Safeway

Great for me. I love it’s convenient location. I use their app which helps me with my list and deals. I like the store size — not too big so it’s easy to pick up a few things and get in and out. Not too small either — I find everything I need. I usually go in on a Tuesday before lunch. Maybe they’re well stocked at that time? Lines are longer at lunch. I try to get there before the lunch rush.

The only thing nice about this store is its convenient location. One cashier in particular — — who I always end up getting — — doesn’t even acknowledge you’re standing right there in front of him the whole time he’s ringing you up. The most he does is mumble the amount due. Not sure why someone would be working customer service if it pains them to provide basic customer service. But since he chose it, time to put the big boy pants on and pretend to love it. Also, I can only count on one hand the amount of times I’ve been asked if I needed help finding anything. And all 4 of those times I was getting hit on.

I agree with Cherise P. My first thoughts about this store are AVOID! I have yet to be able to complete a shopping list here. They are out of most things and you will wait forever trying to get assistance. Today was at the meat counter trying in vain to catch the attention of the only person back there. Hello? Excuse me? Finally, he noticed me. I asked him whether they had any lamb shanks. Yes, I know, a very rare meat option. He walks out, stares at the display case and then says he doesn’t know. He will get the Meat Manager. Ok, thanks. Much foot tapping and thumb twiddling later… nothing. Finally, Meat Counter Guy comes back and tells me the store phone system is out of order and he is still searching for the Manager. Two minutes later he comes back and tells me the Manager is in the restroom and walks away. Another few minutes go buy and Manager comes back says hello and tells me they have no lamb shanks. Has no one in this place heard of inventory management system? I waited close to 15 minutes for him to tell me this? Once the Harris Teeter finally opens a few blocks away this place will be doomed.

AVOID AVOID AVOID. «Oh, I’ll just pop in quickly for a couple of things», you think. THINK AGAIN. You will spend at least 20 minutes waiting in line at any given time of day, GUARANTEED. This place needs some self-​checkout machines LIKE WHOA. So yeah, lines are long, staff is useless (often unaware of how to ring up a certain item, making lines move even more slowly), and prices are often marked wrong (they are famous for not taking down old sale signs, stocking items in the wrong spot, etc). Just save yourself the hassle and go to another grocery store. I know, I know, it’s right by the Metro, but trust me, it’ll end up being more trouble than it’s worth.

Come on really!!! Stood in line for 20 minutes to buy a bottle of water! The checker walked away and didn’t come back for 5 minutes. He didn’t say anything like he needed to find a manager – nope just disappeared. Came back afterwards and starting ringing people up again. As I watched him ring up customers, I noticed he didn’t even look at customers nor did he say anything to them – no hello, no thank you. I’m sure you’re thinking, «How is this possible?» Well, go to this store and watch Ervin and you will learn how he pulls this off. Why do these grocery stores hire people who don’t even want to be there!!! Honestly, I don’t blame Ervin, it’s really his manager and Safeway’s fault. They both obviously have not trained this employee and/​or informed him how to work with customers. I wish there was a way to give a negative score, but alas that’s not possible.

After all of my Check-In’s, I’ve decided to write my review.
I head here almost everyday during lunch for my mini shopping, & always have a good experience. Yes, it’s close to work, but every employee I engage with is friendly & helpful. Whether I’m grabbing my Veggies, which has a pretty good & fresh selection, to my juice & vegetarian needs, I enjoy the quick excursion & prices.
They could use more Cashiers during the lunch hour 11:30am-1:30pm, yet I’ve never had to wait no more than 5 minutes to check out.
I’ve actually picked up some non food essentials & cleaning items that always seems to be on sale… saving $ works for me.
Shucks I dropped one of my bottled drinks & was very surprised by the friendliness of the Cashier & her «Hey, no worries, go get another one» & paged someone for clean up on Register Three. She apologized to the customers behind me for the wait, & everyone was cool as the organic cucumber I also purchased.
Now if in the event I relocate from work, I will frequent the location off of Connecticut Avenue — Kensington, until then, all is well here.

