Safeway

I was soo excited to see that there is a Safeway nearby.
Safeway= wide range of quality ingredients, promos, reliable staff, all housed in an inviting environment.
Right? Heck no. Not today. And not the many times I visited before.

Go here if you enjoy standing in long lines, limited food selection or if you want to be annoyed by the patrons/​employees. I live in walking distance but I go out my way to go to the Giant on H st & 3^rd, the Walmart on H st or the other Safeway on L st. Anything is better than this maryland ave location. Aldi’s offers better produce than this Safeway. They don’t offer self-​check out, people always loitering in front of the store making it hard to exit. Be on the lookout for expired food and fruit flies all around the produce section. Butcher section seems to be always closed. The only good thing about this store is maybe the Starbucks. Better store options around do your self a favor and don’t step foot in this store.

Hands down one of the worst grocery stores in existence let alone in the DC area. Lazy, unprofessional, rude, and downright dumb staff. It’s shocking that this place has been in business this long and it has only gotten worse.
Literally has now been reduced to 2 checkout lanes out of 10. I’d say it’s understaffed but there are about 15 other employees standing around on their cell phones. Horrid. Avoid. The giant down on H is much better.

How does a place like this exist?
— Parking lot is like off roading
— I felt like I was entering a prison, only dirtier
— I’m pretty sure half the produce/​fruit was going bad
— I’ve gone a handful of times out of necessity and always question why I came back once I’ve stood in line for 10+ minutes. The cashiers define incompetence and laziness, there is no reason there should always be a 10+ minute line.
— Shut this store down

I was very excited that there was a grocery store within walking distance from my new home. I was previously living in an area that required a car to get the grocery store and I believed my food troubles were over.
I was dead wrong. First the parking lot is very disorganized. There are carts everywhere and somehow there is this huge SUV (old) parked in this coned off area that is just creepy. They also cone off a large part of the lot. The lines need to be repainted in the lot and there should be someone who tries to organize the rogue shopping carts.
I think half of the safeway sign actually lights up so it reads «Safe,» which is funny because it certainly does not feel very safe.
This Safeway is horribly managed. First of all I understand that there may be a theft issue but why do I feel as though I am entering a poorly run militarized zone to go grocery shopping. The security station at the front of the store always has some disengaged security employee or employees working there.
As soon as you enter and pass the security guards you are in the baked and ready foods section. The different piles of food (and yes I wrote piles because that’s how it should be described because they resemble piles and not the typical towers usually found in grocery store) are all disarranged and sparse.
The meat selection is comical and the fruits and vegetables are not fresh. The produce will certainly go bad quickly. The aisles always have boxes of unpacked goods in them and there seems to be no urgency to clean up the aisles.
It seems to me that the manager or ordering manager has chosen items that he or she believes are popular for their customers. They choose to have a large selection of chips, cookies, juices, soda and other snack foods but not very much in the way of actual real food. I will say that the Safeway does have a selection of gluten free items. Kudos!
The lines are always out of control and the employees look miserable. I understand customer service is difficult– I did it for many years but part of your job is to serve people with a smile. I know there are awful people out there who will be rude but I really believe you should treat every customer like you would treat your mother. It makes the day go by faster and it also gives people the benefit of the doubt. I consider myself a very nice customer, I always say hello, how are you? Are you in the beginning of your shift or the end? I then comment and say that’s great that you’re near the end of if near the beginning I say good luck, I know it’s going to be a hard day. But my goodness the Safeway employees at this location act as though I am the worst person ever and don’t want to engage in any conversation and they don’t even smile and acknowledge my questions or hello.
This Safeway serves as a huge issue that many lower social economic communities have to deal with and that is the access to real food. While there may be a grocery store in the community, I feel as though there is a food dessert in this area. I will have to see if the Aldi is more promising.

