takes me as long as it would have to wait and then go through the regular line. The only problem I have is when I purchase a fruit or veggie without a code - trying to figure out what it is in their naming scheme can be annoying. And they seem to have designed it like a computer, rather than a touch interface. You have to move through the list by dragging a scroll bar down, instead of flicking the list up like you would on a phone or tablet device.

leek wrote:I go to Strack, but to generalize, I like the self-checkout because usually I don't have to wait. Even if it takes me as long as it would have to wait and then go through the regular line. The only problem I have is when I purchase a fruit or veggie without a code - trying to figure out what it is in their naming scheme can be annoying. And they seem to have designed it like a computer, rather than a touch interface. You have to move through the list by dragging a scroll bar down, instead of flicking the list up like you would on a phone or tablet device.

Not judging those who use self-checkout, but here are my main reasons for not using it. (Which seem to me are kind of borne out by your experiences.)

1. There are professionals who do this for a living and know how to do it. I am not one. I would no sooner check out my own groceries than act as my own counsel in a courtroom.

2. The main reason these self-checkout lanes exist is to throw people out of work. That bothers me.

3. The one benefit they appear to offer shoppers--time-saving--is illusory.

Why I self-checkout? Illusion/delusion that I'm controlling things: how quickly it happens, and how many bags are used. No shilling for the item of the week.

Often it isn't faster, if I have to wait for a spot (but there's more spots), but at least I know I won't get stuck behind an extreme couponer or check writer that's going to hold things up for five minutes.

Hi- If I don't have a lot of groceries to purchase, I usually use self checkout. If I have $50 worth, and I have lots of coupons, then I go to the regular lane. If I only have three or four things, usually self checkout takes me less time. Usually the lines for the regular checkout are a lot longer, but not always. If I have a lot of coupons, I am less likely to use the self checkout at Jewel, because the person there has to scan them, whereas at Dominick's, you can scan them yourself.

A lot of people who use coupons, prefer to go to self checkout, because there is not a cashier, telling you that you cannot use that coupon, when you know you can. Every Dominick's has a different coupon policy, whereas at Jewel it is universal. Not all the cashiers at Jewel know the coupon policy though, and this can create problems. For instance, on a B1G1F sale, Jewel lets you use a manufacturer's coupon on both the paid item, and the free item, but not every cashier knows that, and plus the registers are not working right, and the cashier has to override this when you try it..

I also like to use the self check out at Dominick's, because often, previous customers leave their checkout coupons, and sometimes, I get coupons for as much as $5 good on your next order, that another customer could not be bothered with. Thar happened all the time last February, when Dominick's celebrated frozen food month, and everybody got $5 coupons good on any frozen food purchase, if they purchased select brands of frozen food.

At Jewel the cashiers at self checkout, are told to tear up any coupons left by customers, and so that does not work as well.

Joel and Nancy, your reasons (both rational and irrational) help me understand the appeal of the self checkout more than I did. That is, without changing my own preference, they've at least moved me from "why on earth would anyone in their right mind do this" to "OK, I can see why someone in their right mind might do this." So thanks.

Hi- Most of the Dominick's and Jewel stores have self checkout, but some do not. The Jewel plaza del lago store, and the Green Bay Dominick's in Evanston do not. If I am just getting five or less items, it is almost always quicker for me to go to the self checkout. The few times I don't is when I am at Dominick's, and I buy something on the reduced table. These items are almost always marked down 50%, and the cashier has to scan the item twice. When I went to Dominick's last night, I used the self checkout lane, and used 6 coupons, which I was able to scan myself. If I was at Jewel, I would have gone to the regular checkout lane, because at Jewel the person manning the self checkout lane, would have had to scan the coupons himself.

The main pet peeve I have when I use the self checkout line, is that when I bring my own bag, the register always tells me that an unfamiliar item is in the checkout lane. You have the option of telling them that you are using your own bag, but often the machine does not recognize that, and you still get the same message. Last night I brought my own bag, and I got the message, and I finally ended up removing my reusable bag, and waiting until I had paid for everything, before I bagged the stuff.

