Safeway

I actually dig this Safeway! Situated off of Wisconsin, this large and spacious grocery store offers a large selection of hot and ready-​made foods, in addition to a large grocery section. I am a huge fan of their ‘Fast-​Baked Pizza’ section, located in the ‘Fresh Food/​Ready Meals/​Ready-​to-​Go’ section — offerings include: Margherita (with mozzarella fresca, tomato sauce, basil, and olive oil), Veggie (mozzarella, tomato sauce, onion, peppers, feta, mushrooms, and olives), Black Forest (mozzarella, onion, black forest ham, scallion mayonnaise, goat cheese, and spicy apricot sauce), Jerk Spiced Chicken (cheddar, chicken, onion, peppers, cilantro, jerk mayonnaise, and arugula), Korean Spiced (roast pork, cheddar, kimchi, scrambled egg, Korean mayonnaise, and cilantro), Pesto (mozzarella, pesto sauce, cherry tomatoes, and Parmesan), and Meat Lovers (mozzarella, soppressata, sausage, bacon, and Parmesan). You can also custom build-​your-​own with their variety of toppings. I am currently OBSESSED with their Korean Spiced pizza — no need for the scrambled egg, the roast pork, and the cilantro — the kimchi is beautifully well-​fermented and super tasty, and the sauce that they use has a nice kick to it. I’v ealso tried the Black Forest, and I enjoyed the combination of the goat cheese and the spicy apricot sauce. The crust is similar to a brick-​oven style, and I liked that it was thin. The pizzas will be made available on Monday (⁶⁄₁₃), and there will be a 12-​inch pizza special for $ 6.99! There are also additional café seating with complimentary wi-​fi where you can enjoy your eats. Parking is available for customers in the garage.
+‘Fast-​Baked Pizza’ section — Korean Spiced pizza!!! :D :D :D
+pizzas available starting Monday, ⁶⁄₁₃
+friendly staff
+plenty of café seating
+garage available for customers

I love Safeway. I shop there every 9 – 10 days. You can find almost everything you need and the store has great wine, dried nuts, bakery, cheese, and deli sections. Fruit/​veg. selection is somewhat reduced, but still OK. Prizes are on the expensive-​side, but acceptable for DC — if you get the safeway costumer card (not a paying card) you can get good deals. I miss a larger hardware (lightbulb, stationary, cooking utensils etc.). I don’t have a lot of time to go somewhere else and get that other stuff I need.
It is open 24/​7, and there’s plenty of partking space. There is a bus/​circulator stop in front of it. There’s a Starbucks inside that is perfect for a break for people like me who don’t like grocery shopping very much ;)
The main problem I see in this supermarket is the people (with some notable exceptions): not very welcoming, and sometimes bordeline rude, particularly the cashiers. By the way, sometimes there are only 3 cashiers open and 20 people waiting to pay… I hate having to wait in line for 15′ to pay.

The help at this store is abysmal. No customer service whatsoever. The store itself is nice and clean but don’t expect any service. The cashier just stood there looking at her cell phone waiting for me to bag my own groceries and didn’t offer to help. They really need to retrain their employees or get new ones.

Great Grocery Store. Clean and easy to navigate. Staff was friendly and very helpful. There is a nice organic produce section which I could appreciate. There is also a Starbucks inside if you need coffee. The café department adds a delightful feel to the store. The parking garage is conveniently located on the 1^st level of the building and there are stairs, elevators and escalators to get to the second level. Be sure to use a Safeway card to get all the current discounts.

If you ever visit this grocery store make sure to say hello to Ol’Man. He is one of a kind! Always smiling, trying to help and just a great human being overall. In two separate occasions my car had some issues and without knowing I was the same person, he came and helped out!
Seriously! Just give him a high five because he is a great representative when it comes to customer service.

