Safeway

Higher prices and unfriendly employees. Mediocre service. Paid for stamps along with cards but cashier forgot to put in bag. Had to go back. Express line and self service lines were long and customers had too many items. Open more express lines!

Safeway is not a one stop shop kind of place. This location caters to a more affluent clientele and sometimes you’ll be hard pressed to find the right herbs for your recipes– sometimes they have leeks and fennel, sometimes they do not. Sometimes they have fresh string beans, sometimes they do not. A lot of their products are overpriced (Sabra individual pretzels and chips are twice the price of Giant’s!) but they have a pretty good lunch-​time selection.
My favorite is coming up to the cold counter and getting a six dollar entrée– you get one main (like a chicken breast) plus two sides. The sides are relatively healthy– like a greek vegetable salad, kale «superfood» salads, quinoa salads. They’re usually lightly dressed and not overly greasy like you’d expect. The chicken breast is frozen and they just leave it out to thaw, but it’s quite tasty and at 6 dollars, quite the bargain. I like it better than Whole Food’s entrée selections (and their salad bar quality has plummeted within the past few years).

This store is within walking distance and that is the only reason why I shop here. High prices and very poor customer service from employees right up to management. From reading the reviews, I see that I am not the only shopper who has experienced this while visiting this particular store. Let’s just say that I do not appreciate being confronted and threatened by an employee that they are going to do bodily harm to me while I am trying to do my grocery shopping in retaliation of making a complaint about poor customer service and rudeness.

So RUDE… My wife is 9 months pregnant… The checkout person said «are you going to put your bags in the cart»… She said «no can you please help me.» He said «No»… It was so bad the people that were in line came to help her. This is the worst managed grocery store ever!

Bakery worker doesn’t understand about cake and order.
Really I got feel bad with my husband.

This Safeway gets the job done. There check out lines are usually moving and the self check out aisles run smoothly 90% of the time. This Safeway has recently stopped selling powdered Parmesan cheese in the cold aisles and mostly sells shredded Parmesan cheese. They also do not carry the 24 packs of Seltzer water unlike the newer Safeway in Wheaton. Makes me sad.

Convenient location to my house, so I come here to grab some items from time to time. Does not compare to Wegman’s, etc. Evenings the lines can be quite long. Okay selection of products, but can’t find everything (multi cultural foods, etc). Lots of competition coming for grocery stores, so they may have to step it up a bit. But fine if you just want to go in and grab a few things on your way home.

Decent produce section, which is why I sometimes go there, but major complaint is the consistently long checkout lines. Self check is helpful when it’s open, but why have a dozen checkout lanes with only max of 2 ever open?!

I just don’t like safeway. Maybe this location is ok, but I walked through and it made me feel kind of depressed that this is the best a major grocery chain can do.

The management staff at this Safeway is rude; the customer service is mediocre. Giants right up the street; they are helpful and polite! I’m taking my business else ware.

I would have given a 4-​Star because this is my neighborhood Safeway for years.
I took off two for what happened last night, Al was in the 15 Items or fewer lane and all the other lanes had long lines. I didn’t have 15 items I maybe had 25? That’s debatable, either way i step into the lane and he is like «whoa whoa whoa 15 items or less» Now I knew this, but I figured since he didn’t have anyone for about 5 Minutes prior to me attempting to go in his lane I’d give it a shot. I think Customer Service would be the key here, maybe even being a team player. Seeing that your Coworkers are swamped why not help out a little? Well That’s minus one star, I’ll take off a star for him being rude and obnoxious about not attending me. I went to another long lane, waiting for like 5−8Minutes and he didn’t get a customer for another 3 Minutes or so. Really dude, you want 15 items or less or not do anything at all?
I see it like this, one don’t raise your voice or be rude, two as a Manager myself I know if it gets busy I should step in and help. No Manager Presence.
Nonetheless I’ll keep returning, with not even 1Min from my house, I’ve seen this Safeway go through the remodel, I’ve seen the good staff and the bad over years. I have and always favor this location due to convenience and yet I’ll remember the yesterday incident. Rude and Convenient, I guess that’s love and hate in a way. 2 Solid Stars.
I will say this, the Asian Gentleman who always does self checkout, he is a 5-​Star Employee! Kudos to him, he brings his A-​Game to work.
I mirror the comments about the long lines from previous reviews.

