Safeway Forum

Several years ago, one of our editors threw together this piece about how annoyed he was to have Safeway employees constantly greeting him with disingenuous platitudes, butchering his last name at checkout, and peppering him with pseudo pleasantries every time he stopped in to pick up a six pack or roll of toilet paper. Since that time, due we suppose to the mysterious ways of Google, we have received a plethora of e-mails from other annoyed customers, some of whom seem to think they are contacting Safeway directly when they write to us. Not knowing what else to do with them, we've decided to collect the missives and post some of them here. We present them in chronological order with the most recent at the top.

Consider it done. Glad you have found a different place whether it be to shop or personal. - ED

Dear Ma'am/Sir,

I just read this letter  about Safeway on your web site, and though it's probable that you won't care, 
I wanted to tell you that I think you are way off base to accuse anyone of "buying" an MBA.  
The folks down in Pleasanton, CA are probably pretty bright people with MBA's 
from fairly respectable schools.
I'm working my ass off to get an MBA from a state school, so I can imagine how hard it was 
for them to EARN their degrees.

Enjoy the rest of the day, stewing in your
ill-conceived smugness!

A Concerned Reader

Dear Stephen Williams (aka A Concerned Reader)

Thanks for weighing in on the Safeway situation. Of the hundred or so letters we’ve received since we half
jokingly published this piece a few years ago, yours is the first that mentions the MBA angle. In case you’re interested,
roughly seventy percent of the correspondence agrees with the gist of the letter that Safeway is a
misguided conglomerate with ridiculous employee practices. Another twenty percent take some exception
with our position, or at least the tone in which it was written, and cite various things about their respective Safeway stores that
they appreciate. The last ten, which we suppose now includes your effort, address some part of the posting
that grabbed their attention for one reason or another and that they felt the need to sound off about. One thing that seems
clear looking back at the situation is that Safeway stores and their clientele appear to differ greatly around the country.

As far as the sentiments of your missive are concerned, like one might suspect of an MBA candidate, you seem
to be more focused on some supposed bottom dollar and therefore may have missed the point entirely. The comment about
buying MBAs was meant to insinuate that only a group who had purchased the degrees as opposed to earning
them would be so out of touch. We would like to believe that if someone actually had to battle through graduate level marketing, 
accounting, and economics classes at an accredited institution, they hopefully would have learned somewhere along the line 
that humiliating employees and aggravating customers isn’t really a recipe for building a satisfied clientele base. 
On the other hand, Safeway remains successful, which we’re sure is why you and your ilk have a positive opinion
of them. Walmart is successful as well and we don’t shop there either. Perhaps when you graduate with your hard
earned degree, you can assume a position in the corporate offices of one of them and grab your piece of the pie.

And as far as the staffer who wrote the piece and his alleged ill conceived smugness is concerned, once we let him know 
that he appears to have irritated a self righteous MBA candidate currently working his ass off somewhere north of Pleasanton CA, 
his day may actually improve to the point where he can enjoy it. - ED

Goliard, 

Hi my name is Angela Gimbel. I'm from the Chewelah-Valley area in Washington. I'm writing to you in hopes that my letter will make it to a Safeway personnel. Anyway, what I basically have to say is quite simple. It seems every time I go to Safeway here in Chewelah, and buy more than two or three items I get ripped off, along with some of my friends and family. Let me tell you a little story that happened two days ago. I decided to go to Safeway and buy some groceries and after my things were rung up my bill totaled about $61.00. Now I pay the cashier and go outside and start looking over my receipt and realize just as I had suspected, I had been over charged. So now I have to go back inside and solve this issue wasting about another 30 minutes of my time. After already waiting in line for 20 min. because they hardly ever have but two cashiers checking. Safeway had over charged me $8.00. Now $8.00 may not be a lot to some people, but to others it is and it adds up over time. After I get this taken care of and leave my cousin who has been patiently waiting for me with my cart and son asks me to take a look at her receipt and right off hand I noticed they over charged her for cooking oil and minute maid juices. It seems to me they put stuff on sale and do not follow through with it when you reach the check out because this is not the first time this has happened to me. If this happens to me one more time I will tell everyone I know about this.