I like this Safeway. I really do. It’s well stocked and the people working the floor are generally knowledgeable and helpful. But the quality of the cashiers is questionable. They bring down every experience I’ve had here. Contrary to the number of times I’ve checked into this location, I come here at least once a month.
Tonight, I had the pleasure of being ‘helped’ by Latoya. This cashier is hands down one of the worst, if not the worst, cashiers I’ve ever dealt with. She took her time talking up and ringing up the woman in front of me, then proceeded to ignore me during the duration of our transaction. I asked for paper bags politely, but she didn’t respond to me. Once she’s done ringing up my items (still hasn’t said a word to me or even made eye contact) she breaks out the paper bags to my surprise. Apparently she did hear me!
I then told her I would be paying with GWorld (GW’s payment system for off campus purchases, which requires the cashier to suspend the transaction and send me to customer service to complete the purchase) which elicited the first acknowledgement of my presence. She starts tossing (like, seriously) everything into the bags, finishes and then walks away to grab an override card to suspend the transaction, comes back, hands me my receipt and then stares at me until I walk away.
The guy at customer service who ended up finishing my transaction was actually super polite. But seriously, can Safeway show better judgment in the people they hire? This was just straight up pettiness on Latoya’s part.

Nice store, well organized and high-​end for a Safeway. The pharmacy is very good and the lead pharmacist is just a really nice, friendly person.
Please explain to me why they do their store-​wide restocking on Saturdays, the busiest day of the week. Boxes and carts obstruct nearly every aisle. Do they sell out of absolutely everything Friday nights? Could they do the restock earlier on Saturdays to avoid the crush of customers? It’s a mystery to me.

Customer service here ranges from hostile, and disrespectful, to absent. A minority are friendly & helpful. Many are simply confused.
Wonderful, above-​average selection of products. The price for goods on my list are all excellent! All this… and its open 24-​hours!
Love the café and Starbucks…
This store is a diamond in the rough. I bet service will improve over time. At that point it will be 5-​stars!

Safeway was my go-​to grocery store growing up in Northern California. Ever since moving away from there I always make sure to visit their store when I’m near one. Safeway was my first stop in DC and I was excited to check out their bakery. I have the fondest memories of eating their chocolate chip muffins when I was a little girl and could afford the calories.
The first aisle I visit in any grocery store is the ice cream aisle. I live for ice cream. I spotted a box of Lucerne (Safeway brand) smores ice cream sandwiches. I knew I had to buy them as I love anything smores. They did not contain real marshmallows so I picked up a box.
Next I went to the bakery and we saw they had my childhood chocolate chip muffins. They were selling 9 pack boxes for $ 5 but not in chocolate chip flavor. We asked the lady working there if she could combine the chocolate chip flavor into a 9 pack box. She had the WORST attitude known to customer service and argued with us for a few minutes until she rolled her eyes and agreed to combine them into a 9 pack. She acted like we were asking her to perform surgery. Wow. I had not dealt with someone this disrespectful in a long time.
We used the self check out to pay for the muffins and ice cream. They made you pay for plastic bags. Really Safeway?
A few hours later I ate one of my smores ice cream sandwiches and it was to die for. Definitely the best ice cream sandwich I have eaten. Even that could not erase the bad customer service we experienced at the bakery. 3 stars for the bakers terrible attitude. Had she been nicer they would’ve been getting 5 stars.

The over all store definitely deserves the four star, but customer service needs big time help! I had not been to a safe way store for years. This was the only grocery store I shopped at when I lived in Northern California. I remember very fondly how good the customer service and their bakery was. I stopped to get my favorite muffins and saw they had them on special. Nine for $ 5 dollars. I asked the girl in bakery if she could mix the flavors for me? We argued for minutes till she agreed to mix the flavors! She really needs a lesson on customer service, don’t argue with one!
The over all of the store is great. They have indoor parking which is useful on bad weather. Very nice win section. They even have a wine cellar. Very impressive. Hot food section, pharmacy and of course their fantastic bakery. Also a Starbucks who was so greedy and charged me .25 cents for hot water. What I saw that was very different in this location was that there was a very nice lounging/​eating area with fast wifi! Nice touch!

