Safeway

2 lines open. 15 people in each line. Corporate should be ashamed!!! Spend some money on wages & staff your store.

How can you not love Safeway? We came here to buy ingredients to make dinner, and it was great. It’s like all other Safeway; well-​stocked, well-​labeled, and clean. There were very few cashier registers open though, which is why I subtracted one star for it. Average prices, good produce, close to the resorts, yay!

i wish there were more options in my neighborhood but there isn’t. where do i start??? First of all i waited 15 minutes to get any service at the deli at 9 in the morning. i counted 8 employees all walking past me without saying one word, I listened to the manager gossip to an employee while i just stood there waiting to order a breakfast burrito, and 4 people behind the deli all doing more important things apparently. It took 2 construction workers to stand behind me in line before anyone helped me. I have also bought MULTIPLE EXPIRED ITEMS FROM HERE, milk, half and half, salad kits, cans of chili, the list goes on.

The Safeway Pharmacy at this location (Kings Beach) is a lifesaver. I forgot my pain meds and needed them filled on the spot. I only needed a three day supply. The manager, Don, charged me a very nominal amount ($ 10) and could not have been more responsive or helpful. He is a walking advertisement for Safeway and a symbol of good service. (And good marketing as I spent a *lot* of money on vitamins as I needed them as well and the sale prices were quite competitive). On top of all this, the store was operating under a partial electric blackout. Five stars well deserved.

The Safeway Pharmacy is terrible. The pharmacist showed up late for work on Saturday. He had absolutely positively no ability to enter insurance or physician information. And we soon learned that there was a good reason for this — from his point of view. Because he claimed to be unable to enter the University of California insurance information into the computer, he was then able to charge us an expensive rate for our antibiotic (the rate for uninsured patients). This was shameful. He took no responsibility for his inability to use a computer. He should have simply admitted his inability to use a computer, apologized, and dispensed the antibiotic to us at the rate for insured patients.

Please please please get a new person to make sandwiches! It was like a comedy show watching this girl make 3 sandwiches. Seriously. Thanks for cutting my sandwich half way through only. You crack me up!

I come here when I’m tired of using my local Raley’s in Incline and just want to see what’s over the border in California. This is a nice, large, modern store with the added convenience of having a built-​in Starbucks inside. Pricing, as for most Tahoe establishments, will be a tad bit higher than if you are on down the hill, but that’s what you get if you live in a resort area as well. They have a very good bakery section and a nice selection of grab and go lunches if you need to get something for a beach picnic.

We were helped by a nice gentleman named Steve– he seemed to genuinely care that we got everything we needed, and was very helpful. Thank you Steve!

Tourists beware. Multiple employees overheard expressing relief all the tourists are gone. Makes it a little awkward when you are in their store and are in fact, a tourist. We, too, live in a city/​county who’s economy relies heavily on tourism and understand it’s frustrating when your population doubles overnight, but it’s not like it’s a surprise. You know it’s going to happen, so you deal with it and move on. My suggestion would be if you don’t like working in a job where you are dealing with people, well… don’t work somewhere where you are dealing with people. We have used this store for a number of years when we come up here and probably will continue too because of the convenience, but will probably feel uncomfortable in the store.

Local safeway for our trip in north Tahoe, it’s actually one of the nicest Safeways I’ve been in. Great variety of stuff and wasn’t overly expensive like I was expecting.

Corey made the bomb breakfast burrito with all the fixings. The service was quick and cheerful (which isn’t always the case earlier in the morning)

Dear Safeway —
Hire a checker for Kings Beach or put in some self-​checkout options. Your lines at the Kings Beach store are oppressive. To be honest, my beer warmed waiting to get checked out. It’s bad. Next time I walk in and the lines for checkout extend into the isles, I’m driving to Raleys @ Incline. It’s a drive, but accounting for the time standing in your line I think it’s a break even.
Thank you,
Patient. To a point.

We stayed at the Northstar Resort and didn’t plan to have such a luxurious kitchen! Lucky for us, Safeway was only about a 15 minute drive down the highway. It’s fairly pricey, but considering it’s a Safeway in Tahoe, that’s to be expected. If you shop smart, though, it’s not too bad. They have almost anything you could need.

