Dear Safeway,
I’ve put up with your long lines, rude cashiers, and overpriced groceries; but I’ve had enough.
Last night at your Alabama Ave location was a disgrace, and because of that I will never shop in your store again.
When I walked into your store the lines were a bit long, but I didn’t let it bother me because that happens sometimes. Unfortunately the line sizes drastically increased but the amount of open registers did not.
You had lines wrapped around registers, flowing into aisles and no one did a thing. Let me correct that, your wonderful manager came out and said “you can get in the 15 or less line even if you have more than 15 items” and then he walked away. The self-checkouts remained closed.
I’m not used to such terrible service, this isn’t the night before Christmas, so there is no excuse for the lack of action. I’ve been in this situation before, and when the lines get backed up you hear management over the PA system calling everyone trained on a register to head to the front, you have workers who normally aren’t cashiers ringing up items, and in extreme cases the management pitches in the help control the lines. What you most certainly don’t have is a “oh well” attitude and a slew of closed self-checkouts.
Normally I would have walked out and gone somewhere else but I had a detailed shopping list and I didn’t want to have to find the items twice.
I spent 40 minutes in the checkout line last night and let me assure you that it was the last 40 minutes I will ever spend in your store.
Sincerely,
Diva in DC
12 Comments
I shopped at my local Safeway store (Coos Bay, Oregon) on New Year’s Eve and bought $200.00 in groceries. My wife and her (cousin who was visiting from Europe) added 1 bottle of wine to our cart. After the cashier asked to see our ID we showed them. My wife and I showed our drivers licenses. She STILL didn’t sell us the wine, we had to go to another store! I wrote a letter to Safeway, They Supported the cashier! WTF?? That was the last time we spent money at Safeway, that was Dec, 1999! Up to that point we spent 10k a year. That dumb mistake of Safeway has cost them $90,000 and counting. Thats what they get for embarassing a customer, our country and accusing us (wrongly) of being up to no good. We still get reminded about how silly our country is about selling alcohol to adults. Despite being a cop, I agree.
Im a cashier at Safeway (VA) And let me tell you this goes for the store I work at as well. It is utterly ridiculous. My manager stands around and does nothing, while Im throwing items down the belt trying to get everybody out faster. Honey, as soon as I quit I will be joining you in NEVER shopping at Safeway again!
Amen
I’m a cashier for Safeway. Safeway is NOT out for the customer, their out for your money. that is why everything is overpriced. not only that but our management is the worst. they sit and do nothing. when i come into work… my managersd dont ask how i am… its just what im doing wrong. on top of the large lines we have… were stressed and dont care about the customers needs but rather on how to get the lines down. but safeway has yet to realize this because they made a $888 million dollar profit and dont care! o,and the 20 cent raise helped out alot with the economy LOLOL safeway is a joke!
I too work at safeway, and at my safeway at least, the managers always side with the customers. its getting ridiculous. a customer complained about two employees having an inappropriate conversation in the cafe, so now we cant take breaks in the cafe anymore. a customer complained to management that a cashier was yelling and throwing stuff around…i have never even heard this kid talk, let alone yell, or throw things. customers need to relax too. stop taking your anger out on us cashiers. we dont make the prices. its not our fault when an item doesnt ring up. sometimes the lines are long because we are understaffed…that does happen, and often.
For those who think safeway employees are disrespectful please keep in mind that as an x-safeway employee(I quit in 2003) Safeway has so many guidelines(it’s like a book) that employees must follow.
Safeway managers treat employees with unfair scheduling tactics (where the union) can’t do anything, cause as long as the employee has a 10 hour split between shifts they can do what they want to employees.
I worked at safeway for almost 4 years. started as a courtesy clerk(bagger) and as you know they have mystery shoppers come in and grade employees every week. Anyway I got promoted to checker(wanted to be a checker) but the management ended up putting me on graveyard(even though i didn’t want that) and switching me from days to nights every other day..