We signed up at this Safeway for a family portrait which took place in the break room. These are the reasons we had a negative (and foul smelling, see #6 below) experience:
1.) you pay $ 30 upfront for three sheets of the same portrait which, in at least our case, was the worse shot of the session.
2.) they take out a big stack (ALREADY PRINTED!) of much more desirable pictures and a CD with digital copies which they say will cost $ 200 on top of the $ 30 you’ve already paid.
3.) if you wanted to get the CD just by itself, they ask for $ 90. (Of course they don’t want customers taking the CD down to Costco and getting exactly the prints you want for a few dollars each)
4.) the salesman met individually with customers behind a black curtain (oddly like the Wizard of Oz) almost whispering so as to prevent other waiting customers from hearing the prices. The situation felt exactly like one of those «hard sell» time share sales meeting.
5.) we waited for a total of three hours, counting both the photo shoot and the day of the pick up. This is despite the fact we had confirmed appointment times on both days.
6.) the photo shoot and pick up/​sales meeting were held in the basement of a Safeway, in a shabby break room, where the air smelled exactly like that of a landfill, due to rotting meats and produce in the proximity
We walked away feeling scammed and were appalled by the obvious care they took in engineering the whole deception. A pox on Safeway for subjecting us to this ordeal.

Incredibly long checkout lines.

After trying to find a market I liked in my new city and never being happy, i found myself by a matter of circumstance at the Safeway in Kensington. Or as i like to call it The Stepford Safeway. Everyone at this market is NICE, from the cashiers, to the pharmacy people, to the butcher, to the customers. It really is like taking a trip to Stepford with how nice everyone is. Its got typical Safeway savings (get a card so worth it) and the lines are usually short but the real plus is how nice every one. I was pushing my cart though the dairy section and another customer actually greeted me with a «Happy Tuesday» and a big smile. Yup Stepford!

Immediate parking lot’s a little cramped. Not sure why the juice aisle is so grimy. At least the self-​checkout stations are well-​kept even if they aren’t consistently monitored. Contrary to popular belief, this observation had less to do with people fraudulantly classifying all their produce as bananas, and more to do with people not knowing how to use the interface and giving up halfway through. And now I can say I chased after someone for his (hot dog) buns.

I love this safeway location because it is never really packed when I go and when it is kinda busy there is more parking in the back of the store. It is also situated near other places. It also has a starbucks like most Safeways do.
I stopped in here to pick a few things up. The lines were not long as there are a lot of check out counters as this is a larger safeway. The sandwich counter where you make sandwiches is great. The starbucks is great too. Like all safeways, their products, I find, are a little more pricey, but you can save a bundle if you get the Safeway card. It is clean, the staff is friendly, and the store is huge. Great selection of food and services!

Parking, never a problem, as they have a garage in the basement.
not so produce-​heavy, although an gourmet mix of interesting food products intertwined with the run of the mill stuff. The overall setup is wierd and tight, and reminds you of a local grocery, not a corporate store.
They carry items giant does not, so I make sure this is one of my monthly stops.

This Safeway is the only thing of substance in Kensington that doesn’t involve antiques. I know the town has its charm being nestled between legs of the Red Line, but it is the place development forgot! Anyways, the one bit of recent development they’ve gotten is a good one.
The prices may be higher than Giant and they’re sure higher than Shoppers (and even on some things Harris Teeter), however it’s a nice, clean, and modern location that reflects the 21^st century. I remember visiting on the first day and being blown away, since it was so much better than the Giant up the road in Wheaton. It serves its role as a suburban supermarket well and is worth the trip for those living in areas with other, lesser Safeways (or any lesser grocery shopping).

It’s clean, it’s big, it’s nice. That’s why this Safeway is the grocery store I visit most often. The only downside is that the prices might be a little higher than Giant.
Tip: The lot in front of the store is often crowded; try the garage in the rear instead. There are 2 elevators and an escalator.

This store has just lost a star for lack of customer service. By that I mean, literally no employee behind the customer service stand, and no manager in sight.
Yesterday I was overcharged for three items. One was b/​c they left the old sale price up. If it was under a dollar — no problem, but $ 5.29?! I want my money back!
Today I went to the Customer Service counter and waited… and waited… finally I asked a bagger where the manager was. He pointed to a guy at Register 3. The bagger went up to him to tell him I needed him. I saw him ask the guy what I wanted. The bagger (whom was a bit «challenged») came back and asked me what I wanted. He then went and told the manager/​cashier and he did not even turn around.
Five minutes later, the gal who was manning the self checkout aisles came over and helped me. She was courteous, but didn’t really care that I was ripped off. She trusted what I said about the items being a lower price and gave me the difference without question.
I still like this store. It’s new and clean. It has great produce and bakery goods. Although, just because it is 2:30 on a Friday, that doesn’t mean you can skimp on employees.