Smart & Final

love this palce good service good bargins bulk with out the co$tco membership fee

I dislike that one cashier named Erica.
She is very disrespectful and rude. I didn’t put the divider stick in front of my things because it was hard to reach. She started talking about me in a bad way with another person. She doesn’t know how to treat customers right. Isn’t helpful. She Doesn’t even put groceries in bag, just hands it to you. My friend also had a horrible experience with her. Disrespectfully hands you change. Why is she even working there. Please terminate or give a good talk to Erica or else she will carry on with this terrible behavior.

In general the team here is pretty friendly and the selection is pretty good. My main complaint is that this is sort of a lower grade Costco in the sense that most of their items are in larger bulk sizes. Not everything is the case, but much of what you can buy is for a larger group.
They have a pretty good breakfast food selection, and the hours are pretty good as well. For fruit and vegetables I would still recommend some other options nearby.

This is just for the customer service. I’ve been here about 5 – 6 times over the past two months. Every visit, the cashier has been pleasant, helpful, and efficient. Great job!

The manager and staff is excellent. I like to mention that they are helpful and considerate.

very handy grocery store in the neighborhood. Have lots options that cant be found in the asian grocery stores. great deals as well. Thank you!

Shopping here for volunteer work since 2010. Few times/​week for my kids’ school’s hot lunch program run by parents. Do my personal shopping here now too.
INVENTORY: Meats, dairy, breads and pastries, fruits and veggies are fresh & other perishables and goods plentiful. Both regular and bulk sizes, with pretty good variety to boot. Frequent replenishing, judging by the constant unloading of ubiquitous delivery trucks.
PRICES: Competitive with Costco. This inner Richmond district location is more convenient for my school & home than Costco in SoMa, so I save on time, gas – and ultimately $$.
SERVICE: Management is meticulously attentive to the cleanliness and presentation of all areas of the store. e.g. frequently disinfecting the register counters if they get wet/​dirty, keeping floor free of debris, maintaining restrooms, cleaning even the inconspicuous areas of the refrigerated sections, etc. Always found the staff efficient, professional and friendly – at check-​out, in the aisles, or when specifically requesting assistance.
SHORT (ER) WAIT TIMES: I usually hit the store between 8 ~ 9 am, when the lines, if any, go quickly. Usually avoid the late mornings and afternoons when it can get crowdy. However, the cashiers usually call in for more registers to open when the lines grow, and try to take shoppers in the order they were already in.
SPECIALS: Definitely check out their weekly flyer for specials & deals. Always found it amusing, in a Animal Planet kind of way, when they used to have their 99cents/​dozen egg sales. When (mostly elderly) folks from the entire Bay Area would descend en masse to make multiple purchases. Multiples times. Oy.
DO-​GOODERS: Lastly, I can attest to the generosity of this S&F to the community. Numerous times, the manager – without solicitation from me – offered to donate food and other items, which have greatly benefited my kids’ hot lunch program, the homeless family shelter our school sponsors, and the Boy Scouts of America. (Thanks, guys!)

They shelves were kinda empty. Most of the items that were in the sales paper was not available in this store.

This is an update to say that I’ve gotten a new (to me) cashier named Jessica and she is just delightful; dedicated, upbeat, efficient, and professional. My receipts passed their 5 day period to leave that feedback via a survey, so I wanted to state it here in case that could be of any service.
I’ll say that I’ve noticed an improvement in cashiers’ positive attitudes and overall professionalism. We really appreciate it. A simple task is made a lot nicer, along with potentially long waits in lines. I do understand that it can be a strain serving the public, so it’s with no small feat I know such things are accomplished.
On a less positive note, I felt positively unwelcome when there was still a half an hour on the clock. Glares and being tracked were apparent. I smoothed some feathers because I certainly don’t mean to be in anyone’s «way» (as a customer you’d think we have priority). I’ve worked retain and I’m a flexible person in general, I’m not looking to be a pest. I can appreciate that perhaps management can set overly high standards of what needs to be done by close… but that shouldn’t impede so obviously on the customer. Please.
Again, though, the person working register that night was aces. No problems there.

Have since tried several of their beef cuts (haven’t done chicken or pork) and have found the quality not very good (but I don’t like Safeway’s beef either), a little too tough. I buy paper products here – paper plates and bowls and cups for outdoor gathers and (extended) family feeds. I once found a big sealed bag of shredded brussels sprouts and wish they’d carry that more often. I do get other shredded salads, green onions en masse too because the quality is just better then Safeways or Andronicos. S&F has it’s place, but it’s not for everyday grocery shopping unless you have to always feed a fraternity or something like that.