Even though when i was a courtesy clerk and checker I got a safeway customer service award and I got a perfect score for 7/10 mystery shops when i was working at safeway. But After a year of unfair schedules, my health got much worse, and just said my health is more important then the cooperation and quit.
It’s funny 2 years after I quit, they cut health benefits, employee wages by 50% and now you have to work at safeway for 2 years to get health benefits, funny thing is that all the employees who were working there when I left either retired or quit.. says alot about how safeway is operating.
Even though I don’t work at safeway anymore, If you shop at safeway please give more respect for employees, even if there long lines, managers are the ones who are responsible for hiring the needed employees, Now would you work a job where it would take 3 employees to do the job, if you were the only one available.
Best of luck safeway employees,
I work at safeway currentley as a courtsey clerk (bagger) and the managers treat the employees like shit. its a horrible job and if i can get another job with this horrible economy i will do so asap. like previous people have said all safeway cares about is making as much money as possible and they dont care if they screw over employees. they treat all of them as if they are expendable because thats all you are to the company anyways. i encourage everyone to shop somewhere else because safeway as a joke.
i don’t have a particular story for you on why they suck but they just do
here’s a short list of problems i have with them
1 managers bring emotions on the sales floor so in other words they get stressed out at take it out on the employees
2 discrimination is just bull s$%$ if a girl can have both ears pierced ears then why cant a guy
3 if your late to work one day a manager can write you up for that when ever mine was about 8 months ago and i just got written up for it yesterday
4 union so now days there really is no need for them because of laws passed in the 80s
5 union dues and arrears that takes an extra $140 something dollars out of your pay check a year pluse the $11.25 a week
6 its total bull crap working 4 hours before the employee get a brake
7 its also bull crap doing a managers job (out of stocks) without management pay
8 manegment is just crap at safeway so one maneger will tell person A to give person B a break then when person B comes back he’ll let person A out so person A can give person C a break WTF is wrong with them
9 no facial hair on checkers have they ever heard of (no shave november)
10 i hate fucking override cards only management is aloud to have them so lets say lines are long at customer service because the employee is talking to star bucks employee and not doing his job the customer can go to a checker and ask for a refund or exchange so you’ll probably need an override for that but wait you need to call a maneger for that so when you do call a maneger for that they take you aside usually and cram some choice words down your throte
11 calling in sick give you one point now lets say no money = no health insurance no health insurance = no doctor no doctor = you take it long hard and deep by your manager
12 things that will get you fired at safeway
cooking a burrito in the back room
miss placing go-backs
making incorrect pages over the intercom
kicking people out of an express lane for having well over 15 items when other check stands are open and not busy
(if your a man)having pierced ears
un tucked shirt
12 (i think) now things that will get you in trouble and will lead to termination
slouching
talking about business/were items are to a shopper
not smiling
having long hair
calling for an override too much
going out of your way to help a customer
calling the union or human resources on a manager for breaking your contract
dressing up on a holiday
having your top button undone
placing your jacket below the check stand
not being productive enough
drinking water or pop at a check stand
bringing in too many carts at one time
giving out free samples
now here’s how to take Safeway down
open up a grocery store where all the items are on corporate mark down ex Safeway buys pop in the bulk so their really only paying a couple cence per 12 pack along with any other item and charge $4.99 for a 12 pack so now here’s what you do only chart 5 cence more then the corporate mark down price so one you get more shoppers spending more money on more items (safeway = get rich quick) (my method = give the customers more for less) but remember you still need to make money off what your selling so you can have more employees and pay the bills also pay your employees commission they’ll love that
my last piece of advice don’t be a greedy money loving bastard like the people that manage safeway
My husband as worked for Safeway for over a year now. When he was first hired he was told he’d have health insurance in 3 months…then the manager that told him that was transferred to another store. he was told be ANOTHER manager that he’d get it after a year…well, a year rolled around and he was told 15 months. NOW WE’RE BEING TOLD 18 MONTHS!
My husband works his ass off for shitty money and gives over 10 bucks every month to that union that does absolutely nothing for him.