When I do go to the regular checkout, and I bring my own bags, I sometimes don't get around to handing the bagger my bags until he has already bagged my purchase in a plastic bag. I have also had problems where I gave them a reusable bag, and they only filled it with three or four items, and then put the rest of the items in a plastic bag, when there was enough room to put everything in the bag that I brought. I also have problems getting the bagger to understand that I do not want my gallon of milk to be put in a bag, let alone two bags. I know that some older people are intimidated by the self checkout lane though, and will not go through it. I brought somebody to the Jewel in Skokie a few months ago, and she only had five items to purchase, and the lines at the regular registers were a mile long. I encouraged her to use the self checkout, and helped her with it, and she said that was the first time she had ever used it. Thanks, Nancy

I'm the guy who has figured self check-out out. It's actually pretty easy, and I'm quicker than some of the checkout ppl. The software is very similar at all stores that have it. It's a breeze. I weigh fruits and veggies, ring up bakery items - all that stuff. I don't freak out at computer screens, I just read what they say - the self check screens are pretty simple to navigate through when looking up an item. I don't take cartfulls through - I rarely ever have cartfulls unless it's an extreme coupon trip, but I don't shy away from the self check if I have multiple items and the reg checkout lanes are long. I actually like theself check when I have goofy - no upc items. It's a challenge to see how fast I can find it and ring it up.

riddlemay wrote:Joel and Nancy, your reasons (both rational and irrational) help me understand the appeal of the self checkout more than I did. That is, without changing my own preference, they've at least moved me from "why on earth would anyone in their right mind do this" to "OK, I can see why someone in their right mind might do this." So thanks.

I agree with your reasons and usually only use self-checkout when I have to. (Some 24-hour stores do not have cashiers late at night, except for one person supervising the self-checkout lanes.)

However, I recently heard another reason why people might prefer to use self-checkout: With today's economy, more and more down-on-their-luck people are having to use Link card (the credit-card-like replacement for food stamps) to get by. For people who have worked all their lives, this is a mortifying state of affairs and it is less embarrassing just to slide the card through a machine than to have show it to a clerk.

Apparently, in most stores, you can't just slide it through the card reader like a credit or debit card, where the clerk never even has to see your card -- you first have to either show it or tell the the clerk about it so she can do something to tell the card reader to accept it. This is not necessary in self-checkout, where the machine just recognizes the card and does whatever it is.

I was at a store where somebody accidentally tried to buy something that isn't approved for Link -- hot prepared foods aren't allowed, but this was a cold item that may or may not have been coded incorrectly -- and the clerk and a coworker had a loud discussion about what was and wasn't allowed on "food stamps," while the woman stood there looking at her shoes and the man pulled out his wallet and quickly paid for the item, saying, "Here, we'll just pay cash for it," and then they practically ran out of the store.

I don't know what happens if a self-checkout machine rejects something, but I'm sure it doesn't comment on it in front of everybody else in the checkout line.

I had a short shopping list of very basic items -- except for tahini, which is, I guess, exotic in Jewel parlance -- so off we went to the store last night, thinking we'd be in and out quickly. Ha!

After searching high and low with no luck, I saw enlightenment headed my way in the form of an employee. I asked him where I might find tahini. Upon explaining to him what it was, what type of container it would be found in, the usual brand, etc., he pointed me to the "Pasta/Tex-Mex" section of the store. With a sweeping gesture, he proudly proclaimed that "this here is what we generally consider to be our ethnic aisle."

Well, lo and behold, there indeed was the tahini -- on a shelf just underneath jars of pasta sauce made in the USA ...

Every time we go to the Park Ridge Jewel, we leave shaking our heads and muttering "we should have just gone to Tony's."

Hi- When I get tahini, I usually buy it at Whole Foods. Jewel only has one brand of tahini, and I believe Dominick's does too, and WF usually has at least five brands of tahini, and they are all in their nut butter section. Tahini is definitely cheaper at WF than it is at Jewel. I am sure that you can get it even cheaper at a Middle Eastern store, but WF is a lot more convenient for me.

I don't use a lot of tahini though, and I never seem to be able to finish the jar before it spoils. I don't make a lot of hummus. I wish you could buy it in smaller containers.

