La Sirena Puerto Plata

If you like queuing for hours, being rammed with supermarket carts (trolleys) and paying for stuff you didn�t even buy, then you�ll love the new La Sirena store in Puerto Plata.

Although my first impressions are primarily negative, you have to credit the Ramos Group (the owners) with something � they are pretty smart.
By squashing a small store with an inadequate car park onto a too small plot, they�ve picked up a fairly prime piece of real-estate at I would guess a pretty low price.
A few years down the line, when (if) the land increases in price, they can move the store to a more suitable location and then redevelop the Malecon plot into condos or something � smart move! Maybe by then the town hall will be shamed enough for giving planning permission for a warehouse-type building to be built on the seafront, that they�ll do anything the Ramos Group ask.

So back to the point, my review of the new supermarket. First point is the car park is woefully too small. They�ve already had to block off one lane for each of the two entrances as the design was never going to work. Once you get inside the car-park, expect to wait for 20 minutes hoping someone will leave and you can have their space. We didn�t wait, but spent 5 minutes trying to get out of the car-park, so we could park 200m away on the Malecon. Not looking forward to lugging those bags of shopping to the car!

Once inside the store, it was busy. We decided pretty well immediately we weren�t going to buy anything. Every till had a long queue of people looking tired, flustered and generally unhappy. The queues weren�t moving quickly. Some of the cashiers clearly hadn�t been to cashier school, and were �slowly� moving items across the barcode scanner as if the slower they were, the quicker their shift would end.

But on to the good aspects � the range of goods on offer. If you are still determined to buy there�
It�s got all the usual supermarket range of foods, dry goods, meat and vegetables, but also a baked goods counter. It also had a fresh fish counter which is definitely a plus, but some of the fish had glazed eyes indicating they were past their best. It has quite a large frozen foods section, but again be careful, some items were defrosting. We picked up a bag of frozen peas that were now mushy peas.

The store sells clothing, footwear, stationery, flowers, perfume, electrical goods, washing machines, TV�s, computer peripherals, Ipods, sofas, plastic chairs, ironing boards and even inverter batteries. Not sure I can see people putting 8 hefty inverter batteries in their carts.
I�m also not sure of the logic of including an extremely limited range of furniture. If you are shopping for a new bed, and a choice of just one is all you need, then La Sirena is the store for you.
The prices overall don�t seem much different to other supermarkets. Some items are actually more expensive.  They do have a couple of loss-leaders which are cheaper and the range is better than most.

The wine and bear isle is particularly disappointing. The choice of wine is dismal considering the size of the store, with all the same brands you can buy anywhere. If you like Presidente and Bohemia � well you are in for a treat! If you like Brugal, and Paul Mason wine � enjoy!

Having managed to avoid having our shins and ankles rammed by all the carts, we made our way to the cafeteria upstairs. Nice range of food we initially though, all on display in Bain-maries. What we struggled to identify were the prices of anything. Then we spotted of the two price lists tucked away, and we couldn�t believe what we saw - all the prices were calculated by weight. That�s correct � when you order a portion of rice, it will be weighed and charged for by the lb. We didn�t quite register this immediately, but we ended up with plenty of time to do so, when we lined up at one of the three cashiers. Fifteen minutes later with just one person in front of us, we were of a mind to leave the tray of food on the counter and walk out � but we were starving � and walking back to the car with an empty stomach might have killed us. So we continued waiting.

The problem is, the moronic system the store has decided to operate in its cafeteria. Customers bring their trays loaded up with uncovered polystyrene food containers, each containing a portion of something that has been dished out by the staff lined up behind the bain-maries. The cashier then takes each container one by one, weighs it and types in a code on her till. She does this very slowly, so as not to spill the contents, which is sensible as beef stew does not mix well with tills and cash. If the customer is lucky, she will then put each container on another tray, or not, and you have to reload it.

Each tray takes a few minutes to go through the till. Then the inevitable waiting while the customers are told they have to actually put their hands in their purses (or pockets) and give the cashier some money. Of course, the cashiers have no change, so they look at all the other customers in the queue with a disinterested glance to see if anyone else has change. If not, then the customer will have to overpay, or everyone will be kept waiting until the customer gives up and walks off.
What were the planners of this store thinking when they decided to charge all the cafeteria food by weight? Were they trying to find the slowest and most cumbersome way to bill people? As a customer, you have no way of knowing what you will be charged until you are asked to pay. It�s not as if the portions are different sizes as the staff dish out the portions. I guess you could ask for larger portions � but them you still won�t know what you will be paying until you get to the till.
Overall, a more stupid way to run a cafeteria, I have never seen. You guys should have done a little bit of research � like perhaps just visit a busy cafeteria one time, anywhere!

Ah, and don�t get me started on the environmentally unfriendly stance the store has chosen with every portion of food going into a separate polystyrene container. Every person eating there will use 3 or 4 or more containers which will end up in the garbage. That�s probably thousands each day, from one cafeteria. The owners are spouting about how pleased they are be generating more jobs for the area. Well why not use normal plates, knives and forks, and employ a couple of people to wash them up. That�s more employment for the area, your customers will enjoy their food more instead of trying to push stupidly weak plastic forks into pieces of meat, and the environment will be spared the tonnes of non-biodegradable waste you are now generating. And tell the lady that was going around cleaning the tables to actually clean the tables. A cursory wipe doesn�t do it.

So we sit down and eat. By this time the food is stone cold and doesn�t look so appetizing.  The once hot lasagna is far too salty, but then that isn�t unusual here. Many places ask if you would like food with your salt.

But to rub salt into our wounds, later in the day we had a look at the receipt for the food and realized we�d been overcharged. We bought 4 items and we�d been charged for 5. Not sure how the cashier could make such a mistake � she had plenty of time, but could we be bothered to go back to the store to demand our 46 pesos back � not likely!

So a word of warning, if the cafeteria is putting items on your bill you didn�t buy, you will need to check your receipt from the main store as well � before you leave.

Interestingly, the store does have a customer suggestion box, but the sheets to fill in were too small to write all this, and I really couldn�t face standing in a noisy corridor to do the managements� job for them. If they need suggestions for improvement then they must be blind and deaf. Just look at the unhappy faces.

 Overall, I�m extremely disappointed with the store. I thought it would add a bit of variety and competition to Puerto Plata, but I think people that value their time and their sanity will probably shop elsewhere. Spending half a day fighting to buy groceries and then being overcharged is not for me.
For those who were hoping for a decent sized store like a Walmart or Carrefour, this isn�t it.

As a friend of mine described it, �it�s like a large convenience store, but without the convenience!�

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