Safeway

Stopped by today and again, the store was understaffed. People were waiting at the «customer service» desk because they had the same clerk trying to run both the self check-​outs AND the customer service window at the same time. She was running back and forth trying to take care of people as best she could.
Then they closed the «express» lane they had open so as to open another register for people with full carts. This forced anyone who had only a few items, to check it out themselves in the self check lines whether they wanted to or not. The feeling you get is that if you’re not buying more than 12 items you can just wait on yourself, because they often choose NOT to open express.
This is a store who has promised time and time again at community meetings to provide better service, but clearly has no intention of doing any more than the bare minimum for it’s customers or the community.
Doesn’t Harper’s Choice deserve a better grocery store?

This Safeway is miserable. I have bought expired food, spoiled food and have gotten terrible customer service. It is the easiest grocery store for me to go to and I’d rather drive out of my way to any where else than go here. This store is awful, avoid it unless you absolutely can’t. Terrible.

Hands down worst grocery store experience EVER!!! The lines were so long my daughter and I had time to make friends in line. We got some new Instagram followers, traded recipes, did this Unilocal review, all before my stuff hit the belt. Needless to say, I don’t care how badly I don’t want my daughter to eat McDonald’s it’s gotta be better than the torture I am STILL going through!

I never thought it necessary to review a grocery store! I was in the neighborhood and ran in for a few things.. .
I left my cart of groceries there and walked out because of the lines!

Lines are pretty long… especially right after work time (the evening rush). And the person who is supposed to be working at the Starbucks inside — always seems to be away doing other things, and it takes time to hunt down an employee who can make a coffee.
I wanted to review solely because I think this specific Safeway has the BEST deals on fresh flowers! The lady at the flower area really helped me find the best flowers for some DIY bouquet projects I was doing. I checked out all the Giants around the area, as well as Trader Joe’s and the new Whole Foods that opened in Columbia… For what you get, the PRICES at Safeway (for the same flowers) are cheaper! Plus, they have weekly sales that drop the prices down even more. Will come back here for flowers!!~
The parking lot is shared with other areas, so it’s convenient if you’re stopping by for some fast food, gas, Bank of America, etc.

The worst. It is said to say but my local super market is one of the worst in Columbia. Lines are always long, food is not always fresh, and the bakery department is not worth the big space the have. Safeway should really invest in this super market. It has the potential to be better.

The staff is rude and every time I shop there is the creepy guy who works there who always ask for my number I said no politely and he stood by my car until I drove off it made me very uncomfortable

Slow, slow, slow! If you come here at night, be prepared to wait. Only one line open ever (yet you will find employees standing around near the registers). The line extends back into the aisles. It’s happenes every time I come here at night so I generally avoid coming to this place unless I have no other choice. Not to worry though, I hear Whole Foods is opening nearby soon. Problem solved :-)

Back to Safeway for groceries due to savings I get from Exxon. Mobil gas. My favorite time to shop is during Fridays because Safeway make Fridays $ 5 special. I especially like their fried chicken, chicken tenders, boneless chicken, and rotisserie chicken.

I can appreciate consistency in most aspects of going to the grocery store. Can I find what I need? Check. Are the prices fair enough? Check. Great deals? Check. With this Safeway, I am happy that is right now the street which makes it super convenient when I am short an ingredient. And, since Wegman’s has opened, they have gotten much more competitive so I have been receiving great deals.
However, the one area that I wish Safeway wasn’y consistent in are the bathrooms. Every time I walk into the bathroom here, and it seems any other Safeway bathroom, it is just plain dirty. It seems that no one takes the time to do a quick tidy and it is really off putting. Frankly, it is just nasty.
Safeway, your deals are great, but PLEASE PLEASE clean the bathrooms.

This is my safeway. I like it. always there. I think customer service could be better with some of the employees. They should put a redbox in there, and take out the blockbuster one.

Been here a few times only when I Really need to because the employees here need to go to a customer service class.
And btw, their customer service counter closes at about 8pm. At the self checkout lane, an employee just jumps in front of me out of nowhere to get rid of the blinking light on my lane and starts pressing numbers on my screen. In his rush he didn’t realize I had already scanned the item correctly and he had charged me twice so I had to wait for him to come back. You can never find an employee to help you if your looking for something, bec they are all socializing at the front. And it takes Forever to check out. Why would you only have 3 lanes open at rush hour time?!
And one time two employees were bad mouthing another customer while I was walking by them.
Not that this is safeways fault, but people who don’t watch their little kids are always shopping here when I’m here and it’s annoying.
Overall this store is poorly managed and I’d only go here if I have the time and patience to tolerate this mess.

The store itself and the selection is absolutely fine. I always get a feeling that Safeway is more expensive overall than Giant (even with my club card), but I have no proof of this since I’ve never done a direct price comparison.
What really gets me about this Safeway is that it is impossible to get in and out quickly! I don’t know what slows them down, whether they need more cashiers or just faster cashiers. The self-​checkout lines aren’t much better. Even though it is the closest grocery store to my home, I avoid it for most of my shopping trips.
I do appreciate the Starbucks kiosk at the front of the store. While it can be slow (there is usually only 1 – 2 people working at such a small location), it is the only Starbucks on the west side of town that is not in the mall. This one is much easier to get in and out of.