Hi- I just heard that Jewel is closing three of their stores in the Chicago area, including one in Aurora, one at 106th street in Chicago, and one on Golf Road in Niles. The one in Niles is right down the street from the Mariana's that is supposed to go up in Glenview. Maybe Mariano's could move into the Niles Jewel store instead? BTW- That store is right across the street from a super walmart, which I am sure does not help matters, and just a block away from Aldi's and a super Target..

NFriday wrote: Mariana's

Sorry to be petty, but the correct name is Mariano's.

Hi- Sorry it was late last night when I posted. Does anybody shop at the Golf Road store in Niles? I am now wondering if that would be large enough for a Mariano's? Thanks, Nancy

The Aurora Jewel that is closing is in the same strip as a Cermak Fresh Market which I have been told is excellent. Haven't shopped in Jewel in years.

sdbond wrote:I had a short shopping list of very basic items -- except for tahini, which is, I guess, exotic in Jewel parlance -- so off we went to the store last night, thinking we'd be in and out quickly. Ha!

After searching high and low with no luck, I saw enlightenment headed my way in the form of an employee. I asked him where I might find tahini. Upon explaining to him what it was, what type of container it would be found in, the usual brand, etc., he pointed me to the "Pasta/Tex-Mex" section of the store. With a sweeping gesture, he proudly proclaimed that "this here is what we generally consider to be our ethnic aisle."

Well, lo and behold, there indeed was the tahini -- on a shelf just underneath jars of pasta sauce made in the USA ...

Every time we go to the Park Ridge Jewel, we leave shaking our heads and muttering "we should have just gone to Tony's."

Thanks for validating my experience with the crazy, impossible-to-learn aisle-arrangement at Jewel, sdbond. I'm "old," so the possibility exists that it's just me. But it isn't. I consistently have a harder time finding things in the Jewel that I go to every week than in anybody else's supermarket that I'm visiting for the very first time. Something ain't right there.

riddlemay wrote:

sdbond wrote:I had a short shopping list of very basic items -- except for tahini, which is, I guess, exotic in Jewel parlance -- so off we went to the store last night, thinking we'd be in and out quickly. Ha!

After searching high and low with no luck, I saw enlightenment headed my way in the form of an employee. I asked him where I might find tahini. Upon explaining to him what it was, what type of container it would be found in, the usual brand, etc., he pointed me to the "Pasta/Tex-Mex" section of the store. With a sweeping gesture, he proudly proclaimed that "this here is what we generally consider to be our ethnic aisle."

Well, lo and behold, there indeed was the tahini -- on a shelf just underneath jars of pasta sauce made in the USA ...

Every time we go to the Park Ridge Jewel, we leave shaking our heads and muttering "we should have just gone to Tony's."

Thanks for validating my experience with the crazy, impossible-to-learn aisle-arrangement at Jewel, sdbond. I'm "old," so the possibility exists that it's just me. But it isn't. I consistently have a harder time finding things in the Jewel that I go to every week than in anybody else's supermarket that I'm visiting for the very first time. Something ain't right there.

I haven't been back to the Jewel since the foray I described above, but I once again have a short grocery list, and can't decide if I should give them another shot or take the extra 5 minutes to go up to Tony's. Hmm...I think I just made up my own mind!

Jewel's new boss focused on price, store experience

Q: We've heard talk that price cuts are coming. What can you tell us?

A: We took over the business on Friday and immediately made a decision to adjust prices across all Jewel-Osco stores on many regularly purchased items, like milk and bread. We want to show customers, from day one, that Jewel-Osco is serious about winning their business — and that begins with offering fair and competitive prices. Because our company has a decentralized operating structure, each market is enabled to make its own decisions in the best interests of operating great stores.

Different prices and policies at different stores?

Hi- The investment group that bought Jewel recently, already owns some Albertson's stores, and runs each store autonomously, and so each store is allowed to set their own policy, and I think each store has its own sales. People that use a lot of coupons are not looking forward to this, because right now all the Jewel stores have the same coupon policy, whereas they are concerned that the new owners are going to allow each individual store to set their own coupon policies, which will make it confusing for people that use a lot of coupons.