Most poorly run Safeway I’ve ever visited. Dirty and run down. Slow lines. Rude and obnoxious staff. And the manager is even worse. The convenience of the location is the only possible reason it is still in business.

I wish I could give this place .001 stars. Awful. Rude staff, they tried to close 20 minutes early to «clean the floors». Ummm I’m sorry but you do that AFTER the store is closed, not close the store early to do so. I’m sure you hate your jobs and want to leave but too bad, ya can’t just close early.

This is consistently the WORST place to get groceries. If you buy two things prepare to spend 15 minutes in a line. Just don’t come here. Go out of your way to avoid this place.

An overall improvement in the last few months. The cashiers are more courteous and they are now open 24 hours.

This place is probably the worst Safeway I have ever encountered in the DC-​MD-​VA area chiefly due to its inability to function as a fundamental food market. I visit this market out of necessity on average 3−4x/week, and out of 7 total cash registers, there is typically 1, or 2 max, registers open. Also, these registers are serving customers at a snail’s pace. I was THIS close to ending myself in line the other day, but I was near the end of my 45 minute wait, so I stuck it out, regretfully. I don’t regret many things in life, but every time I wait in line here, I regret my life horribly. I feel full of self loathing and disgust for all food marts.
If only this Safeway knew what sort of unhealthy emotional and mental outlook it was imparting on its customers. All the reviews for this market are very accurate (except any reviews claiming to be satisfied, those people simply have sadly deceived perceptions of the world).

The lines here are always super long and they never think to open more registers to accommodate the volume of customers. Also, they absolutely need self-​check out seeing as though their lines move painfully slow.

The amount of incompetence at this store is alarming. Sadly, I am mostly to blame because I keep returning. This location is perfectly located on my commute to and from work, and it seems silly to go 15 minutes out of my way to the Giant grocery store. But after a particularly bad visit today, it may be my only choice.
Every visit (every. single. visit) has a problem with it. Consistently bad customer service and rude employees, poor produce selection and long checkout lines are usually what I encounter.
As other reviewers have noted, the lines are always long due to a lack of staffed lines. If you go in there for one thing, you usually just end up walking out because you’d rather not wait 20 minutes for ketchup.
The employees are rude, plain and simple. The deli counter employees are lazy and take their time with each task. I get bad looks when I ask for freshly sliced meat, instead of settling for the pre-​sliced meat on display that looks several days old.
The produce is absolutely horrible. Today in particular I walked out with a bag of potatoes that have manure on them and leaked through my bag. I look forward to bringing that back tomorrow.
There is a small handful of employees who work quickly, efficiently and are kind. For the most part though, you’re dealing with people who don’t want to be there and don’t have a problem showing it.
I’ll be seriously rethinking this as my go-​to store after years of this.

The only reason I give this Safeway two stars instead of one is because of the location convenience, I live right around the corner.
This store is grossly understaffed on a regular basis, VERY poorly managed (note to Safeway corporate, fire the current manager and hire someone more competent!), and, for the most part), rude cashier staff. Only once or twice has someone working in the aisles actually helped me find something I needed. Additionally, they start blocking main entrances half hour before they close, making potential customers think that they’re actually closed (if they’re unaware of the side entrance).
Any chance I get, I’ll take my business elsewhere to another location nearby.

Unfortunately this is the only grocery store in close proximity to my office, so I’m forced to go here pretty frequently. But I hate this Safeway.
It’s always freezing and dark, and there is never anyone around to help you if you have questions. The deli counter personnel are slow and very rude. The organization of the place also makes no sense — they sell cheese in three separate places, for example.
It typically takes at least 10 minutes to check out, no matter the time of day or how many people are in the store. None of the staff seem to care about anything.
Why two stars instead of one? The prices are decent. And they have surprisingly good produce.

