I've been to McEwan probably a hundred times
The location is right across from my office and I was coming by almost everyday for either breakfast or lunch or to get a nice treat (every Friday I'd come by to pick up a pie or a cake or some yummy dessert for dinner)
Well after today, I won't go in there anymore
I've had way too many terrible service experiences there and I keep coming back but today was the last nail in the coffin
I guess I'm crazy to think that a "gourmet" grocery store would have top service but if I'm paying $10 for a small salad or $14 for 6 mini cupcakes, I guess I expect a higher level of service than No Frills
I could list out each terrible experience I've had here but I won't go into detail on each of them ...
Today - I came in to exchange cookies that I purchased - they were hard, didn't taste like advertised, I had purchased them 1 day earlier and had tried just 1... even my coworker thought they really just didn't taste right. Having bought that company's cookies before, I thought they must be expired or something is wrong with them. When I brought them to an employee she told me unless it was expired (turns out the expiry date is a few months away), they wouldn't do anything. "We don't exchange something just because you don't like it" I would expect that for a lot of things .. and I'll tell you I've bought a few things there I didn't like but I never brought back because I realised it was a preference thing. These cookies were just awful and didn't seem right.
For a store like McEwan to not exchange $7 cookies just shows how poor their service is - so they writ off $7 or contact the baking company... It's minimal effort and cost to lose a customer that comes there regularly.
I've also had potato salad with hard potatoes and was told that "the potatoes are meant to be crunchy" .... I can cook and I don't think boiled potatoes are meant to be crunchy (is chicken supposed to be a little slimy in the middle too?)
I was also told their Cesar dressing which was about 50% anchovy and the other 50% vinegar was meant to taste like that and I "must've never had real Cesar dressing"
Their staff also doesn't know what products they have - I've asked for dairy free products and was pointed to 1 tray of cupcakes... When I looked through the products myself I found cookies, biscotti and a few other things that all had no dairy.. Thanks totally-unhelpful-McEwan-employee!
It's unfortunate because I liked a few of the brands they sold. At least Pusateri's is just across my condo!