Safeway

The grocery store is fine, just what you expect from Safeway. Only gets 3 stars because of the meat/​seafood dept. I did but the most fantastic tenderloin roast there for Christmas. Will definitely do that again. The staff in the butcher/​seafood shop is very nice and most helpful. However, when I called the store to check on something and spoke to customer service the first person hung up on me instead of putting me on hold, and when I called back, and had to cycle through the music and silence twice (about 6 minutes) John answered the phone and he was dismissive and abrupt. Also, the checkers have no clue how to pack a grocery bag so it’s easy to carry and they don’t say thank you. They just hand you the receipt and maybe say have s nice day. When I spend my money I expect the store to say thank you, not me thanking them. Whatever ever happened to customer service? Lots of choices for shopping around here. Safeway needs to work on building customer loyalty.

Please add more cashiers, everytime I go there’s always a huge line. For having employees this store sure lack of cashiers. Maybe it’s time to go to a different store.

Clean. Well organized. And well stocked store.
Associates are available and willing to help. In addition, cashier that I went to was so cheerful and helpful. Smiled through my entire transaction while creating small chit chats.

This safeway is kept pretty well stocked, however there was one item in particular that always seems to be out of stock, so I went to customer service to ask if there was anything they could do. The woman who came up didn’t smile once; she looked miserable. She was incredibly rude, it was almost like she was trying to discredit the problem I brought to her. She didn’t look up anything, she just spewed off a reason why it might be out of stock. Afterwards, I went to a different safeway and asked the same question to someone who worked there. While they weren’t able to solve my problem, they did give me the correct information and were incredibly polite and helpful. Needless to say, I will not be returning to the Annandale safeway on Little River Turnpike. This kind of behavior is unacceptable for someone who represents safeway’s customer service. I did call a manager who said he would write her up. He also offered me a 20 $ giftcard, but I didn’t take it. I’ve never experienced such horrible customer service at a safeway before, what a shame.

Decently kept store but painful waits every time I come here. Today I swung by to do some groceries and in the middle of a rainstorm they decided to close the doors on the opposite end of the store so all of us who had parked on that side had to walk the farthest distance across the parking lot with our groceries in the pouring rain. Definitely not the best customer service or attention to detail I have ever experienced.

This location sucks.
To be honest I have never been a Safeway fan in general but this location takes it to a whole new level. It might be close to home but I avoid it. The couple of times I have made the mistake of going it was been a disaster. First, it is oddly dark inside. Second, when you are shopping you cannot get help to save you soul. Now, you would think if no one is on the floor there would be lots of folks keeping the lines moving. Well you would be wrong, very wrong. Somehow despite the bad service there are always lines in the checkout area. Ridiculous lines. The only thing that made me go previously was a particular sale item, which, surprise surprise they were out of and I had to get a ticket for. When I was able to go get the product I had to wait in a line that expended down an isle.
I came really close to just leaving and while I did wait it out I knew I was not going back.

Bad customer service, lazy ppl, store manager, very rude, I only continue to shop here cause I live in walking distance from the store… they need to change upper management, and get that store manager out, told my friend she should be thankful she has fs, who does that in front of all the customer and his staff, he put her personal matters out in the open for everyone to hear… unprofessional

I really just come here because this is the closes grocery store to me aside from Hmart. This place is horrible!
They always seem to be out of stock of milk, its kinda dirty and they never seem to have enough people working at the registers. If you come to this store expect to be there at least 15 minutes. They usually only have to cashiers working and then the self check outs. Its such a nightmare.
The staff is ok, but they never seem to know where anything is. So annoying.

I shophere because they have better deals than Giant… however, there have been times I have tried to buy green peppers, and there were only about 5 left, and they were all shriveled up and old. Other than that, I’ve never had a problem with the produce/​products at this location. My BIGGEST complaint„ however, is absolutely the lack of cashiers, and the absurd ATTITUDES of the cashiers that are there. During the week, they have AT MOST 2 cashiers working. Almost ALWAYS, one of the TWO open lanes is the «express 15 items or less» lane, so people buying enough food to last them for a week, have wait 30 minutes to check out. I have been there numerous times on the weekends as well, and they never have more than 3 lanes open… There are very few polite cashiers (Lupe is the only name I can remember, but she is always pleasant). The younger cashiers act like they’re doing you a favor by gracing you with their presence, and don’t know how to bag worth a damn (ie: bagging fruit on top of bread, and over filling bags without double bagging them)! I can’t believe corporate hasn’t done something about this location yet!

This store isn’t bad as far as products the veg and fruit could be fresher it a hit or miss. The prices are good. Abs I would have rated this store higher but the half the workers don’t speak English.
I mean come I know the location of this store neither do have the shoppers but we are still in America. No matter who the minorities are now.