Not sure if all Safeway stores have sbux in them but this one does and I like it!

It’s a grocery store. It has what I need and want to buy. I like the weekly specials and I like being able to save money with my Safeway Select card. It’s not as big as other locations that I have been to but this place serves its purpose.
It has a flower shop and has a Star Bucks for those who need to get their coffee. It has a seafood department and a deli. Who could ask for anything more?

IS IT DISCRIMINATION OR JUST CHILDLIKE IMPISHNESS?
YOU DECIDE.
It’s hard to believe in this day and age there could be an international grocery chain, like Safeway Food Stores who brazenly makes fun of paying customers while on the sales floor and in front of other customers and employees, but in fact that does happen! If you have disabilities, are older, overweight, underweight, bald, have birth defects, the staff doesn’t like your ears, or you’re suspected of being gay, (what in the world does that have to do with what variety of Pop Tarts I’m buying?), you may find yourself to be the butt of very offensive jokes and insults by the grocery manager at store #1553 in Columbia Maryland.
The «mo» of Safeways managers is even kind of gutless. The way the grocery manager communicates his attitudes, and I have to suppose by extension Safeways upper managements attitude, is NOT to address me directly. Instead his chosen method is to hover around the general area I’m shopping in and at least pretend to be talking to co-​workers or other customers, when I hear something like this — chatter chatter chatter GAY! chatter chatter — with the provocative term being shouted out at a higher volume than the rest of his conversation. On the very same shopping trip, and in the same manner, I later hear — chatter chatter LOOK AT THOSE BIG EARS. IF I HAD EARS LIKE THAT I’D…voice trails off as manager walks across the store, hiding behind his managerial position for cover and Safeway executives provide that cover. I think the manager personally wants to make it more like, chatter, chatter, chatter, FAG!, chatter, chatter, but he must be lacking the chutzpah or maybe he was absent the day his Safeway trainers taught their employees that particular customer greeting. Perhaps Safeway should start administering doses of Viagra to managers so they can develop a stiffer backbone, or better yet, just educate your employees in how to keep their secret seething hostilities and bigotries to themselves. Teach them what it means to be «professional.» But then again maybe the Safeway executives don’t know either!
Another one of managements methods is to show up in an aisle I’m shopping in and pretend, there’s a lot of pretending going on in Safeway, to be facing off the shelves very close to me and I can see in my peripheral vision this guy looking me over, I suppose to find something to joke about. This guy doesn’t know I’ve done grocery before and I know very well when an employee is stalling or trying to milk the clock by pretending, there they go again, to be facing off shelves that were already faced off before they arrived.
Pay attention shoppers.
This is what we’re paying for when we spend our money at Safeway.
Don’t their employees have any real work to do? When I did grocery there was no time for this BS. Maybe if they lowered some managers salaries, they could lower some of their selling prices as well.
In one instance the grocery manager, while I’m shopping in the soda aisle, solicits the participation from one of Safeways vendors to join with him in the finger pointing and derisive commentary and the vendor complied, saying «Yeah. I used to know somebody like that!»
Another example of how these biases are displayed is demonstrated by my experience at Safeway just today. I was the last person in the express line with one package of Ramen Noodles when the dude, who I think is the front end manager because he’s always working the front end, pushes another customer and her cart in front of me and directing the cashier to take one more large order first! She had half a basket or more and was put in front of me who had only one item! Their hidden, but not very, hatred of people who may be different than they are, VIVE LA DIFFERENCE, will always come through eventually. My experience with people who have hate for one group, if given enough time and space, will eventually display their hate for other groups. So nobody is immune to hate.
If the store management doesn’t have anymore personal class or professional training than this, I’d suggest an investigation into the employment practices of Safeway. After all, if a manager holds these biases and freely dumps his ignorant comments on long time customers, isn’t it likely that his ignorance and prejudices color his decisions on who to hire and fire? I think that’s very likely.
I’d like to know who the Safeway executive is who authorized their managers to publicly taunt their money spending customers, because if it were up to me, that individual would be applying for unemployment today.
Is it discrimination or just childlike impishness?
It’s probably a little of both. It’s most likely discrimination brought about by ignorance, childlike impishness and unacceptably low employee standards and poor training. There’s no place for these attitudes in any business, especially a major grocery store chain like Safeway. I’ll spend my money elsewhere.

this store has the worst custmoer service ever majority of employees are rude and lacking of customer service even the store manager (Dave) I complained about a cashier which seems to be racism, he acted it is my fault so then I request to get district manager phone number he gave me a wrong number which was his own office number, I’m so mad he mislead me and tried to be difficult it seemed to rude I never again go to this safeway eventhough it is only 5 min distance to where i live I’d prefer to make a trip to super center walmart in severn, md which have fairly better customer service and much cheaper products rather than go to safeway and get insulted by cashier or stor manager!