Carrs Quality Centers

I stopped by here to pick up some groceries and take-​out from the Orient Express. Surprisingly, this Carrs location is a lot better in terms of layout compared to the Fred Meyers just down the road even though they are larger space-​wise. I have never had an issue trying to find a parking space even during the rush hour compared to the parking lot nightmare of Fred Meyers. The General Tsao’s chicken and chow mein I ordered was hot and fresh out of the kitchen just in time for the dinner rush. This Carrs also feels a lot less chaotic when I come in to pick up a few things. I would choose this place over the Gambell Carrs (easily the worst in town with regular visits from the police and Community Service Patrol) and the Carrs at Boniface and Debarr.

It’s Carrs, you know what to expect.
If you’re new here, this is also known as «Safeway».
Typical mid-​grade grocery store.
Has the «Oaken Keg» attached where you can buy alcohol. Fun fact: my Mom thought it was a separate store that sold actual «Oaken Kegs».
Prices are OK, selection is OK. Ambiance is OK.
Hey, at least it’s not «Ghetto Carrs».

We have been customers at this Carrs for quite a while… tonight we bought a box of donuts… they looked great!
My husband ate one, I went to eat one and found a little black fuzzy WORM like bug things… SO GROSS!!!
Called and they were super concerned said they would give us a refund. Great customer service for sure but man… bugs in our donuts!!! YUCK

Huge. Big selection. Good produce. What’s not to like? It’s a grocery. Friendly staff.

I only came for the coffee and the booze, which oddly enough is in a section of its own divided by a glass door, and even then to get beer you go to a walk-​in freezer, I was surprised that by Alaska standards alcohol was not much pricier that what it is back home (unlike everything else), at their deli I found deep fried gizzards, I thought to myself hech, why not, but at almost $ 15 for a few pieces I don’t think it was worth it, they were pretty chewey, service is kinda slow but it seems like that’s how everything is around here, the store is somewhat clean and organized but the whole place is pretty outdated, last thing you need in Alaska is to be depressed.

I really like this Carr’s! I especially like the very friendly cashier in the early morning during the week (Charles). He’s ALWAYS friendly, courteous, and professional. He always seems to have a few minutes to chat with you and wish you a great day. He really makes my shopping experience at that location more enjoyable!

I like this Carr’s. Sure, it’s not fancy like some of the stores on the other side of town, but it’s a good, solid grocery store and the people that work there are hard working and they do their job. There’s quite a variety of workers: the elderly little bagger that really doesn’t do much but make the checkers mad, the checker that is deaf but is he really? And the guy that mans the self check out line that never says a word but he’s there in an instant (you don’t even see him coming) if you miss an item or the machine gives you trouble. Yeah, this is a great store and my favorite if you’re not looking for anything fancy. I’d give it 5 stars but I’m taking one off for the parking lot in the winter.

Go to Fred meyer instead! I am visiting from seattle and thought the safeway brand was more reliable. Carrs is like a horrible rendition of a safeway store. And surprisingly the Fred meyer is beatiful– whole foods like. Go to fred for better deals!

I’m a fan of Carrs. There really isn’t much variety in Anchorage when you think about it. Carrs/Safeway/Fred’s/Walmart. It is your normal grocery store of course marked up at least 40% but that’s AK for you!
They have great deals on flowers if your looking to just spruce up your pad or office for $ 5.00 or $ 5.99, super cheap, but of course you must have your Savers Card handy (or phone number). They also have a great selection of soups/​deli style meals and a gigantic cupcake lovers dream of yumminess.
If you shop the deals you can get a good deal, but if you aren’t willing to change your brand or try something else you will pay out the wazoo for it.
I will continue to come here from time to time when I can’t make it to the commissary. Maybe not necessarily this location but Carrs in general.