This is the nicest Safeway I’ve ever seen. This store has amenities you don’t usually find in high-​end gourmet grocery stores — and definitely not at Safeway. There’s a large prepared foods are, with a salad bar, hot bar, sushi and more — once you’ve paid take your food upstairs to a large seating area — complete with a fireplace.
Or grab a bottle of wine — their unusually large selection includes a temperature-​controlled wine room not found in many wine shops.

The produce is better than other Safeways, but that’s not saying much. The fruit and vegetables still go bad at a shockingly high rate. The store is roomy and the selection is good, but some nights the store is way under-​staffed. For example, what moron only schedules 3 registers to be open on a Sunday evening? Safeway needs to stop being cheap and actually hire a proper amount of employees. Customer service here is good, though; they never question me when I want to return anything. I await the day an actual competitor (e.g., not a Whole Foods) moves into the area.

Nothing too standout about this Safeway location.

While the store itself is beautiful (especially compared to other grocery stores in DC), the service is foul. A friend and I picked out some loaves of bread at the bakery and asked the employee to please use the slicer on them. He moped over, listening to music on his headphones, stuck his hands out, pointed at the chart for us to select the slice thickness and didn’t acknowledge us one bit. Basically, we inconvenienced him despite the fact he was simply listening to music while standing behind the counter. We said «thank you» after he finished, and he just scowled. Bad service! Talk to customers — don’t ignore them! You’re not getting paid to jam to your music.
The cashier and bagger made it worse… talking about how much they hated being at work and mouthing countless obscenities. Once again, bad service.
Don’t go here!

I was curios to see a newer store. It looks quite large from the outside. There was a nice selection of items. The lines are hit or miss. Don’t be in a hurry.

The super slow checkout lines at this Safeway are just atrocious. Everyone knows they are bad and opts for the self checkout lines located at the far right and left of the main checkout lines. This creates irritated, confusing self checkout line scenarios.
I went to get a late night snack (1 item) and saw that several of the self checkout stands were open/​free. I went up to one of them and saw that it was shutting down. It appeared that they were closing all of them except two. As I was realizing this an obnoxious voice yelled at me and the man next to me, «There is a line» I looked up and saw a middle aged white lady waiting with her cart in the aisle. I walked up to her and said I hadn’t realized there was a line and was just checking out why there were free spots at the self checkout (as I had never seen them shut down before) I asked her if she knew anything about why they were shutting them down. She said it didn’t matter there was a line and that me and the guy who was now using one of the only working lanes seemed to be above waiting in line. Wow! I apologized for offending and not realizing there was a line and went to stand in line for regular checkout across the aisle from her.
I was wearing a hat with a G on it that I had purchased from Georgetown university and I had a back pack on. She then said loud enough so everyone nearby could hear, «Pretty sad you’re wearing a Georgetown University hat and you can’t even figure out there is a line». Wow I just looked straight ahead and figured someone was having a bad day. Nothing like going to a grocery store to get a snack and having your intelligence questioned by the crazy line monitor lady. I’ll think twice before going here again, especially with GU paraphernalia on.

