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| - This Copps has seen better days, and both the store and employee morale show it.
I shopped here for a few years, after moving from the East side, and had always found them adequate as a grocery store. Their produce was always fresher than that at Woodmans, but their liquor department smaller and more expensive. I appreciated that they had a dedicated gluten-free section I could shop without worry, and the meat department was always quality.
Then Target opened up down the road with its own grocery. Instead of rising to the challenge, Copps started REMOVING staple items from its shelves (who creates a huge ethnic foods section, then refused to stock tahini or sesame oil?)
They guaranteed their rotisserie chickens to be available from 4-7 every night, yet when I'd go to pick one up just before six, they were often out. Sure, I could go beg customer service for a rain check/free chicken, but that still means there's have to be one here to pick up in the first place.
Then HyVee opened. Having lived in Iowa, I'm familiar with HyVee - they're a mid-to-upper scale grocery who knows how to market their everyday products like they're high-end jewelry. And it works.
They matched or slightly underpriced their competition for the first few months. HyVee even opened an entire Health Market section of gluten-free goods, and runs a 15% discount on them every week to entice customers.
What'd Copps do? RAISED the prices of their gluten-free/allergen-friendly goods, sometimes by as much as 50%!
As someone on a limited budget, I simply couldn't afford to keep shopping there.
I've been back once or twice since then, and, similarly to how their Whitney Way location went after a HyVee moved in across the street there, the stores just exude sadness and desperation, like they've given up, and I'm starting to wonder if they have..
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