Sincerely,

Angela Gimbel

Angela - We'll post it with the rest. Safeway is sure running the gamut of ways to piss people off - ED

Dear, Goliard

Could you pass this letter on to Safeway?

Dear Mr. Burd;

I am writing to call your attention to a major problem in our area. I shop at a small Safeway on Fort Hunt Road in Alexandria, Virginia. Many of the customers of the store have shopped there for ten, twenty, and even thirty years. We have gone to retirement parties for former store managers. We have enjoyed conversation with the "veteran" employees as we shop, sharing our lives as our children have grown. We like our store. Recently we have had problems at our store. We were without a store manager for four months. The district manager apparently changed. Safeway security swooped in and fired twelve employees, and this dremovedistrict manager neglected to replace them. Then a new store manager was installed who is never seen by customers and who has still not hired any replacement workers. The "veterans" are leaving for other stores, encouraged by the District Manager to go to the newer, larger store a couple of miles away. They are eager to go where they are more supported and valued. I don't blame them. What does it take for the parent corporation to notice difficulties that are caused by corporate indifference? I understand your pay scale for new hires is half of what Trader Joe's and Whole Foods pays. You have lowered the hiring age to sixteen just to find workers. Sixteen-year-olds don't last long when they find out they can make more at Starbucks. Are you trying to kill our store? Are you trying to kill Safeway? I certainly hope this isn't the case. I sincerely hope you will take heed and look into this awful situation, so that we who depend on the Fort Hunt Safeway can look forward to better management, more intelligent treatment of employees, and thus "superior service". This is what your advertising espouses. Make it happen for real! 

Thanks, 

Gail Multop

Gail, no problem. Glad to be a conduit of change. If it makes you feel better they recently razed our neighborhood Safeway to the ground. Good riddance we say - Ed

Goliard,

Someone's sic here...... You may not recall that just a few short years ago Safeway stock was the number one pick in the nation and is still way way up there as an up and coming "raring to do business" store.

I suspect the Safeway bashing was just to get more response and had nothing to do with the author's actual feelings. Either way, as a therapist I suspect the author has these characteristics and could do well finding someone who can adjust to help develop a kind, considerate spirit toward other humans.

1. Illium in the hip is around behind the sacrum rather than in front, which causes lower back problems and acts as a dimmer switch to the bodies electrical current returning to the brain after moving muscles in the leg area. 2. Has acid reflux, which is just the check valve on top of the stomach being pushed up into the diaphragm and with a small kink in the check valve the acid is allowed to burp into the throat. Easy to fix and also acts as a little dimmer switch between lower body and brain current. 3. Has a stiff neck which is usually caused by the skull moving slightly on the Atlas. Easy to fix also and acts as another dimmer switch for returning current 4. Also appears to have after effects of a concussion at one time or other. Easy to fix and is a big dimmer switch.

The above 4 listed difficulties can cause depression, ""anger"" and many other symptoms. Now, it will be difficult to find someone properly qualified to work on all of the above symptoms. Many therapists can do one or two of them but only a few therapists on the North American continent have an understanding of how to completely balance the body electrically. The result is often nothing short of phenomenal.

The general populace will continue to shop at Safeway, where they get the absolutely best service of any grocery store I have ever seen and I have shopped at many. I don't just shop for price anymore and find myself going to Safeway more than any other store because most employees truly mean ---------- HAVE A NICE DAY AND THANK YOU FOR SHOPPING AT SAFEWAY...... See some humans do realize that most everyone feels beat up a little, just by living in this day and age, and a little kindness goes a long way for that person.