We hear this one is more well stocked than the one closer to the freeway in Truckee but I think that might be the only thing going for it. Not being from the area we might be spoiled when it comes to expectations in the meat and fish section and the prepared food was nothing special either.
For general supplies I think you will find this works well. If you are looking for something a little more than that I believe this is where you will see it falling short.

PROS:
+ Only grocery store within 20 minutes (not sure if this is actually a pro)
+ Decent selection of quality meats, cheeses and baked goods.
+ Vitamin Water is, strangely, always on sale here. I mean ALWAYS. Love it.
CONS:
— Tremendously overpriced on a LOT of products, thankfully I live in Carson right near Walmart. :P
— The make-​shift deli restaurant front thing is bad (see below).
— You MUST have one of their card/​accounts to get any kind of reasonable savings.
— The starbucks inside is not of the same caliber as stand alone units.
Look, it’s a grocery store. You know what to expect on that end of things. My biggest problem here is the Deli. The pricing of the food is actually not bad there, a meal is a little cheaper than most of the restaurants in the area, and you get a good amount of food. The big issue is their food handling practices — I went here once, and I will not go back, no question, no response, no comment, no personal delivery of a cute puppy could convince me that this place deserves a second chance.
I wanted a sandwich one day, and so I thought I’d give them a shot, as I’d been told they have some items in the deli that subway doesn’t and the price isn’t bad. As promised, there were some nicely priced and different items like a chipotle bacon turkey sandwich on a panini-​pressed roll, etc. Sounds great! But, then it isn’t. The person that was making sandwiches pulled the bread out and went to set it on the counter, dropped it on the floor, immediately picked it up and set it right back on the counter and went about making my sandwich. At this point, I had two emotions going on, one of complete shock and anger, and the other of «I wonder just how bad this could get.» So, I let the more curious side take over and I didn’t say anything… I wanted to see just where this would go.
Slapped on meat and cheese, undercooked bacon and a chipotle sauce that was so watered down that it actually made the bread turn to mush… let’s just say the floor was not the worst part of the sandwich. I got about 4 bites in (yeah, I actually wanted to give it a legit try even after the floor goodies were on there) and had to just throw it away.
The starbucks… well… they try. Nice employees, clean enough operation, I just get the sense that they don’t have any urgency and less knowledge of the products than the place over in Incline. Too bad, cause this is really convenient location.

It looks like your typical Safeway inside. We stopped in to the deli before a day hike at the Lake and it was exactly what I’ve come to expect out of Safeway’s deli. The front of this store was jam-​packed with people standing in line for Starbucks. I’m not sure if it’s the only Starbucks around, but it looked seriously understaffed and I’m not sure it would be worth the wait.

I have to say they were great. It’s like every typical Safeway I been to. I say that they were great because being a tourist in the area, they are a godsend.
Where else do you go to get groceries or any typical necessities.

1 and only 1 star, if not less. Sorry. Other’s may have had better experiences than me, and my family: locals in the area.
Perhaps we are at fault; perhaps we should not frequent this Safeway location after a Holiday ski weekend, late afternoon. Our experience was as follows:
1. Empty shelfs of major items: milk, juices, vegetables, bread (just to mention four items).
2. No staff personnel restocking any of the patrons or answering any questions as to restocking or similar items. WTF. TAHOE CITY does a much better job! My mistake for not venturing into the other location.
3. Inconsiderate out-​of-​towners (not the fault of the store). No consideration to moving-​along or stop-​standing for many minutes in front of produce or deli areas. Thanks — you turkeys!
4. Register staff lacked smiles and more typical Safeway standards.
Yes, we will frequent this store again. But, our fault (don’t let it be yours) — don’t go, if you can, when the masses impact this iconic community.
Rarely, if ever, do I Unilocal with a ONE.

This Safeway is a lifesaver on this side of Tahoe. The last couple of times we have gone to Tahoe we have stocked up here rather than eating out. Nothing particularly special about this safeway but it is great for late night or early grocery run. I’d rather go here than Raley’s, mostly because I am familiar with the layout of Safeways since we also have them in SF.

So this review is a little inflated b/​c theres not many options in this area.
I was looking for something to go with dinner later and breakfast tomarrow. I kno I got there in the afternoon but there were no pastrys ;(. Just some bagels but they did have small cups of creamcheese. we were in and out in 20min so thats a plus.