SAFEWAY sucks!!! Those lazy-ass managers just like to mess around with you saying that you need to improve and all that shit. My PSR is at 100% and they have never complimented me on that. Managers just sit around talking and make others do their job. They suck and they are all ass kissers.
I hate safeway now I’m a checker with their stupid bob audits writing people up and messing up ur schedule. Their not fair to employees. Even though we get u good shops wats the reward a bonus to the manager not the employee. Were the ones that giving u customer service not the lazy ass shit head manager who doesn`t do any service and still get bonuses this is bullshit
I just got fired today from the Safeway that I worked at in Herndon Va. All of the comments above are true. I got fired because I failed to ring up a pack of batteries that the damn mystery shopper had hidden between 2 jugs of heavy water. I got into trouble for not picking up and scanning all of the jugs of water (I only scanned 1 of the 4, 4 times). But yeah, expecting their cashiers to lift multiples of heavy items is bullshit. I was constantly told how I need to be faster, pick up every damn item in the cart. But yeah, I was fucked over by B.O.B 3 times, which leads to a temination. They need to stop relying on their cashiers as their primary sources of loss prevention. I mean really like a busy cashier is really gonna be able stop and look for possible items that may be stolen. If they’re that damn worried they should either hire real loss prevention or put some kind of tags that beep when not deactivated by cashiers. I would go into work and be nervous because every damn move I’d make would be critiqued, the fucking managers were always on my ass. They would have me sign paper after goddamn mother fucking paper for complying with their store policies, and make me watch video after stupid video. All I can say is that they can take their fucking B.O.B and shove it up their fucking asses!!!
I came across this page somehow, I was very interested to read what you all had to say about Safeway, its management, and store policies.
I’ve been working for Safeway for approximately 3 years, and I am still working there currently. I am 19 years old, and I’ve recently started to train for front end Management.
Firstly, I’d like to apologize for the service that you received that night, Diva. If you had come through my store, I would have offered a discount, or savings on your next order.
You said:
“You had lines wrapped around registers, flowing into aisles and no one did a thing. Let me correct that, your wonderful manager came out and said “you can get in the 15 or less line even if you have more than 15 items” and then he walked away. The self-checkouts remained closed.”
I’d like to start of by apologizing on behalf of that manager. In that situation I would have immediately ordered that an attendant open self check out, and I myself would have proceeded to open up in a check stand, and try to shorten my lines and get customers on their way.
Safeway does have a huge list of policies, and is graded on its customer service by secret shoppers.
My store, in Colorado has always finished in the top 3, and I have always scored 100% on customer service. I was taught by my Management team to always think about the customer. I myself made a personal dedication to make each and every customer check out friendly, quick, and accurate. One of Safeway’s policies requires that regular check stands (non-express) have no more than 2 customers waiting in line to be serviced, and express check stands are to have no more than 3 in each. We are graded on this, and will fail a service audit if our lines exceed this limit.
I have been shopping at my Safeway since I was little, my parents have shopped at it since I was born, so I know the customer relationship to the store. I understand that long lines are inconvenient, and I would like to apologize again for the terrible service that you experienced.
One thing that often is misunderstood by the consumer is that economic hardship means a loss in sales. It’s true that Safeway, on average, has higher prices. I wish that there was something that I could do about this, as both an employee and customer. High prices coupled with low sales directly impacts the number of hours allotted to our store. The front end (which includes, but is not limited to: Customer Service Representatives, Checkers, Courtesy Clerks, Self Check Attendants, and Floral representatives) loses hours when sales drop.
When these hours are lost, the number of employees working at the same time is limited, and often 3-4 checkers are spread across one day, with little to no overlapping. Shifts have been replaced. The 11-8pm front end manager, or supervisor is now considered a checker at our store. As we lose additional hours, the number of courtesy clerks readily available drops as well. This causes checkers to bag their own orders, which in turn slows the checkout process.
This is just one of the many issues we face, that is often unknown to our consumers. This however, is no excuse for the service that you received, and I again apologize for that. I’m sorry to have lost you as a customer. I hope maybe one day you might return to Safeway.
-Nate
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