The best thing about this Safeway — convenient location.
–Always grab a cart before you enter the store.
— This store is notorious for scanning incorrectly. Always review your receipt before against your ad/​coupons before you leave. If it scanned wrong, you’re supposed to get it for free. They ignore the policy even though it’s posted on the customer service window, but if you call the corporate number on your receipt, they can add the refund to your card.
If you’re using the Just 4 U coupons or anything loaded to your card, print the savings list from your account before you go to the store and take it with you and bring an ad to the register. It makes it easier to deal with the scanning errors.
–The cashiers tend to be very slow.
–The store usually has low stocks of produce and frozen specials.
–Customer service line is long & my experience is that after you stand in the line for things like incorrectly scanned products, they will not help you if there is no manager in the store. Once again, call corporate for assistance.
–On the positive, Safeway has great deals if you use coupons and load your card with the Just for you coupons and specials before visiting the store.
— The cashiers always ask if you need assistance with your bags.
–This is one of the few Safeways that has more live cashiers for checkout than self-​serve registers.

I apologize that this review is going to sound like a lecture. However, this Safeway is a perfect example of the many ills of gentrification. OR whatever you wanna call it. It’s an absolute travesty that a business can operate like this in any neighborhood. Granted I have been to this particular Safeway one time, I still believe I have a little authority to opine on the level of ridiculousness. The customer service here is horrid. You will be in long lines for days and no one addresses this. The reaction is total apathy. No one cares. I suspect that you would not find this fare in a Safeway in Friendship Heights or another more swankerrific DC neighborhood. It’s not OK people. The residents in this corner of Northeast have to deal with this because there are little other options. It’s just sad. I will not return, and neither should you.

I tend to go this grocery store because I like to get some free gas with Safeway card.
However, I REFUSED to buy their fresh fruits and vegetables. I planned to buy some tomatoes, but there were 100 fruit flies.
I planned to buy some apples, but there were 100 fruit flies too.
I decided that I will only go to that store for canned food and frozen food. I always go to Aldi for fresh fruits and vegetables.

Remember your mom used to tell you, «if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all»? Moms are funny like that and yours probably grew up in an era when a 500 page phone book was the bleeding edge search engine technology. Today we all want real time reviews prior to buying, flying, eating, driving, dating or hop scotching across several lanes of traffic at one of the craziest intersections in the District to procure our «ingredients for life» at Northeast’s neighborhood Safeway. This place will write an episode in your life you will share with your grandkids. Instead of going into a lot of vivid and well written detail, I will just hit the highlights:
1. Ridiculously long lines, ALWAYS!!!
2. Extra spicy attitude
3. A rousing chess tournament going on at midnight
4. Guerilla valets
5. Fresh produce? Funny
6. Long lines
7. Friendly checkers
8. Shopping carts? Go to Harris Teeter
9. Hostess Twinkie boxes stacked 4ft. high at the store’s entrance to resemble a medieval fortress (Welcome back Hostess, we missed you)
10. «Helloooo, is there anyone in the deli»?
11. No self-​check out stations
12. Random acts of the unknown
13. «Clean up on aisle 6, 2, 3, 12, 7 and 9»!!!
14. Bring lots of patience and travel Scrabble because your wait in line will be no less than 15 minutes no matter how many people are in front of you
15. The Pepsi guy flirting with the deli clerk (refer to #10)

Don’t waste your time, go to Giant on 3^rd, Harris Teeter on Potomac or the Safeway on 14^th.

if i didn’t live 1 block away, i would never go here!!! the customer service is god awful, the lighting is disgusting, there is ALWAYS a line and i’ve never seen cashiers this slow. EVER. the produce is over priced an on the verge of spoilage… Despite Aldi having ¼ of the check out lines as Safeway, it’s a million times faster, brighter, and much cleaner than this Unsafeway…

This is by far the worst Safeway in the city. There are almost no fruits and vegetables in the store which is just odd. Customer Service is non-​existant. Then there are characters of clientele which frequent this establishment in which their are no words to really explain. Hopefully another major grocery store will open near the H street corridor, if not I highly recommend the Trader Joe’s On Pennsylvania Ave, or one of the Open Air markets on the weekend.

out of all the Safeways I’ve been to, this one is probably the most ghetto. From just the location (its super close to the bus stop, so there’s tons of people just loitering around), the parking lot lines are all faded so people park however they feel like, the staff in the super market all either an attitude problem or they are lazy and don’t want to help you and the produce inside just doesn’t seem always fresh. It’s usually worth driving just another mile away and going to the one in SE side.