Open Letter to my local Safeway:
I live and work near your Georgetown location @ 1855 Wisconsin Ave NW. When it first re-​opened a few years ago, I shopped there frequently. These days I avoid it as much as possible. Unfortunately, I stopped by today because I was short on time and thought it would be my fastest option. I’m taking the time to write because it’s really a shame that the store is in such poor shape. And these problems would be easy to fix, if you had a decent manager and/​or team who felt like making them a priority. Three constant issues:
1. Sanitation/​Food Safety — your large salad bar is avoided by anyone who has visited here more than once, because all of the food is put out at 9am, and is not replaced or switched out for the remainder of the day. Tuna salad, pasta salad, etc, all have half-​inch thick crusts on top by lunch time, with a fair number of flies feasting in the area. This is just a sad waste of space & food.
2. Customer Service Desk — this counter appears to be unattended 90% of the time. If there is someone there, they seem to have been selected for their talents at being rude, avoiding eye contact, and acting too busy to deal with customers. The irony here (it’s the Customer Service area, after all) is actually amusing, unless/​until one actually needs something.
3. The attendants posted at the self-​checkout machines seem to have been carefully trained to handle all situations in one of two ways:
1) Avoid eye contact and wait for a customer to come over and say «the machine says it needs your approval,» so that at that point the attendant looks up with raised voice and says, with irritation, «I just approved it – so why don’t you go on back and take a look at it now?»
2) Yell in the general direction of the multiple customers at the self-​checkouts when one is doing something «wrong,» such as not being able to figure out where the entry for Potatoes Yukon Gold is. The result is that I’m often checking myself out alongside several people and will notice after a few minutes that someone is yelling something along the lines of, «SIR! You need to hit VEGETABLES first! ACCEPT QUANTITY, sir!» I’ll look around and see other customers at their machines. Then I’ll see that one of them looks confused. Then I’ll look over and see that your customer service specialist is vaguely looking in that man’s direction and yelling. But the man doesn’t know your specialist is speaking to him. When he does eventually walk over to ask for help, he’ll be told sternly that, «That’s what I’ve been TELLING you!»
It might be novel or radical, but I’d suggest that these self-​checkout attendees could act a little less like they’re unable to move ten feet, and could be told that they should feel free to walk up to customers who need help, and politely (or at least not in a raised voice) assist them with their checkout. Right now the attitude suggests that your employees are really irritated to have to monitor these machines, and god forbid a customer not perceive when the yelling coming from ten feet away is directed at them.

Alas, the price of talenti has increased to $ 4.99 from $ 3.99. Are they doing this to make me eat less gelato? Well, it’s working.
Every time I come here, I find the most random, yet necessary cooking ingredients here, like fancy anchovies in olive oil, aged sherry vinegar, goat cheese from Vermont creamery, chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, and truffle oil.
I’m a little bit wary of buying non-​organic meat or farmed fish, but their fresh meat and fish counter looks decent. Has anyone given it a try? There has to be a reason why their giant sea scallops are $ 14/​lb here but $ 27/​lb at Whole Foods… at least you can buy some Pepto Bismol and some Imodium with your questionable fish!

I love my neighborhood grocery store. Large grocery store that’s always clean. It’s open 24 hours making shopping convenient for all at any time of the day.
They have everything from sushi to Starbucks. Great baked goods and fresh produce. Decent selection of wines and cheeses to go along with the wine.
During the cold months check out the fireplace which is close to Starbucks.
Whatever you need they have.
Also parking is pretty easy since they have garage parking.

This store is described as the «nice» Safeway by most Washingtonians. I think that is the saddest part about this chain… if this is «nice,» what does «bad» look like???
There are a ton of products, but sometimes they will mysteriously stop carrying a brand you love and no one knows why or if it will be back. So try not to get attached. Also, you really need to shop this whole store because you will find similar products in different areas and depending on which area you have bought, say, cheese — you may be paying twice as much for it. Oh, you thought cheese should only be in one section? Well you are simple minded. «WE WILL PUT IT IN 5 DIFFERENT AREAS AND MAKE THEM GUESS WHERE THEIR FAVORITE OPTION IS!» Safeway says.
Overall, I will shop here because they carry some brand items that Trader Joe’s or Whole Foods does not. But I have had some harrowing experiences. Like the time I bought ice and upon pulling out the bag from their giant freezer was bombarded with random items like water bottles, lunch boxes (presumably the store employees?) and even a whole bag of frozen chicken! Because nothing says, «this is clean and safe ice!» like a random bag of chicken.
Other fun things that happen at this store:
Unknowingly purchasing duplicates of products — Did you think you bought one can of beans? No you bought 2 but you only get to take one home. That’s the Safeway Style.
Rewards Card declined — for some reason, your card no longer works here on Tuesdays. Come back on Wednesday and we will let you have the $ 0.30 off your chicken. Obviously, there is never an explanation for why this happens…
Slowest Check Out Ever — yes, they hold the Guinness World Record. There are many lanes, but Safeway prefers to only use 1 or 2. GOD SPEED!