This store is a COMPLETE MESS. The salad bar didn’t have lettuce, LETTUCE. There are packing boxes everywhere that they don’t clean up. The person working at the deli station was completely incompetent and didn’t understand why I was asking for a fork for the salad bar since the salad bar was completely out, all he did was get angry, speak incomprehensibly, and not help. Currently writing this review eating my lettuce-​less salad with chopsticks. Where’s the manager? I hope on vacation because otherwise you’re doing a terrible job at coming even close to running a business.

While the selection is decent, checking out is atrocious.
It may take fewer than 30 seconds to get your items from the shelves, but expect to wait at least 10 minutes in line. Today there were two cashiers and approximately 20 people in line. One of the cashier’s made four announcements asking for help and no one came.
Further, a woman asked my cashier where she could find minced garlic. The cashier’s response: «I don’t know ma’am. You should ask someone in the produce section.»
Woman: «There’s no one there.»
Cashier: …silence…
I’ve never seen consistent terrible customer service such as this.

I went to Safeway Saturday morning, and it was pretty empty (actually, most of Bethesda is empty then!). I had trouble finding it, as I came in to the «shopping center» from Wisconsin, and I was pretty confused. Obviously, I eventually found it, but they could use some signs along the way. I had a short grocery list, but wandered around looking for impulse buys as well. Very quickly, I realized everything in this place is expensive. Want some garlic bread? $ 4. A large DiGiorno pizza? $ 9– might as well just order pizza from somewhere near you. Pretty much everything I picked up– including sugar– was at least $ 4. They also had minimal size/​product choices for everything I looked at, such as sugar.
I ended up only buying half the things on my grocery list, and I spent $ 40. Here’s what I got (after carefully selecting each item based on price): a small container of cream cheese, one container of Earth Balance, a 4-​pack of small yogurts, 4 fresh bagels, 2 packs of bacon, 1 pack of chicken nuggets, and 2 small packs of peeled carrots. I can only imagine what it would have cost to do a full grocery order here.
When I checked out, the cashier greeted me and asked me how I was doing… twice. I then told him I didn’t have a Safeway card. He said, «Oh really?». Then approximately 10 seconds later told me to swipe my Safeway card. I again said, «I don’t have one», and I was hoping he would offer to swipe his card or give me an application to do for the card. He said «Oh.» And stared at me. He was nice enough– I’m sure if I met him out and about, he would actually have a personality– but it was pretty clear he had no interest in his job.
Convenient location, but I probably won’t be back due to high prices and low selection.

Like most Safeway stores, this is a typical union rules run shop. That means a slow moving cashier, while a even slower person bags the product.
Would you expect such staff to keep their jobs at any other business? Not really, but when the line for check out is a mile long, it would make perfect sense to get the staff off baging, and move them to the role of cashiers which in the Union world is a no-​no.
Therefore, expect to wait a long time to check out, expect rude staff to argue with customers after you wait in line for 15 Minutes only to be told the register is closed, expect no one remotely managing the place, expect the typical overpriced products that a ⁷⁄₁₁ have at the same price, and serve you a lot faster, and expect to be disappointed.

Dear bag tax,
Thanks for helping me put a big smile on my cashier’s face.
Pocket 1: 1 ball of mozzarella, 2 spice containers.
Pocket 2: 3 spice containers.
Purse: a frozen 1-​lb salmon fillet, 1 quart Greek yogurt, 5 cups Greek yogurt, a 28 oz can of diced tomatoes, 1 cucumber, 2 carrots, 1 bunch of 8 bananas.
Arm 1: 1 bundle of celery, 1 vine of 4 tomatoes.
Arm 2: 2 lbs of chicken, 1 bunch of spinach.
P. S. Suck it.
Love,
Ruth
P. P. S. Produce is sometimes suspect, overstock meat makes me suspicious but I’m willing to cook in advance. Offal offerings are infrequent. Weird layout, limited inventory, but friendly service. Bag the important stuff yourself!