This is the complaint that I sent to Safeway regarding their poor business practices. If you don’t want to read the whole thing, scroll to the links at the bottom.
This is the closest grocery store to my house in Anchorage, as such it has been my regular spot when I need to pick up last-​minute ingredients to finish a dish or to make something quick after work.
I’ve had a consistent problem with sale signs being left up past the date that they are valid at this store. This is always a pain, as I’ll be charged more than expected and will then have to wait in line at Customer Service (if I even notice) just to get a few dollars back. Shopping is not my favorite experience in the first place and this makes it take much longer than it should– and much more explaining, for someone else’s mistake.
I get it though– I worked in grocery for years, I know that it’s easy to miss a sign sometimes (though not really this often) when they change over. The bigger issue is with my most recent experience of trying to address this:
I visited your store around 10 PM to grab a handful of ingredients for a late dinner. I went through the checkout line without paying close attention to the prices as items were rung up. I put in my debit card to pay and the amount seemed surprisingly high considering the small number of items that I had collected.
I took a closer look at the receipt & found that I had been charged $ 3.99 each for two boxes of salad greens that were on sale (per shelf sign) at 2/​$ 5. I went back to check the sign and it was still there, on all of them. I reached for the sign to take to Customer Service to get refunded and the produce stocker told me that I was not allowed to take it. I explained my situation and he told me that I could bring it to customer service but I needed to bring it back. I explained, again, that it was displaying the wrong price. He went back to work & I walked over to Customer service to wait 5 minutes for them to figure out how to refund the $ 3.00 that I had been overcharged.
I went back to produce to return the sign, again asking him to take down the incorrect sale prices. He said «maybe if I have time I can get to it tonight.» and then «I’ll let my manager know tomorrow.»
The things is, it’s a two-​part sign– the full price at the top and the sale price at the bottom, with a perforated edge– all he had to do was tear the sale prices off of the 6 items that should have gone off-​sale 5 days earlier.
He refused.
Most people don’t notice when they’re overcharged– therefore this mistake generally falls in your favor. I know that you know that:
Do you also not care that you are losing customers over this? I will not be visiting your store again– a mistake is a mistake but willfully misleading people is something very different.

My review is about the bakery. I went in last night to order a Black Forest Cake. The gentleman behind the counter wasn’t sure if they made that type of cake. He told me to call the next day (today) and ask and order then. I hinted that it would be nice if he could figure out if they make it, so in case they don’t I could go elsewhere. Well, apparently it’s not easy trying to find a bakery that makes this cake. I called back this morning. The woman was very rude. She said I would have had to order it yesterday. Umm, I tried to! I explained the situation and her response was, «well, we don’t really make those cakes anyway, it would be a favor». Even if you aren’t going to give good customer service, at least be remorseful. I wound up calling 3 other Carrs. 2 could not accommodate me today, but were very nice about it. The 3^rd was the one on Huffman and I will be able to enjoy a Black Forest Cake later this afternoon :)

This is «my» Carr’s. Although I prefer Fred Meyer overall (because they have EVERYTHING), I really like this particular Carr’s. They have a really nice, well maintained produce section, but of course since it’s Carr’s, it’s expensive. The layout of the store is a little strange because the left half is new and the right half is the old original store. The cold foods is in the center of the store, which is really weird, but I actually like it. They also have a pretty large food court/​Starbucks in the center of the store. The most awesome part about this Carr’s is they have the fastest free WI-​FI in Anchorage, which makes the café a totally cool place to hang out. They also have REALLY excellent customer service. Kudos to the store manager for holding employees accountable for service standards.

I did not like the way the day manager handled my situation, concerning an item, that came to $ 192.96. because, I did not know what they were doing, and evidently, they thought I knew there system, he in a patronizing way, explained it to me, after, I was left there for over a half hour or more, wondering what they were doing.

It’s clean, and the produce is sometimes better here than at Fred Meyer. The prices are higher but I heard it’s I because the workers are part of a union and Carrs pays the dues so that money has to come from somewhere. I miss the little ice cream cone stand.

Looks better now with the recent remodeling. Carrs still Carrs though. Overpriced groceries and poor atmosphere inside.

Their remodel has given a much-​needed freshening up to the place. They still often have fruit past its prime (but that’s the case of fruit in general in Anchorage), but it’s a nicer shopping experience. I still wish they had diet cherry 7-​up. They have 7-​up, cherry 7-​up, and diet 7-up…but no diet cherry 7-​up.

Aurora Village Carrs has the BEST bakery in Anchor-​town! I know, it surprised me too, but really! The bagels are WAY better than Bagel Factory’s and their breads are WAY better than L’aromas — kudos to their bakers.
Minus one star because Safeway-​Carrs is still not quite Original-​Carrs. Also, the parking lot can be sketch.