Safeway

One star for dismissive clerks gabbing and socializing while customers need attention. After waiting for a while for the privilege of using a self-​checkout machine my transaction stalls because I need approval by a clerk to get a beer. Fine, I expected that. So I approach the guy working the machines and he curtly informs me that one can’t use self-​checkout for booze and that I’ll need to use a regular line. This is a new one for me as plenty of other self-​checkout places just require an employee to come by and swipe a card to authorize. So now it’s time to get in a long line behind people stocking up for the apocalypse and paying for it all with checks and handfuls of loose change. I asked the self-​checkout guy if there was a sign that missed explaining the no booze self-​checkout policy. He rudely told me that it had been like that for a year, indicating that I should have known. Well, sorry buddy, I haven’t been to this location in years. And now I won’t ever be coming back.

Nothing like the safeways we have back in Indiana aisle were little outta wack but I guess it’ll be that way when your the closet grocery to the beach

5 stars for the Turkey Pesto Avocado sandwich! I’ve never ordered sandwiches from Safeway before but my friends and I wanted to buy something quick and simple for the beach. It cost $ 6 for a regular and $ 10 for a large. I went for the regular and they cut the sandwich in half so I was able to devour half on the spot (I was hungry!!) and save the other half for later.
It comes on Focaccia bread with turkey, avocado, pesto, provolone, mayo, lettuce, and tomato. I added peppercinis and red onions. I didn’t expect much from a sandwich from Safeway, so I was surprised at how tasty it was. I loved every bite of it!
Too bad I got a little bit too drunk at the beach, that I don’t remember eating my second half of the sandwich :(I would definitely order this sandwich again!

After ordering Wingstop, we went to Safeway to get some drinks.
We went straight for the water section and I found a great deal for water. Thank goodness for club price!
Luckily, when we were checking out, it was fast and there wasn’t a long line.

Avoid this pharmacy! Unbelievably rude — and unwilling to speak to my doctor on the phone. Go to cvs or anywhere else…

I give this place no stars, after a bad experience with one worker I’m not thinking about going back. Seemed like a decent place until I went to the bathroom. Didn’t even want to touch the handle, had to open it with paper towels. One of the sandwiches sold here on stock was open, I think there should be staff checking around. This one individual who I’m not saying the name or position but should be the most mature really got on my nerves. Very rude, stuck up, ignorant, and immature!

This store on Mission Street (or located on Hwy 1) is the absolute WORST. I’d give Safeway NO stars if Unilocal would allow it for the following reasons:
It’s overpriced, female products (aka anything in money-​making pink color) is always more than similar male products (yup, just like Target, Walgreen, CVS etc), management doesn’t either have enough employees or doesn’t care (frankly, it’s bizarre) since checkout lines, including self-​check out lines, are ALWAYS long, long, LONG no matter what time of day/​night it is, and the parking lot’s spaces are marked so close together that a smart car (aka Barbie doll vehicle) is too big. We’ve witnessed several parking lot incidents (i.e., drivers backing/​hitting into another vehicle) over the months – Santa Cruz Police Dept. don’t need called because it’s considered «private property» so if a driver is suspected to be under-​the-​influence of drugs/​alcohol (Safeway sells beer/​liquor), won’t be considered by Santa Cruz police. We know, we called about one incident, given the male driver backed into another vehicle, got out yelled at the other driver even though it was his fault, then took off.
We’ve also seen on multiple occasions a couple of «undercover» Loss Prevention «contractors» slithering around (ATTENTION: they are always in plain-​clothes), which is beyond ridiculous since Safeway, obviously, doesn’t care to hire enough cashier employees to help/​assist with customer service, but can retain/​pay for these clowns to wander around making sure college students, tourists, and locals aren’t taking any of their overpriced merchandise. We witnessed a female customer being harassed by two males, who identified themselves as such, last week after paying for her groceries. The customer looked like a Sunday school teacher, Safeway, a Sunday school teacher NOT some vagrant living underneath a bridge by River Street or one of the many dilapidated RVs parked on street next to U-​Save liquors. Good grief!
Safeway doesn’t really have a competitor since New Leaf Community Markets on Fair Avenue (one block north of Safeway) isn’t really one given their health food clientele is different from Safeway clientele. It’s probably why Safeway’s management or corporate-​regional San Francisco office doesn’t care – NO competition breeds complacency, arrogance, and price gouging of products.
Do yourself a favor, patron Trader’s Joe (downtown), Shopper’s Corner (on Sequel Avenue) or Grocery Outlet (on Morrisey Blvd) since Safeway doesn’t care to earn/​gain your business.

Terrible. Everything is over priced and a bagging lady harassed me because she thought my friend who did pay for a bad didn’t, because she was covering the receipt with her thumb. Lmao. Smh

This is BY far the best Safeway OF all time! This place puts the SAFE back in Safeway.

