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Farm Fresh may have had your credit card info stolen
08/28/2014 9:07 AM by John M
The Farm Fresh store at 2320 East Main Street is on the list of stores impacted by a recent data breach at parent company Supervalu.
From the August 14 press release:
SUPERVALU INC today is announcing that it experienced a criminal intrusion into the portion of its computer network that processes payment card transactions for some of its retail food stores, including some of its associated stand-alone liquor stores. This criminal intrusion may have resulted in the theft of account numbers, and in some cases also the expiration date, other numerical information and/or the cardholder’s name, from payment cards used at some point of sale systems at some of the Company’s owned and franchised stores.
Could they be a little more vague?
We just got a call this AM from the fraud dept in Park City Utah that someone had stolen our information!
Well wonderful…
Just got a fraud alert last night, looks like over $3500 in charges… now I know who to blame.
That could explain why the bank’s fraud department suddenly flagged my cards. My wife went through the same thing.
I shop there often and thankfully have had no issue so far. Sorry for the trouble it’s causing others — dang technology. Hey John — So I’m nit picking, but the title of the post might suggest that the action was taken by the store, right?
This place needs to be razed and pooped on by the almighty, and open up something that is on par with the rest of the area. Please for the love that is holy let us move on from the area of Farm Fresh.
My Virginia Credit Union MasterCard just got canceled a few days ago due to potential fraud, but they couldn’t tell me which merchant was responsible for it because MasterCard didn’t tell my bank…sounds like this might be the culprit!
@16. They tried to build a bigger store there, but the neighborhood fought the demolition of the adjacent building.
Our credit card got stolen a while back. However the thief was spending less than my wife was when, so I didn’t report it.
Well, what do you expect from what was built to be an upscale Community Pride grocery store?
I stopped going years ago when I asked to have some turky cut fresh for sandwiches and was told by the idle clerk “what for? You got meat packaged in front of you” we argued over the freshness of it and i walked away and out of the store.
I actually don’t get the hatre for Farm Fresh (not the company, but our specific store). Sure – they’re not the best grocery store I’ve ever stepped foot it & their prices can be a little higher on certain items, but overall I think it’s good for what it is. I don’t buy weeks worth or more there, but it’s good for a quick meal, few days worth & the people working there are generally pretty nice. It’s better than the Kroger up on Lombardy in my opinion. They’re fairly small so you can’t expect unlimited selection but it’s better than nothing!
In case you don’t know, White Oak is pretty close (maybe 4 miles from Church Hill) and has a Martins. There’s also a Kroger at Laburnum and Williamsburg and a Food Lion at Brittles/Charles City Road and Williamsburg, which is like 2 miles from Church Hill.
I drive to the Food Lion in Varina (off Rte 5) to avoid this grocery store, which is a 2-minute walk. It’s yucky.
It seems to me that this happened at the parent company level. You may not like this store, but this wasn’t something they did here. This can happen anywhere. Target, Neiman Marcus, TJ Maxx – to name a few – have all had a “criminal intrusion”, Going to a different grocery store is not necessarily going to shield you from this.
The hate towards Farm Fresh is astonishing!
The limited size and therefore limited selection of this store is a direct result of the interferience from the Church Hill Association. This store is NOT what was planned but it is WHAT WAS ALLOWED.
It is a “Farm Fresh” in name only. It was purchased about a year ago by a well known shopping mall developer.
John, is there a web site you can post so that people can contact the appropriate parties if they feel their bank info has been compromised?
That is enormously inconvenient.
I am in this store almost everyday, using my credit card. I have experienced no fraud. I wonder why I was not affected? I often go more than once a day, and never use cash.
What’s with all the hate? I like the store. Great service, friendly employees. They may not have much, but big freaking deal. You want Whole Foods, move your stick figure family to the west end.
FormerLibbyHillResident, Gordo, and jean mcdaniel…
Yes, it is what it is because of what it was. The store was going to be much larger and set back further but that was when the Superior Building was going to be demolished to make way. It was saved and plans reduced in size. If you want to know the plans just look at the multi deck parking next to it and designed like the storefront. That was originally part of the grocery store and there was to be a side entrance café that never materialized coming off of it.
