My last visit to the above referenced Mariano's @ Roscoe/Western found it to be just about spic 'n' span. Stocking carts neatly organized and placed out of the way of customer traffic, aisles cleanly swept of debris, bagger smiling, happy and knowledgeable about how to pack a frozen pizza against the back of the backpack to provide a cool cushion. The only downside was the surly cashier. Everybody's entitled to their bad day moods, I guess. I suspect somebody on the management team got smart enough to set up a Google alert and pay attention to it.

NFriday wrote:Hi- I have only been to Mariano's a total of three times, but they don't have self checkout at all do they? I suspect they don't, but when I am at Jewel, unless I am buying a lot of groceries, I like to go to self checkout so I can bag my groceries myself. Jewel is supposed to get rid of their self checkout lanes eventually, but I am not sure when.

Mrs. riddlemay reports that as of yesterday (Thursday), the self checkout lanes at the Ashland-Wellington Jewel are gone.

riddlemay wrote:

NFriday wrote:Hi- I have only been to Mariano's a total of three times, but they don't have self checkout at all do they? I suspect they don't, but when I am at Jewel, unless I am buying a lot of groceries, I like to go to self checkout so I can bag my groceries myself. Jewel is supposed to get rid of their self checkout lanes eventually, but I am not sure when.

Mrs. riddlemay reports that as of yesterday (Thursday), the self checkout lanes at the Ashland-Wellington Jewel are gone.

As are the ones at the Jewel in Highland Park. They were replaced by four "express" lanes. Only one of which was open during my recent visit. I asked the clerk about the change. She said that corporate felt that customers preferred to interact with staff during checkout. Brilliant

She said that corporate felt that customers preferred to interact with staff during checkout.

Like Hell we do!

I'm sure some do and some don't. But I bet you there's more theft at the self checkout - whether intentional or accidental. I have definitely accidentally left things on the bottom of my cart when at self checkout. And I accidentally left something under my purse when at the regular checkout. Luckily I caught that one before I left the store with it and went back to pay.

leek wrote:I'm sure some do and some don't.

Those that do should go to a regular checkout lane. Let those of that could care less keep our self checkout privileges.

I don't "prefer" to interact with store staff but I do prefer not to have to wait for one to come over when the scanners didn't work which seemed to happen about 3/4 of the time. So then they started stationing an employee at the self checkout, which defeats the purpose of lowering payroll expense. Probably cheaper to get rid of it than spend the $$ to upgrade the technology to be more efficient.

Hi- Over at the Jewel on Howard in Evanston, there are six registers in the self checkout section, and only one employee/ Usually when I have problems with self checkout is when it tells me unexpected item in the bagging area, when there is no unexpected item, or I am bringing my own bag. When I click that I am bringing my own bag, it still does not understand, and so finally I just decided to wait until I have paid for my groceries before I start bagging my groceries. When I was at the Howard location Saturday evening, there were lots of customers because the Sabbath was over. This was 9:00 at night, and they only had two lanes open, and the self checkout section and that was it. While I was checking out, the machine ran out of tape, and so the person in charge of self checkout had to put in a new roll of tape, but that would have happened in one of the regular lanes.

When the Dominick's on Dempster/Dodge in Evanston used to be open, I would occasionally shop in the store after 9:00 pm, and they always about 9:30, closed down the one regular checkout line they had opened, and you were forced to go to self checkout, with one person manning it. At Jewel now at self checkout, an employee has to scan your coupon for you, because people were scanning their coupons, and then instead of depositing the coupon when they were done scanning it, they would deposit a blank piece of paper, and keep the original coupon to use again.

Mileage obviously varies, but I've always seen self-checkout lanes (whether in supermarkets, drug store chains, big box hardware stores, or anywhere else) as existing primarily for the purpose of firing people, and I object to them for that reason.

boudreaulicious wrote:I don't "prefer" to interact with store staff but I do prefer not to have to wait for one to come over when the scanners didn't work which seemed to happen about 3/4 of the time. So then they started stationing an employee at the self checkout, which defeats the purpose of lowering payroll expense. Probably cheaper to get rid of it than spend the $$ to upgrade the technology to be more efficient.

I feel the same way about them. And there's that an employee has to come over anyway to scan alcohol purchases, even when the equipment is working. And, akin to what riddlemay said, it feels like cutting payroll costs by having customers do the work.

Someone who follows the industry would probably know more about this, but I thought I'd read that many grocery store chains around the US were getting rid of their self checkout lines because surveys showed more customers dislike them than like them.

Update on the potential Mariano's at North Ave and Harlem
http://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/o ... story.html

A nice big glossy postcard arrived announcing that Mariano's Glenview is opening Tuesday, October 7! woo woo!

I find this amazing since that whole gigantic piece of land still looked like a construction zone when we drove by a few days ago.

