Jempson's Rye

Thoroughly baffled by our trip to Jempsons. As we are on holiday we were looking forward to buying our food from an independent store selling local produce, what we found was a random mix of over priced and often low quality goods - and nearly all wrapped in an alarming amount of plastic / polystyrene. We found the local cheese selection very uninspiring, far from having a decent local selection they didn’t really even have a decent British selection - most was European. The guy at the cheese counter was very nice though. We bought a bunch of asparagus for £4.99, the day before we had bought the exact same bunch from the exact same farm from a high end deli in London for half the price. I can’t understand the pricing - it’s absurd. It’s a real pity, it could be so brilliant - independent supermarkets are few and far between. There must be thousands of tourists flooding through Rye and shopping there, but it’s not nice feeling like you’ve been utterly ripped off. Goodness knows where the locals shop! I don’t normally leave reviews for places but I’m so cross that I’m taking time out of my holiday to do so. I will say that the woman at the checkout was completely brilliant, so at least we left feeling happy after chatting to her.
1 6 years ago (22-05-2018)

i’m giving jempsons this 5-star review for employing a 5-star employee by the name of Lewis. he was so very helpful and held the best conversation, it was very nice for me as i have not many friends and he has definitely earned that title now. after this conversation he then very helpfully helped me relocate my mum who went missing in-store, i thought she abandoned me once she saw i had a new friend but lewis assured me that this wasn’t the case. thx so much lewis he deserves a promotion for sure xxx
5 6 years ago (14-05-2018)

Good donuts. Out of 5... Hm... I liked them
3 6 years ago (26-05-2018)

Ok for small Shops but I would never do my weekly shop here, far to overpriced and lacking variety (I shop mostly at Waitrose and there prices are much lower), even the items they make themselves like sandwiches and pies etc are just reasonable nothing special but charged at a premium. Rye really is in desperate need of another store to come along and give some competition and choice to the town. Upgrade is ok but what does it actually provide that wasn’t in the previous store, I can’t see much really!
2 7 years ago (03-03-2018)

The new shop has been badly designed. It doesnt flow and has been designed as if it were an ‘out of town’ shop. The single access point in the car park means that local pedestrian shoppers have to walk all the way round despite the weather or carrying heavy shopping rather than come in or out through the town side. Jempsons has a stangle hold on shopping in this area yet stubbornly refuses to open on Sunday due to the owners personal views on Sunday activity. ( I noticed that they did not object to builders working on Sunday). This is inconsiderate to other peoples needs and most unhelpful to local people. This area is desperate for a good supermarket which provides all week service and which would give back to the community it makes its money from.
1 7 years ago (14-02-2018)