It was a good Safeway.
The sushi was good. Even though it wasn’t the freshest, since is Safeway sushi and they had it out a while, it was still good. There was a weird glue on the paper that smelled bad though. They had huge arrange of flowers and lots of fresh fish and meat and vegetables. Overall it was good.

Always takes too long to shop here, always. The lines are long and slow. ¾ of the staff checking you out at the registers are painfully slow to watch and totally inefficient, and they never have enough lanes open.
You will wait in line for a long time even to buy a couple of things any time of day or night.
Too bad, its one of the largest newest store around.
I skip it and shop other places with a smaller selection and go to multiple places just to avoid the frustration of watching them check people out. They need an efficiency expert and some serious training.

This Safeway in PARTICULAR, (most Safeway markets are great) is pretty bad. I am so sick of their ridiculously long checkout lines ! Hire some checkers, you are obviously doing brisk business !
The checkers on duty always seem to (bravely!) stay upbeat and helpful. The only reason for a second star !
Oh my goodness! MANAGEMENT !! Hire some more people for the sake of your awesome core crew ?!?
This is a chronic problem here ! It is bad EVERY WEEK ! Management never fixes this ! And where are all the manager special clearance items? Every other Safeway, across the country does this ! And no samples? What gives ?
Also self-​checkout is even worse ! One supervisor, chained to a screen, while customers make frantic hand gestures and yell across the store because you ALWAYS end up in gridlock with a“see attendant for approval” message. So aggravating, not user friendly, avoid at all cost ! It will take longer in the short run !
They have better prices, consistently, than either TraderJoes or NewLeaf. The only reason I return for more torture !

The pharmacy is the worst thing in Santa Cruz. I’ve picked up medication atleast 15 times and every time I have to wait atleast an hour no matter what. They’re not helpful at all

I like this Safeway. Nice place to sit to eat and good amount of plugs inside to plug devices into. Love that. The only drawback here is that it could be cleaner. Tables are not maintained at all and are filthy. If they could keep up with that alone it’d be great. A lot of areas in here need to be maintained better like the soup area too. Overall, I am a fan and come back all the time to use the wifi.

This is my favorite Safeway ever! I’ve been to Safeways all over the bay area and this is the cleanest and most modern one of them all. They have accessible, clean bathrooms and everything is neatly organized. Cashiers are always friendly! Self checkout has had some technic difficulties, but there is always a worker monitoring it and will help you right when you need it.
Another plus for this Safeway is that it’s open 24 hours which is so convenient for college students with late night cravings ;) the downside to this Safeway though is the same as all other ones: it’s expensive. But in Santa Cruz, there’s not many options so utilize the Safeway app to get coupons!

This review is more for myself to remember… LOL
But the thin kashi veggie pizza isn’t worth it.
Do get the 5 layer dip that is the winning formula

This is about the whole deli department. I stood there for 10 minutes, three people were behind the counter and not one could even look at me nor ask me if I needed anything. After I politely ask if anyone could make me a sandwich, the silver haired lady proceeded to tell me that I’m lucky anyone was even there.
.um, excuse me. NO. You are lucky you have a job. You SAFEWAY, are lucky people don’t open a better business right next to you. I will NEVER understand why everyone subjected to this disappointment.

I hate this particular Safeway store and avoid it whenever possible, even though it is within walking distance to me.
The store is ALWAYS understaffed.
I don’t care what time of the day or night, the ratio of staff to customer is never right.
The people working here are friendly, but there needs to be a lot more of them.

3.5 stars actually… Besides Costco and Target, this particular Safeway has been my go-​to Safeway during my college times for daily necessities. I’ve come here so many times that when I go to a Safeway in the Bay, I get so confused on where to find certain items.
There’s three entrances; I usually go through the middle one (to the left of Starbucks when you’re facing the grocery store). From right to left (from what I remember) it’s: bakery to Starbucks to deli to alcohol to chips to frozen items to soda to baby stuff to hygienic to products to variety of foods depending on ethnicity to to the veggies section. The meat department is in the back. Just a heads up that the meat department closes around 5PM or so, but the store itself is open 24 hours (holllaaa!)
This Safeway is pretty big and I feel like I can always find what I need; for some reason the logistics of this store really sticks to me.
–1 star because they never have enough workers in the evening/​late nights to cashier… Sometimes I’ll be waiting anywhere between 10 – 20 minutes for some odd reason.
–0.5 star because sometimes when I ask a worker restocking the shelves where certain items are, they’re just as clueless as I am at times… Pretty annoying. But maybe it’s because it isn’t there department, but I would think that working at a grocery store you’d venture around, right?

While working in the mountains of Pescadero, this Safeway was always the place to go for snacks and groceries whenever I could get the chance to go into town.
It has everything I could ask for in a Safeway, including a clean bathroom and friendly cashiers. Despite my appreciation for small businesses, I loved being able to come here and get everything I need!
I especially liked their prepackaged chocolate croissants that come in a box of ~8 for only $ 5! Such a deal for so many snacks and breakfasts!