The store was modeled after an upscale Ukrops and in fact, when Johnny Johnson started Community Pride it was with a $700,000 gift from the Ukrops family. He wanted to distance himself from the “urban” grocery stores he was known for hence a name change. But the customer service was excellent and they would take your groceries to the car. The cashiers were courteous and friendly. And every Thursday night there was live jazz music and singers on the interior balcony above Starbucks. It was to be a classy place. It opened in January 2003 but by April 2004 the store was taken over by SuperValu and law suits followed for non payment of $3.8-million in merchandise.
SuperValu did not want the store so looked for a buyer – entrance Farm Fresh. And everything went to shit from there. Employees who act like life is falling off their bodies. No one to be found on the floor to offer help or ask question of. Parking lots dirty. Carts or Hand Baskets often nowhere to be found. Prices high (though had been better the last year or so). And some staff with attitudes as one person pointed out. Even with manager changes things got no better and most only stayed a short time.
I haven’t shopped there in a while. I sometimes shop at Food Lion on Mechanicsville Tpk up by the Big Lots which is not far away and have to pick up prescriptions at Walgreen’s further down each month anyway.
Does the identity theft have a time bracket or how far back do the thefts go in time?
Erik
Thank You SO SO MUCH for a good laugh!!! I have never had a bad expereance with this store.
Even though this property is not and never was in the “Historic District”, it is what it is because of interferience in the developement phase.
I have to agree about not understanding the hate of this store. It’s not perfect by any means, but it is convenient and the prices are decent if you take advantage of the specials and consider the location. The muffins and sandwich rolls are amazing (and reasonably priced) and the prepared foods are decent–especially at lunch time when they are just coming out.
Would I love a Wegman’s there or a larger store? Sure I would. But this neighborhood would never permit a store of that scope anywhere, even if the economics of such a store would work–which they wouldn’t. You have the best store concept that is possible for the location and for what the neighborhood will be willing to accept.
Get over your gourmet elitism and face day-to-day reality. Sometimes Fresh Market or Whole Foods just don’t cut it. This is a small market that covers all the basics. It’s a godsend when the weather’s bad or you run out of that one thing you can’t finish your recipe without, or you forgot to buy milk or cat litter. The staff is pretty darned good, too! Try being grateful for the basics sometime and thank the store employees who are there until 10pm…just as you realize that you’re out of something that you can’t do without!
@28 edg, I have not experienced anything either. I’m not there as often as you, but often enough (I’d say maybe three days a week) for basics. I’ve kept an eye on my bank statement and will continue to do so.
@29, I don’t get all the hate either. It’s better than having nothing, which I dealt with for years up here. Trying to support local, this is about as local as it gets. Prices aren’t great but not really high, either.
As someone who works dealing with fraud every day, I wanted to pass along a couple tips / clear up a couple questions folks asked above.
When situations like this occur, the fault usually lies with the point of sale companies chosen by the merchant to process transactions. From what I’ve seen this is the case here – the only thing Farm Fresh did wrong was pick a poor payment processing company.
If you’ve used your card during the window that the fraudsters got data for, your card information is now probably up for sale on a sleazy black market website right now. From there other fraudsters will buy it and use the data to make counterfeit copies of your card. This process may take as little as days from when they get the data or it may take months.
Your bank most likely knows about this breach by now and probably has a watch on your card. Depending on how smart the thieves are, they may or may not get caught before they can use it.
If you think you may have been compromised, you can call your card issuer and ask that they reissue you a new card proactively rather than waiting to see if it gets used.
One last thing – there have been a number of fraud attacks like this in recent months. There probably will continue to be for the near future. This means that even if you get a new card, it’s quite possible that one may get data stolen again. More so than ever before, check your transactions carefully and report any signs of suspicious activity. Often this is a small test purchase before a big one later.