Hmmmm, consider living in this country 400 yrs ago when you had to pretty much kill your own or catch your own or plant your own food and women were pretty much on edge a lot worrying about neighboring tribesmen killing their spouses so they could steal them and their daughters to make more babies for the other tribe. We've come a long way baby... Actually, the other day I was in Safeway and noted live Oysters, so one could take them home and have the experience of killing their own in a pan of boiling water and mostly not have to worry about someone from the neighboring town stealing your wife or daughter ------at gun or knifepoint anyway........

Keep smilin and HAVE A GOOD DAY....... JIMRZ77

Hey Jim Arse,

Thanks for the free psycho babble. Glad to hear that you find going to Safeway such a pleasurable experience. Your dime store diagnosis had about the same nugatory effect as the few hundred "Have a Good Day's" in a row we've gotten from the hapless and miserable employees of Safeway. It got us to thinking though that, judging by the response we've received since penning the aforementioned screed, we've ascertained that what part of the country a person hails from seems to play a large part in how they view the great red and white. We haven't done any sort of thorough study of course, but in the Pacific Northwest, for example, where 1) good shopping alternatives abound, 2) people are generally happy and healthier, and 3) folks don't cotton as much to phoniness, readers seem to almost unanimously have bad words to say about Safeway and sympathy for the employees and their plight. On the other hand, those from the Bible Belt seem to enjoy shopping there and feel uplifted by the service. Hmmm as you so arcanely articulate. Since you don't say where you call home your ownself we can't do you the favor of a return diagnosis and speculate why you might be so titillated by such a mediocre place. Too early on a cold toilet seat probably. Unfortunately not an easy fix. 

Perhaps in some parts of the country, Safeway is the finest store around and people are proud to work there and genuinely like their jobs and therefore don't come off as fake and ridiculous like they do around here. Perhaps god fearing citizens are used to the psuedo joy and smarmy treatment that Safeway peddles and to them it seems like a friendly place to be instead of a freak show of plastic smiles. Whatever the case, it's been an enjoyable exercise and hearing from readers like yourself makes the twenty minutes it took to write the letter worth it. - Ed

PS - We tend to eat our oysters raw here at the Goliard so your suggestion of taking joy in killing our own food in a boiling cauldron is lost on us as well. Although we don't suppose they live long once they are slurped down the gullet so perhaps the effect is the same. Maybe if we'd ever had a concussion or suffered from acid reflux things would be different. Not that the Safeway around here carries oysters anyway. The saps in the butcher department are so busy mustering up the energy to parrot the Have a Nice Days required of them, that they can't even put out a Porterhouse or decent piece of fish. The place really is a classless pile of crap and we've gotten annoyed again just thinking about it. Luckily a Trader Joes recently went in down the street so we're not even tempted to go into Safeway anymore.

Goliard,

This whole Safeway business sounds pretty bizarre to this Connecticut resident. We do not have one nearby which sounds like it could be a blessing. My thoughts are as follows:

I have generally found even HERE in "unfriendly cold stuffy New England" that if the manager/management of the store and the employees have a good relationship then no one needs to tell the staff to be friendly. I go to several different grocery stores. At those where I see managers "wandering the aisles", with pleasant expressions, not pointing out problems but being supportive, watching for when lines get to long, and doing the other little things that make the shopping experience more pleasant for the customers and staff, the staff tends to be friendly naturally. In stores where management "hides" when lines get long, where they avoid contact with both customers and employees, and where the store seems to be understaffed the experience becomes less pleasant. I have also found that cashiers, stockers and sales clerks "mirror" my mood. If I want the checkout clerk to be pleasant I only need to be pleasant back. If the person in front of me in line has been a real jerk to the clerk his or her mood reflects that, usually a smile and a small jab at the unpleasant customer gets a smile out of the clerk and my transaction goes smoothly.