Lucky recipients of the postcard get a free reusable Mariano's grocery tote bag if they bring the card in between Oct 7 and Oct 12. (Are you listening, Heinen's? ha ha)

The only other goodie mentioned on the card is a "Mariano's box" which looks like a nice collapsible canvas box maybe the size of a half bushel, hard to tell from the photo. I can picture it in the back of my minivan. This is "free" if you spend $100. "A $6 value!"

See you there! --Joy

Mariano's
25 Waukegan Road
Glenview, IL
847-724-4685
open daily 6 am to 10 pm

Hi- I drove by the Touhy and McCormick site on Friday, and they are no where near ready to open up. They are still working on the exterior of the store, and so it will probably not be ready until next Spring sometime I am sure. I went in the new Walmart again down the street from there, and yes they had a fair amount of customers, but there was only one person in front of me in the checkout lane. That Walmart has a product that I cannot seem to find in any other store. I believe it is a new product. It is Swiss Miss Simply Cocoa. It only has six ingredients in it, and has no artificial sweetener. The regular Swiss Miss now has sucralose in it. Has anybody else seem Simply Cocoa in any other store besides Walmart? Thanks, Nancy

Here is a report: I drove into the parking lot of the Mariano's at Golf and Waukegan this morning and I have to say that I can't imagine them opening tomorrow. There is still a significant amount of construction going on including guys on hands and knees trowelling cement or something and smoothing to make entryway sidewalks. you can see through the windows that a good half of the store still has scaffolding inside and no sign of products on shelves. At the main entrance, there was a long table of tie-wearing men having a meeting of some kind. In the parking lot there is a lot of frantic planting of shrubs and spreading of mulch. In the NW corner of the parking lot, they are building a quickie fenced off section and stuffing small equipment into it.

In spite of all this, a phone call to the number on the postcard was answered by a bright young woman who insists that the store IS OPENING TOMORROW at their regular six am starting time! This ought to be good.

And I have no opinion on Swiss Miss products at Walmart other than to say I think that an important topic like that deserves an entire thread of its very own, don't you? It will just get lost on a thread about an entirely different topic, imho.

Hi- I was in Jewel last night, and I noticed that they are carrying the Swiss Miss Simple Cocoa, but it is priced at $2.29 a box, and so unless they have a sale coming up, I will continue to buy it at Walmart, or look for an alternative cocoa mix that does not have artificial sweetner that is cheaper.

Yay! The Mariano's at Golf and Waukegan Rd. is open! It is fully up and running.

My earlier post that that I had spotted half of the building empty with scaffolds inside is for a different business that is being built right next door. Duh! Sorry for any confusion.

What a nice store! Big and beautiful. There were a LOT of samples from fancy cheeses to Roundy's brand sausages , meatballs with BBQ sauce , fresh pineapple , pumpkin-spiced popcorn and chocolate fudge.

The fresh meat section was jammed as people waited in a short, fast-moving line to pick up nice strip steaks at $5.99 a pound.

The fish section was beautiful and there was no waiting with lots of guys behind the counter trying to help any lookie-loos. The fish was expensive as could be imagined but they had some very nice Alaskan king crab legs, fresh water lobster tails, Chilean sea bass and more. A very nice selection of oysters in the shell with six different types.

The parking lot was completely jammed but there was a lot of turnover. Bring a cart in with you from the parking lot.

Since the ingredients in Simply Cocoa are Cocoa, Nonfat Milk, Sugar, Salt, and Natural Flavor, couldn't you just mix a batch up out of the ingredients? I mean, powdered nonfat Milk (I assume instant), cocoa, sugar and salt aren't that hard to come by and I would think would be cheaper than the Swiss Miss branded stuff. Even easier, use normal milk (whatever kind you like - cow, almond, soy, etc). Whatever Natural Flavor it is that you want, not sure, you can add

Mix 1:
3 cups nonfat dry milk powder
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
Use 1/4 cup cocoa mix for every 1 cup hot water, stirring well.

Mix 2:
3 1/2 cups sugar
2 1/4 cups unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon salt
Use 2 tablespoons cocoa mix for every 1 cup hot milk, stirring well.

leek - is that tablespoon of salt in the second mix correct? That seems like a lot more than the version above, although there's 4.5x the cocoa, you've got 24x the salt.

I might suggest vanilla powder, or replace the sugar with vanilla sugar. Other flavorings (such as oil of peppermint, orange oil) -- which are usually liquid -- might be able to be used if stirred into tapioca maltodextrin (or is that breaking the 'simply' rule?)

