Brookshire's Food & Pharmacy review: Store director

The new store director at the Brookshire’s on Line Avenue, Chris, seems to be doing the store no favors. For starters, he’s rarely visible on the floor — most of us customers couldn’t find him if we tried. And on the rare occasion that you do see him, getting so much as a smile or a simple “hello” feels like asking for too much. He just doesn’t come across as a people person, which is unfortunate for someone in his position.

I usually stop by the store in the evenings after work, and it’s been disappointing to see how downhill things have gone lately. The parking lot often looks like a cart corral — buggies scattered everywhere, blocking parking spots, walkways, and even the store entrances. It’s both inconvenient and unsafe. When I’ve mentioned it to employees, I’m often told the same thing: the store director refuses to schedule enough evening staff to stay on top of it.

Inside the store, it’s no better. I’ve repeatedly seen a single cashier struggling to manage both the self-checkout area and the office counter at the same time. That’s not just poor planning — it’s unfair to the employees and frustrating for customers. On more than one occasion, I’ve actually gathered stray carts from the lot myself just so people could park.

It seems that in Chris’s effort to make the store look good on paper — maybe by cutting labor costs — he’s completely forgotten about what actually makes a store successful: its customers and its staff. Saving a few dollars on payroll might please upper management, but it’s clear to anyone shopping there that the store is suffering for it.