If Safeway needs to tell employees to be friendly then they should wonder why they need to be reminded. People are naturally friendly, some more outgoing then others, but still most would rather laugh than snarl. People generally prefer to be smiled at, maybe if the manager handing out the cashiers drawers was friendly and pleasant first it would go a lot farther than a "smile or else" edict. NS - Grennington, CT

Thanks for weighing in - Ed

Goliard,

While I totally agree with your complaints about Safeway employees having to act friendly all the time (and looking ridiculous in the process) that is far from the most annoying thing about the store. Have you noticed that they put their cheese in three different places in three of the four corners of the store?!? This is so you'll have to walk the entire floor to find what you want and hopefully do some spontaneous purchasing along the way. They also always pretend to have things on sale and then mix other things not on sale in with them hoping you won't read the fine print or notice the loopholes. And what about those Safeway soups? There's about 1000 calories per cup if you look closely. It's basically just reduced butter and cream. The whole place is smarmy and underhanded in my view. Add on the Stepford wife pleasantness of the check out girls and the place is just creepy. I'll be doing my shopping elsewhere. WW - Evergreen, CO

Us too! - Ed

Goliard,

Hi, I just Googled Safeway, because every time I go there the same irritating thing happens. I end up having a conversation about it with others and even an employee or two. They don't like the greeting policy and one reason it is carried out by them is because we may be 'the mystery shopper'. Talk about spying on your employees!!!! Well today, I was going to start my campaign. I see you have already done it for me!!! I don't like the reference to my last name either at checkout. Reminds me of a restaurant server tag!! hey martha< how bout some more joe!!!! HOW DEMEANING!!! Now I am going to read Safeway's reply. I DID read the first line....greeting and ASSISTING customers. That's not what we are talking about. I appreciate help when I need it. I can ask.... Sandi

Sandi Britz 
Eon Britz Gallery 
Britz Beads 
633 SW Deschutes Ave 
Redmond, Oregon 97756

Sandi, Thanks for joining the cause. We had hoped that it would peter out by now but it seems to continue. We'd like to be in the room when Safeway management pulls an employee in to scold them for not properly greeting customers. "Our mystery shopper was walking along minding her own business looking for some pantyhose when you failed to get in her face and say good morning!" How could they keep a straight face? - Ed

Goliard,

Here here on the Safeway thing. Going into that place was one of the most annoying experiences that I used to endure on a weekly basis. Recently however, I went into the store up on Hawthorne here in Portland and was walking down an aisle and slipped in some water and nearly cracked my knee cap. I dropped my basket and a jar of mayonnaise smashed against a wine bottle and seeped out all over the vegetables I had selected. Just as I was getting myself together, a smiling stock boy came by and parroted "good morning how are you today." He continued to smile as I told him what happened and went smiling off to get a sign about the wet floor. The smile never left his face! Either he must not have seen the tears in my eyes or his face is just frozen that way when he's at work. The kicker was that I saw him that very night on the bus and he almost knocked me over to get to a seat. He wasn't smiling then. To Hell with that place. I'll just have to ride a little further to do my shopping. -- Rochelle M - Portland, OR

RM,

This sounds like a typical tale. Instead of hiring people who would actually care if someone was injured, it is more important to them to have employees who merely appear friendly. If the workers weren't so busy going around interrupting everybody with Hellos and How are yous they might have time to mop up some spills.

Ed

Safeway,  (care of the Goliard apparently)

I have a safeway paper laying on the table beside me. It was delivered to us last night in the Prospecter. Last night was the 6th. Today is the 7th. Your add in the paper is good for  April the 4th,5th,and 6th. This add was no good to any one. I guess the Prospecter thought no one would notice. I am a safe way shopper, but do not go out at night to shop, because of all of the nuts out there. Thought you would like to know that your add about ran out the day we got it. Only good to those people who shop at night. Sincerely, Hazel Thrush

Well thanks for writing Hazel. We appreciate anyone who feels strongly enough about an issue to take to the keyboard and pound out a complaint regardless of how poorly punctuated and nonsensical it is. Not sure where this particular offending Safeway store is or of the circulation of the "Prospecter" (sic) but Safeway be warned, if you piss off enough of the good folks of this great country like Hazel and Wilbur Thrush, it will eventually begin to show in the bottom line. - Ed.