Safeway

This review is for all the employees working this Saturday’s evening shift (my visit was 1/​30, around 5pm).
I’ve been a regular customer at this location since moving to Capitol Hill four months ago. I’ve always had a good experience, but this evening was spectacular (to the point that the first thing I’m doing upon getting back home is writing this review). I’ve had 4 separate interactions with different employees and they were all extremely helpful, friendly, and made me feel like my business was really appreciated. I know this sounds dramatic because we are talking about a grocery store, but I seriously walked out smiling.
Outside of the customer service, I’d say selection is great for this level of grocery store (I’d expect more from places like PCC or Whole Foods). Outside of the week after New Year’s, I’ve never had a problem finding anything I needed. I must say that literally half of the store was empty the first week of the year though.
Any who, Go Saturday evening team!

Great store, great location and Friendly people. Love shopping here!

This store is often crowded with long waits in line and poor to nonexistent service but their prices are cheaper than QFC and they do have a pharmacy.
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve simply left my basket on the floor and walked to QFC instead because they didn’t have a basic item.
Just tonight I dropped by to get stuff for breakfast tomorrow morning. The entire refrigerated section was closed for floor waxing even though the store was open for another 90 minutes. When I asked an employee to help me get an item from that section, they said it wasn’t possible and then agreed with my suggestion that I should just go to QFC instead!

Deli: had such a craving for pastrami!
They toast a prepackaged sandwich after adding cheese and mustard.
Had a hankering for a Jewish deli type sandwich but found this to be extremely basic. Silly me. It’s Safeway!
It was adequate and reasonably priced though. A quick stop gap.
Service excellent and friendly.
Starbucks in Safeway: asked if she had Clover coffee.
Response I got: all I have is what’s out there.
Enough said.

Terrible service. It’s a grocery store so my standards weren’t high to begin with but they seem to be incapable of managing even simple things. I came in to get 1 item and quarters for laundry. Apparently the term «express lane» means nothing here. It is neither fast nor does anyone have less than 20 items except for maybe me. I then asked for $ 15 in quarters. The man checking me out said he could give me the cash but I’d have to get the quarters from self check out. That was fine. I go to self check out and he will only give me $ 10 in quarters and refused to give me anymore. I would have loved to know that there was a $ 10 limit on quarters beforehand so that I wouldn’t have asked the previous cashier, who knew I wanted $ 15 in quarters, for the full $ 15. Otherwise variety in products was lacking and quality of produce left something to be desired.

I’d give this place a 1 star review but they’ve got some things like cheap pork shoulder/​chicken that other places don’t, plus it’s close. You can buy some things here and there here but I wouldn’t become a regular here my body deserves better. And it’s not just the quality of the stuff that’s questionable, it’s that it’s almost the same price as somewhere else with significantly lesser quality.

Nothing says self control like shopping at Safeway during fresh baked bread hour and avoiding the bakery department. The intoxicating aroma from the morning crop of donuts, however, is an olfactory trick. Avoid falling in to that carb trap. Admittedly, the Chinese food always smells pretty tempting but for the calories, I’d rather just have a crappy donut.

Havn’t had any bad experiences with the management but I always seem to run into lines here, people who would usually use the check stand start using the self check out and I usually end up waiting 5 – 10 minutes just to start checking out

Nice and clean! Pretty organized. This safeway is better than the QFC that is few blocks away.

Without knowing the inner working of this store, the experience of shopping there gives me the impression that there have been some uninspiring management decisions through the years. Perpetually understaffed with employees that (with a few exceptions) seem to be simply going through the motions.

The pharmacy has been regularly calling my insurance for two weeks to try and get my much needed meds covered. And they were able to help clarify a mix up and now I am ready to go. What a dream!
I didn’t think a big chain like Safeway would care so much to be honest. But they really went above and beyond to help.
The prices here are super fair as far as food goes. The rewards program gets you a TON of savings at check out too. Ooh and the app is cool! Safeway is by far my favorite grocer in the west.
Four stars because my broke ass is a purist when it comes to ramen. Only Maruchan is any good, this Top Ramen monopoly is grody. It forces me to go to deal with the yuppies at QFC to satisfy that need, no bueno. Five stars when I can get ALL my food here and never have to go to QFC again!