3.5 stars.
Seems that some people are real haters of this store. It is not perfect, but it’s not that bad people. Also, I saw at least one review of the mini-​Starbucks inside the Safeway… which should not reflect on Safeway itself.
Anyway, on to the review…
The positives in my experience:
The cleanest Safeway in the area. It was renovated a couple years back and has a more «organic» look than the hospital sterile all white look of many older stores.
The staff is friendly even if they are a bit stressed by the high customer traffic here.
The store is always well stocked with everything I have been looking for. Vegetables and store-​made bakery items are always fresh and clean.
I like to come here when I want fresh fruit and vegetables that I don’t want to have to hunt for the good stuff. They dont seem to put anything marginal on the floor, so it saves time.
They also have a significant variety of imported, glass bottle sodas (with no HFCS) many of which can’t even be found in the specialty international markets.
Something that may not be a big deal to many very often — This store has been open during the long weather-​driven regional power outages. With the most dramatic outage, they remained open — even when they could not power the refrigerators and freezers — they remained open for other goods. It may not seem like much, but it’s a HUGE deal when you are out of this or that and everywhere else is closed. They also had things like flashlights and batteries even when HomeDepot was sold out.
The negatives can’t be overlooked though:
Hand baskets and carts seem to never be available when I walk in the store. Sometimes its as if they have none of the carry baskets AT ALL as I have even searched near the registers.
Even when most of the registers and self check-​outs are open, you have to wait in line. There is a LOT of foot traffic to this store, but they need to handle traffic flow better. They have no quick checkout/​10 items or less as they try to force people to the self check-​out instead, but most professional checkers are faster than your average joe. So their cost savings measure is slowing down the process.
My overall impression:
This Safeway could benefit from some improvements to traffic flow, but overall I have had a positive experience here. Those who complain about this Safeway should visit the Safeway around the corner off of Ravensworth Rd which is horrid!
Other than traffic management, I see this Safeway as being on par with the other non-​specialty markets in the immediate area… Giant and Harris Teeter. Those who compare any of these to a Whole Foods, Mom’s or Trader Joes need to check themselves. You don’t have to pay more at these latter places just because of the supposed higher expense of organic foods (which is artificially inflated because their customers don’t question it), it’s also because of the higher overhead invested in the customer experience… so the customer will feel more relaxed spending much more money on the same or similar items.

I really want this store to do well, but the store seems too stubborn to change. As other reviewers have noted, there seems to never be more than 2 registers open, and the self-​checkout machines seem to break down a lot. The store seems to always be in a mess, but the blame for that has to be shared with the customers. The bakery section is the only reason I go back; the cakes there never seem to fail for us.

Could I give this store less than one star? Came in for a few items — ick. Old produce, bakery in shambles, staff that do not help. Safeway — you need to take this store back under control. Yikes. Won’t ever be back.
Thank God for trader joe’s, Moms, and whole foods just a few miles away.

I just waited 45 minutes for a flu shot before walking out in frustration. Never coming back to the pharmacy!

This is the worst Safeway store I have ever been in. They are almost always out of items, like milk. A huge grocery store on a Saturday afternoon completely out of milk? No signs, no one to ask, no lights on in the refrigeration section, no MILK. The store setup is the worst, especially where the self check-​out registers are, most of these registers are broken and never enough space for forming a line. There would only be 1 or 2 regular register lines open, so they are alway too busy. The staff is rude and are never helpful. Most of the patrons that shop there suck as well, cutting in lines and just plain out inconsiderate and rude.
I hate this store, it absolutely sucks and I will never, ever shop there again.

This store is really bad. I was there on Jan 19 and found a lot of the packaged name brand lunch meats with sell by dates as far back as Dec 25. In fact, none of the variety that I at looked showed a date in the future. Gross.
A large freestanding freezer case was broken and created a large amount of water on the floor around it. There was one guy working on the large water puddles by slowly placing strips of brown rolled paper towels in a few spots. There was very little signage to keep patrons from walking into the mess. There was a lot of water.
At the checkout area, a young male cashier was yelling to another cashier to come and relieve him from his post so he could go work on something in the bakery. The listener respond by requesting an explanation so the two of them yelled back and forth for a good while.
Old food, water puddles and screaming sales clerks. I’ll avoid this place.

The WORST Safeway I’ve ever been to. Do yourself a favor now, and go to Giant down the road. The heart palpitations it will save you from avoiding the disastrously inept and very unprofessional staff, horrendously depressing store ‘feel’, and the looooooong waits at the checkout lines which are grossly understaffed, will be worth it alone.
Just an utterly abysmal experience from start to finish.
It amazes me how a store like this under a big name brand has stayed open for so long. Annandale needs rid of this dump.

I thought that this was definitely one of the nicer Safeways in the area. Granted, I was only in there to take advantage of a special in their weekly circular, so I had a whopping 4 items to ring up. Either way, it’s one of the largest in the area, their meat and product selections were definitely top notch.
While using the self checkout, I did notice how there were a shortage of registers open, but I say that’s what the self checkouts are for. Bring those on more than cashiers!
Also, check your mail or their website for their weekly specials, they’ve been having some awesome sales as of late.

Found out from someone that my Wife and I know here that the reason this Safeway only has two to three registers opened all the time is because the managment here gets a bonus for keeping the staffing on said registers to a minumum! Other Safeways open as many registers to get the flow of customers moving out the door so they can get their bonuses for staying busy and getting customers out in a timely manner!
If you like to get in and out of a Safeway in a decent mood, go to the one on Nutley Street that has the Micro Center and Michaels in it, you won’t be sorry plus they have a better selection on things and more items to buy than this one! They have a Sushi Bar, and a Nut Bar that you can purchase Nuts by the pound and buy your own fresh Nut Butter whether it’s peanut butter, cashew, or anyother nut that you like. LOL!
Also, the Nutley Street location has a better Bakey department, and Deli that will help you out than hide somewhere when a customer shows up. Trust me, you will like this location better than the Annandale one, also there are no one standing outside begging for money, homeless people, and Day Workers hanging around as well!

Been here a couple of times and thought I would throw out a couple of observations.
This place always seems to be real clean, I like that a lot. It’s convenient for me as I like to drive up and down little river turnpike and do errands on the weekends as lame as that sounds. Also, I have a Shoppers and a Giant nearby that both suck so bad. The deli and bakery here are great and are very convenient.
They take coupons here and double them which I like. They get docked a point for having high prices on some items. I happen to like this location a lot as it is better than a lot of the Safeway’s I have been in.