It’ been a long while since I’ve been to a Smart & Final. For some reason — I was expecting a bit more in variety and hoped for some gourmet and organic options, but just saw mostly the standard supermarket basics… but in larger sizes and quantities… like giant cans of beans, soups, 2-​pack cereals, etc. It’s sort of mini Costco-​like warehouse where you can buy some bulk items, but without a required membership. Some good savings here, but since I don’t live close by, it’s not worth a special trip out. I’ll be sticking to my trips to Trader Joe’s, Safeway, and occasionally Whole Foods and a Costco run.

Definitely not «Smart» or «Final», as you WILL have to go back and argue with a manager about how they didn’t charge you the correct amount. EVERY TIME.
Bought over $ 100 of groceries and was on my way out when I was thinking, «Huh, I was expecting it to be closer to $ 80.» Take a closer look at my receipt, and blamo! NONE of the on sale items were correctly marked, and I thought, hey, maybe they had a computer error.
The employee and subsequent manager I talked to gave so much grief and attitude, I just became fed up and left. Spent almost 30 minutes AFTER buying my things literally going through the store and pointing, «See? That dog food says $ 19.99 on sale but you charge me $ 25.99, the before sale price» And guess what the manager and employee told me? We just don’t care. You could have gotten these a week ago. Um, hello? The receipt has the date and time on it? Yes, so what, we don’t care.
NEVER shop here. EVER. Oh, and they will tow your car if you’re here for more than five minutes, even if you are a customer. Saw it happen as I was walking out. Guess what the answer they gave the customer when he complained as the tow truck was driving away with his car?

I never step foot in here — even when I food shop on Clement. However I went in in sheer desperation yesterday. The kids’ school is having a food drive and each grade had to bring a certain type of food (mashed potatoes, fruit cocktail, peaches etc.).
I tried Costco and they no longer carry industrial sized fruits of all kinds. They only had mandarin oranges or pineapple. Safeway and Target wanted $ 1+ for a small can.
So when I was in Clement, I dropped in here to try my luck. They had the industrial sized can of peaches here! For the bargain basement price of $ 5 too!
Store is a bit dark but organized. Having the peaches in stock automatically gets 5 stars from me!

Just good and average type but one problem is that some dirty smell from the butcher section–
It should be concerned and give attention–
Oh the cashier is little bit slow-​take more time to fill the register than the necessary one.
Over all good-​you can try– not so high recommendation.

Store was clean and well lit. Shelves were not cluttered. Items were priced moderately.
Great specials.

A Costco run was not possible so we stopped here. We loaded up on large cases of drinks, chips, and party stuff before going on our merry way.
Thank goodness for the parking lot because that was one less thing to worry about. In, out, and done!

The palace of processed foods.
An Homage to homogenous products.
Institutional Foods at it’s finest…
But if you need those kind of things… and we all do: Tub of potato Salad? 36 pack of Diet coke… That 5 gallon tub of Neapolitan Ice cream… Okay perhaps a bridge too far.
But Smart and Final has redone this store and in doing so created a very friendly and inviting place to purchase bulk products without the schleep to South San, 10^th street, or wherever else costco has planted it’s flag.
Great selection of frozen foods, candies, booze (high quality booze)…now I have your Attention!
Parking is an absolute pleasure as they have aplenty.
Added bonus of beaucoup dim sum restos within a block!
So har gow, and shu mai your pretty self down to this market!!!

The store usually offers good deals and the option of buying bulk, but customer service is so poor that I doubt I’ll ever return.
A while back, I had purchased something and then went across the street to buy something else, leaving my car in the lot. An elderly man (I am 90% sure he worked at Smart&Final) demanded that I prove I bought something, so I showed him my receipt. He muttered something and seemed disappointed. Are the parking lot patrol staff commissioned on how many people they catch parking «illegally» in their lot?
The whole store has a slightly creepy vibe…

Well, it’s close and the beer is cheap. If there were any other western options within walking distance I’d go there.
There are never enough checkers and if you don’t pay extra close attention the locals will cut in front of you and then pretend they don’t understand what the problem is.
Avoid this store and the people in it.

This place mostly sucks except I appreciate a few things they offer:
*Cheap water
*slightly less expensive beer
*sometimes $ 2.99 watermelons
*sometimes $ 1.50 Pineapples
*99cent gum
BUT other than these few items the place enrages me. There are always only like 2 checkers open all of which seem super slow or that they just clearly do not give a fuck. which is fine because if I worked at Smart and Final my attitude would be similar. The place is also packed with Elderly ppl so be prepared to wait behind someone with coupons, change, and trying to negotiate prices. The parking lot can also suck a dick. Watch out for them giving you a ticket if you walk around the corner to go to the ATM before coming in.