Team Safeway!

Safeway is popular in the Bay Area where they’re in bad areas that have a lot of homeless people. And now that property crimes are decriminalized in California, people (especially homeless but also organized crime rings) are just walking out of stores with up to a thousand dollars of goods in their carts and nobody attempts to stop them. There was a case a couple of weeks ago where the criminal casually waited outside the store to catch a bus with their stolen items, so confident that there would be no consequences.

Someone has to pay for all that theft, and unfortunately it’s the rest of us. Many stores like Walgreens and cvs are closing stores in response to the crime and I know Safeway reduced hours at a previously 24 hour store due to out of control shoplifting but I think Safeway is mostly just increasing prices.

They always have good sales on meat. That's basically all they're good for. Otherwise they're expensive, which is odd because they're always a stone's throw from a Giant, which is cheaper, and their stores are soooooo depressing. Even the brand new ones are dark, windowless and play music that makes me want to jump off the roof.

Stores of any particular chain can vary so much from store to store. The Safeway near us is an absolute horror show -- it's a 5 minute walk and I haven't been in at least 5 years because it's so bad, severely understocked with damaged goods and there is never anyone working the check out. We have a Whole Foods, Harris Teeter, Trader Joes, and an Aldi within a 10 minute drive so there is no need.

However, my kid takes swim classes in a strip mall with a Safeway and I will run in for items I need for dinner sometimes and it is sooooo nice. The prices are decent, too -- certainly not more expensive than what I'm used to. It's very clean and the produce section is always really well stocked and they often have random ingredients I need for dinner like sesame oil or specific cheese varieties that I would sometimes have to go to multiple grocery stores to find.

I think the chains just invest more in certain stores than others, and also that whoever the local manager/buyer is can matter a lot. I think once a store has a reputation for being poorly stocked and run, it just spirals because no one wants to shop there and no one wants to work there and it just never gets better. I would guess pricing is determined by some corporate algorithm though.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’m a fan of Safeway, sorry. The one near me is usually well stocked, the employees are nice, and it’s clean. It’s much cheaper than Whole Foods, which is my other nearby option.

+1 My Safeway is great. I've been in some that are not. Same with Giant - I've lived near a trash Giant and a good Giant.

People love Whole Foods but in my experience they have terrible inventory. I remember being told in produce "we don't normally have that" when I was looking for mint. C'mon.

I can see why they wouldn’t normally have mint. A pot on your porch is more than you would ever need. They couldn’t possibly sell enough of it to warrant keeping it in stock, no? Cut mint can’t last very long.

I hate Safeway. The stores near me are dirty and way over priced.

We have Giant, HT, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. All way better and cleaner than Safeway. Well, Giant has it's own issues LOL.

Safeway in my town is the most expensive store around. Forget the high prices charged for their "fresh fruit and veggies" (watermelon and cantaloupe charged by the pound?). Almost every item I am interested in is higher than any store around, i.e., soups are +$. Pastries are $$$., i.e., small doughnuts at 90 cents each! Oh, and they just did away with the $5 a dozen doughnuts on Fridays.

I feel like the Wegmans meat department is overpriced. At least Safeway and Giant will sometimes have good sales on steaks.

I think the Safeway in Glover Park is great! You can get everything there. It is way better than AU Park Safeway that closed. I am from California which was were Safeway was headquartered so it reminds me of home. Go to Costco once a month and Trader Joe’s occasionally for variety. Stopped going to Whole Foods after Bezos/Amazon acquisition.

There were 3 Safeways in McLean. One closed and became Lidl. Now there’s just two left. Prices tend to be high. I don’t think they invest in the stores. It looks dumpy.

They’re union, so that’s what you get, higher prices and people that can’t be fired, so they don’t care

I stopped shopping there 10 years ago. Not worth my time or money.

The fresh produce at our Safeway is never fresh. A few days ago, they had a whole section of brown, squishy avocadoes that were too far gone to do anything with. Instead of reducing the price to encourage people to buy produce nearing the end of its life, they let it all rot and throw it in a dumpster out the back.

Anonymous wrote:how can we hold safeway accountable, the yelp reviews aren't working as they have like 1 star

If a store has like 1 star you probably like should not like it.

Anonymous wrote:I dunno. But OP is right. Safeway is often very expensive. I know for a fact that I can get the same kinds of oils and sauces from Hmart several dollars cheaper than what Safeway charges. It's crazy how much they markup some products.

Then why do you go to Safeway? Sounds like you are the demographic for Hmart.