I would shop someplace else. If a store or a chain has a bazillion customers, it can treat one poorly - lie to him, jerk him around etc. It really doesn't make a difference to anyone but the person being mistreated.

Things are different at smaller places. I like knowing the owner or the person behind the counter. I like hearing "I'll get you next time," when I have left my wallet in my other pants. I like chatting about the neighborhood. I like that our kids are (or were) in the same schools. I like that they give $50 to the kids who are fundraising for school clubs.

I think, though I can't prove it, that big stores owe their existence to the automobile. They need to large numbers drawn, typically drawn from a large area, to work.

But even another grocery chain would be a better option. Where I liver, there is a significant difference between Safeway and Kroger-owned stores. One of the biggest is that Kroger has reduced its workforce so that it is often inadequate to handle all the people in the store. There's one Kroger-owned store, next to a suburban style development, that during certain hours has no checkers whatsoever. Shoppers need to use the computer checkouts. (The manager told me that "People around here like the computers better. I don't think they like people much.")