If I could give this place zero stars I would. It takes at least 15 minutes to check out of the express lane, the Starbucks doesn’t accept mobile payments and rarely makes a drink to my satisfaction and the deli workers are not only incompetent but rude and move at the speed of molasses. That being said, avoid this place like the plague.

Over the years, this place really lived up to its names – the «Unsafeway» or «Shoot-​Em-​Up Safeway.» Hey people, if you think it’s not so great now, you should have come here ten years ago! The first time my daughter and I shopped here, we were yellow-​police-​taped into the store due to a shooting in the parking lot (true story).
And yet, when I really, really, REALLY need something, I find myself coming back.
What I learned
–Grab any cart in the lot, even if it’s from CVS across the street
–Buy only what you can carry to your car because a hustler might start grabbing bags out of your cart to «help» you, expecting a payment for this «service» (another true story)
–Don’t judge if you’re standing behind a woman and you’re admiring her authentic $ 1,000+ Prada bag and matching boots just before she pulls out food stamps to pay for her baby food (true story and her baby was dressed to kill, too)
–Most of the food is now removed from the shelf when it’s several days past expiration dates (this is a fairly new thing here)
–The lines can be long so find a good magazine
I’d like to give four stars to:
–The guys in the produce department because they’re cool.
–Most of the cashiers are nice, too (shout out Candace!)

I’d go for the basics.

The purpose of a supermarket is allow you to purchase all of your groceries in one place. That convenience should save you time. This Safeway fails in that basic respect.
On our visit today, there were no shopping carts. We snagged one from a customer returning it. The handle had an orange label stating «unsafe for use» since the child seat didn’t go up.
The aisles were strewn with boxes which blocked access to carts in some areas.
In the produce section, I observed two employees tossing oranges onto the table top. One overshot and rolled by my feet.
The lines were of course long. The customer in front of us did not help by disputing something or other which the checker could not resolve. We bagged our own groceries.
To add insult to injury, I ate a muffin from the bakery when I got home which was soggy.

This safeway is like that crazy ex-​girlfriend. She’s lacking in every major aspect of your relationship, but she’s really, REALLY good at that one thing… thus you keep coming back.
Long lines? Check.
Whack produce? Check. No brussell sprouts, C’mon son!
Indifferent employees? Check.
Alcohol on Sundays? Oh god yes!!! *grabs a wet wipe and composure *

I was scared to go to this Safeway after reading the reviews, but I was pleasantly surprised by the variety of fresh produce available. Yeah, it’s not going to compare to Whole Foods or the Georgetown Safeway, but this is nowhere near as bad as folks make it out to be. The only sections that I found lacking were breads and dairy — there were very few healthy/​organic options. It took some scavenging to find what I really wanted — Stacy’s pita chips — but I was happy to find that they were there. The staff were very friendly.
I concur with the reviewers who commented on long checkout lines — it took 15 minutes for me to get through the express lane with only a few people in front of me (including the lady who popped open a Smirnoff Ice and drank half of it before putting it back in the six-​pack and onto the floor). Obviously, if you’re shopping here it’s not because you’re looking for the ultimate grocery experience, but I’ll have no problem going here for most items.

Safeway’s motto is «Ingredients for life.» Apparently you risk getting a little more life than you pay for at this Safeway. Not only is it the crappiest Safeway I’ve ever been to, but additionally this store was briefly closed last June for «Operating a food establishment with circumstances which may endanger public health.»
… and for failing to deal with bugs, and a few other things. Here’s the link! Yay for the internet.