All I could think when I tried to sum up this Loblaws was "no great shakes". I have no idea where that particular expression originated but the gist of it is not fantastic.
I was really excited when I saw that they were building a Loblaws here. I've been waiting for it for months and months thinking about how nice it would be to have one on the west side near me. It hasn't transformed my life, however.
It's a nice size and has some pretty and shiny features like a large bakery, fresh pizza, a wall of cheese and large, inviting cake display. All very classy looking. The more generic part-the bit I actually go for-is less impressive though.
Fruit and veg are generally decent; although I've enountered wilted broccoli and softening peppers more than once. I ended up buying perfectly fresh ones in No Frills instead. Like every Loblaws, it's worth looking out for specials on the fruit etc.
Some of the aisles are wide, but others have huge pillars in the middle and they've also placed display stands down the middle of some. It gives it quite a cramped feeling-particularly when you're ducking behind a pillar to let other people pass single file.
Checkouts are sometimes tolerable, sometimes awful. Some of the express ones are 3 cashiers in a row facing the store with no indicator as to how to queue. It's very messy looking. When you actually get to a cashier, they may be civil but I've had a few who made it seem like I was solely responsible for all that is wrong with the world. I slinked out feeling sorry for my existence those days. Not what I really want when I'm paying for the Weston family to live a life of luxury. They've also overcharged me.
So it's...fine. In the way a woman says "fine" and means that they're really somewhere between OK and annoyed at something. in my case, I'm annoyed that they got my hopes up and charge me a premium to be treated like I'm an inconvenience.