A bit off topic, but does anybody know if there is a small size container of almond milk available around town? I'm dying to try it, but reluctant to spring for a quart, as I can't stand soy milk or most goat's milk.

bean wrote:A bit off topic, but does anybody know if there is a small size container of almond milk available around town? I'm dying to try it, but reluctant to spring for a quart, as I can't stand soy milk or most goat's milk.

i'd call the dill pickle coop- if anyone is likely to have options, it's them (us- i'm a member/owner).

bean wrote:A bit off topic, but does anybody know if there is a small size container of almond milk available around town? I'm dying to try it, but reluctant to spring for a quart, as I can't stand soy milk or most goat's milk.

I've never seen anything smaller than a quart, but if you like almonds, I think you'd like almond milk. It doesn't have an extract taste, it's pretty mild.

knitgirl wrote:II think you'd like almond milk. It doesn't have an extract taste, it's pretty mild.

I describe it as the taste of milk that granola has been soaking in.
It's slightly sweeter to my tongue than cow juice, although it has less sugar.

If it were served from an unmarked container, you'd be hard-pressed to describe almond-milk as "almond-y." In terms of neutral flavor, Blue Diamond brand seems closer than others. But it has no similarity to goat's milk and is less "weird-tasting" than soy milk on its own. As an added ingredient, it's barely perceptible.

JoelF wrote:leek - is that tablespoon of salt in the second mix correct? That seems like a lot more than the version above, although there's 4.5x the cocoa, you've got 24x the salt.

edited!

I went to visit my brand new Glenview Mariano's Thursday night and managed to leave without a sample of anything. NOT A BITE. I did not think such a thing was possible.

Place is huge, and somehow I found it disorienting. Features include juice place, coffee place, BBQ place, sushi place, and an entire aisle of frozen pizzas. Night I was there the antipasti refrigerator was out of commission. One thing I found interesting was a sign offering to grill or steam your meat or fish purchase. Not sure exactly how that's supposed to work ... Order your protein & go do the rest of your shopping?

It'll be nice to have a well-stocked full-service grocery store very near my home. I can get sundries & cleaning supplies & decent food all in one stop. However, having been to both the Roscoe store & now Glenview, I'm not overwhelmed by their produce department. My heart belongs to Fresh Farms. I find the Mariano's produce selection kind of predictable and a bit pricy. Bulk mushrooms were 4 bucks a pound (and not marked @ POP- I had a little surprise at the cash register). But since Fresh Farms is weak on the sundries end, and has spotty supplies in some other areas (I couldn't find a pepperoncini in there anywhere) I'm quite happy to have Mariano's near by.

Giovanna

Giovanna wrote:Place is huge, and somehow I found it disorienting.

I feel this way about the one at Ashland/Webster/Elston. It would take me a lot of visits there to get comfortable with it--more visits than I'm ever likely to make. The place clearly has its fans, though.

Hard to explain the intangibles of what makes some places easy and other places hard. It's not square footage alone. The huge Whole Foods on Kingsbury may even be bigger (I don't know) than this Mariano's, but I feel comfortable locating stuff in it. Something about it makes sense.

I'm hopeful that the re-done Jewel on Ashland and Wellington will make sense when they're finally done tearing it apart and putting it back together. The store never got an A-plus from me in that respect--but that was because of its annoying practice of putting some yogurt here and some yogurt there, some soup here and some soup there, etc., all because some foods were considered more worthy (in largely arbitrary fashion) of being in the "healthy" section.

Hi- I think Mariano's puts portabellos and crimini mushrooms on sale frequently for maybe $2.99 a pound. They are at least $4 a pound at Jewel, and at the Evanston farmer's market, River Valley Ranch sells their portabellos and criminis for $5 a pound. Their mushrooms are organic, but are not certified. I think sometimes you can get the organic mushrooms for $2.99 a pound at Mariano's. I have only been at the Mariano's in Northfield a few times, and so I am not sure. I am sure the mushrooms at Fresh Farms are not organic. Mushrooms is something I usually only get when there is not anything better out there. I bought a pound of crimini probably 4 times at the Evanston indoor winter market, but today at the farmer's market I was able to get the last of the tomatoes and I purchased 5 eggplants for a dollar. I got a bag of organic mesclun too for $3, and the last of the fresh basil for $2 a bunch. I am going to try to make some more pesto today, and some tabouli salad and one last batch of salsa. Hope this helps, Nancy

Interesting interview with Bob Mariano on Chicago Tonight last night: http://chicagotonight.wttw.com/2014/11/11/bob-mariano-grocery-store-expansion

I was glad to hear that he plans to open more stores, up to a total of 50 eventually from the current 29. I really really really wish Mariano's would open where Dominick's was on 176 in Mundelein -- there's really nothing else around there, except Aldi's (too small for one-stop shopping) and SuperTarget (not the best value for grocery money, in my view). But I fear it wouldn't meet the population density criterion that he alluded to in the interview.

Thank you, Jonah for posting the link! The two interviews were interesting and the change in hair style was a little amusing.

easily amused,
--Joy