It’s clean and big, with decent prices — *if* you use the store card, and even better if you are willing to spend a few minutes using their mobile app before a shopping trip.
Over the last couple of years or so, they seem to have improved their produce quality and selection. It’s surprisingly good for a large supermarket. Their meat selection and quality is pretty good as well, though for meat and seafood I’ll still often go a bit more out of my way and pay a bit more to buy from Central Coop.
The biggest downside is that they just seem less organized for checkout than the QFCs on the hill, and their self-​check out machines seem to always take a few more steps or be a bit more tedious to use. This is offset by their other pluses, though, and by helpful and friendly staff.

I don’t go anywhere else! They have a huge variety and selection, even organics and other «health foods». Excellent and large variety of bakery selections and delicious fresh hot cooked foods in the deli section. Excellent customer service and everyone asks «find what you are looking for?», or, «how can I help you?».

+ Great location in Capital Hill
+ Ample, spacious and FREE 2-​hour parking
+ Very friendly employees, especially the clerks at the registers
+ Lots of fresh produce
+ Lots of variety
+/​-​Pretty good pricing

[ THE GOOD ]
— FREE parking Lot! This makes ALL the difference being on Capitol Hill where parking doesn’t exist.
— Growing organic produce and snack selection which I greatly appreciate
— Starbucks & Wells Fargo conveniently attached
— Impeccably clean almost every time I visit
— Beautiful flower/​gift section
[ THE BAD ]
— Homeless usually are sitting outside the entrances, but are completely harmless and don’t harass customers as they’re coming and going.

Coming from California, I love me some Vons. But I can’t call it that here, for it’s Safeway in the PNW.
Either way, the Safeway/​Pavilions brand has some good generic items. Love their soups (tomato bisque!) and their french bread cannot be beat from any other grocery store chain.
Safeway especially deserves a shout-​out for its produce. Organic selections or non-​organic — they’re all good and you can count on their freshness.
This Safeway has a large selection of wines, Starbucks, delicious baked goods, floral area, natural/​organic aisle, etc.
TRY THE COFFEE CAKES! It’s like catnip for cats!

I’d pick this Safeway over the QFC on Broadway any day. For one, Safeway has free parking – always a nice little perk. However, the true appeal is in the quality of the produce and meat you find here. It is indubitably much better than at QFC, and there are also more organic options to boot. To add to the store’s appeal, prices are reasonable across the board, and I am yet to pass an employee who doesn’t smile or wish me a good day. There’s no going back!

That’s got to be my favorite grocery on the Hill!
Partly because it’s a chain that I am used to from living in California. I can still use my Von’s card from there in this store.
After living in Capitol Hill for almost 6 months if have to say that they have the most reasonable prices and quality. You can see plenty of 2 for $ 5.00 deals for instance. I am guessing that prices in QFCs on Broadway are about 15−20% higher than here.
Also they have real, alive cashiers as well as self check outs! After shopping in local QFCs and getting stuck in a self check outs that repeat in that robotic tone ‘assistance needed’ after each item I scan I can really appreciate that!
This store never seems crowded and it’s impeccably clean and smells good too!
You can catch 8 and 43 bus stop is just outside the store and this store totally makes a short bus ride from my apartment worthwhile!

I like Safeway, and this is the Safeway I shop the most at.
The people that work here are generally nice and helpful, so that’s a plus, especially when you’re trying to make returns or something rang up wrong in self-​check-​out. It can get busy here, depending on the time of day, but I can reliably come to this Safeway for pretty much all my grocery needs.
They generally have really good «Manager’s Specials» on yogurts. Essentially, when the yogurt is nearing the sell-​by date, they’ll slap some 50% off stickers on them, and if you’re lucky enough to find some yogurt that’s already on sale, the 50% gets applied to the sale price. The same will sometimes go for cereals or meats, but in my experience, this Safeway has better yogurt deals than others that I’ve been to.

I wrote an entire long review for the wrong Safeway.
I like this location– big private lot to park in, clean and relatively new. Because it is a bit of a haul from my place, I can’t speak to many things other than the speed of checkers and the alcohol selection– both pretty good!