From what I understand a lot of Jewel employees hope that this group of investors eventually decides to sell the chain to Kroger or another such chain. Apparently Kroger has expressed an interest in purchasing Jewel.

NFriday wrote:Hi- The investment group that bought Jewel recently, already owns some Albertson's stores, and runs each store autonomously, and so each store is allowed to set their own policy, and I think each store has its own sales. People that use a lot of coupons are not looking forward to this, because right now all the Jewel stores have the same coupon policy, whereas they are concerned that the new owners are going to allow each individual store to set their own coupon policies, which will make it confusing for people that use a lot of coupons.

From what I understand a lot of Jewel employees hope that this group of investors eventually decides to sell the chain to Kroger or another such chain. Apparently Kroger has expressed an interest in purchasing Jewel.

Just to clarify:

Each "chain" will be run autonomously, each "chain" will set their own policy, each "chain" will have its own sales. ALL Jewel stores will follow JEWEL-chain coupon policies. Owners are NOT going to allow each individual Jewel store to "freelance" when it comes to coupons.

Cerberus purchased the following "chains" from Supervalu: Albertson's, Acme, Jewel-Osco, Shaw's, and Star Market, as well as in-store pharmacies Osco and Sav-on.

Hi- According to Jill Cataldo, in the Albertson's stores that the investment group currently owns, each store is allowed to set their own coupon policy, and have their own sales. Dominick's does not have a standardized coupon policy, and I have had cases where one Dominick's store took a coupon that I had, and another one would not take the same coupon.

Here is a link to Jill's post about the takeover of Jewel, and how it is going to affect couponers.

http://jillcataldo.com/node/25607

Someone with more knowledge of how these buyouts work can correct me, but it seems that Cerberus wouldn't have put a guy in charge who has 35 years of supermarket experience, and who ran big swaths of the Albertson's business before retiring in 2011, unless they were planning to improve operations. I mean, I guess their long-range plan could be to make the stores so much better and more profitable that the chain will be attractive to a Kroger's, but that's not going to happen overnight. In other words, they didn't buy it just in order to flip it, or if they did, they're prepared for the process to take years.

sdbond wrote:After searching high and low with no luck, I saw enlightenment headed my way in the form of an employee. I asked him where I might find tahini. Upon explaining to him what it was, what type of container it would be found in, the usual brand, etc., he pointed me to the "Pasta/Tex-Mex" section of the store. With a sweeping gesture, he proudly proclaimed that "this here is what we generally consider to be our ethnic aisle."

Well, lo and behold, there indeed was the tahini -- on a shelf just underneath jars of pasta sauce made in the USA ...

I was at the kosher Jewel in Evanston and figured they'd be more likely to have a larger selection of Middle Eastern items than others, but I did not find the rosewater I was looking for.

LAZ wrote:I was at the kosher Jewel in Evanston and figured they'd be more likely to have a larger selection of Middle Eastern items than others, but I did not find the rosewater I was looking for.

Not sure if you still need it, and I'm sure there's other places closer to you, I'm sure, but the Strack and Van Til on Elston seems to have a decent selection of Middle Eastern items, including rosewater.

LAZ wrote:

sdbond wrote:After searching high and low with no luck, I saw enlightenment headed my way in the form of an employee. I asked him where I might find tahini. Upon explaining to him what it was, what type of container it would be found in, the usual brand, etc., he pointed me to the "Pasta/Tex-Mex" section of the store. With a sweeping gesture, he proudly proclaimed that "this here is what we generally consider to be our ethnic aisle."

Well, lo and behold, there indeed was the tahini -- on a shelf just underneath jars of pasta sauce made in the USA ...

I was at the kosher Jewel in Evanston and figured they'd be more likely to have a larger selection of Middle Eastern items than others, but I did not find the rosewater I was looking for.

While they're obviously exceptionally well-stocked on Kosher and Israeli products, their standard Middle-Eastern section is no larger than any of their other stores. Fresh Farms, on the other hand, has a fairly large selection of Middle Eastern (as do the stores at Kedzie/Lawrence(also obviously)).