Safeway - A lesson in customer care and appreciation

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I've have an ongoing love-hate with my local Safeway store.  Lately, it has been mostly a hate relationship on my part.

I used to to shop at my local Safeway every week.  At the cost of groceries, and with my family, that meant $200-$300 per week.  I will also state that there are many alternatives for me that are within one or two miles.  I could go to Giant Food ( two locations nearby), Food Lion (two locations), Shopper's Food Warehouse, or even a local grocery.  I have driven miles to go to a Whole Foods as well.  I have options, and I will exercise them to get what I want.    

A bit of history that is based on observation and some interaction with the the Safeway store's management team (which I have not contacted in over a year).  I would enter the store which is alway low-lit as compared to any of the aforementioned stores.  I usually go to the produce section first, and this is where most of my disappointment occurs.  I would see displays of rotten, uneatable foods, mislabeled produce, and many times I would find empty bins.  Spoiling veggies, bruised and rotten apples, etc. are the norm.  My previous complaints to the management and on social media resulted in the atypical "We take this very serious and will do something about it" response.  We all know that word candy can mean nothing.

I gave up on Safeway for a long, long time.  Today, however, I went back and I wasn't disappointed with what I expected to find.  My visit today, 18 January 2013, was between 3:30pm and 4:30pm.  I will not disclose the location of the store in this blog post, but those that know me will certainly be able to figure out where it is.

Note:  I am not saying or otherwise claiming that all Safeway stores are this way.  I don't have the ability to visit every Safeway-owned store to make such a determination.  But, this impacts the people that live nearby and that shop here.  If you can't deliver a great product to those people that are your repeat consumers then you should get out.  

Let's begin.

Click the images to make them larger if you want to.

I walk in to the dimly-lit store (with family in-tow).  Let's check out those oranges.  Being a vegan, I LOVE oranges.  Here is something we found in plain view.

What'a that white stuff you ask? Why, it's mold. Yup. Rotting fruit on full display in the middle of the day. Yum. Was this an anomaly? No. Look at the bin right next to it and you will find more yummy fuzzy fruit. This does not make me me want to drop some serious cash here!

Let's look around a bit more.  I also love spicy foods.  I will add jalapeños to a lot of foods, so of course I will look at the chili section.  Here is the fine selection of Serrano peppers that you can buy.  Notice that rotting one at the bottom and all the almost-rotten ones in the bin.  Also notice that empty produce bin on the right.

My daughter loves kiwi so we usually buy two or more each week.  Would you buy these dehydrating selections?  I won't, and I did not.

I also love bok choy.  But, I will not buy whatever it is Safeway is selling here (three or four items of old, wrinkled mess).  

What about the rest of this store.  Well, I will say I saw a manager on duty that was walking around scanning a few empty areas on the shelves to record what needed to be ordered.  That's awesome and certainly a required day-to-day (if not hour-by-hour) need to make sure you have the products to sell.   

However, does this really require a store manager?  Seriously?  The store manager should be making sure that the store is operated correctly, is clean, and presents a great consumer-friendly and consumer-inviting experience.  The other employees are the ones that need to make this vision a reality.  

But, many things were still missed.  Carts of trash in the middle of the aisles and shelves that have what a normal person would consider to be trash on them,

Meat is a big item for many American consumers.  But, if the bin is essentially empty then why bother?  It is probably costing more to operate that cooler relative to the profit gained on those five packages of meat.  Check out those shelves in the background.  Rather empty, and the remaining products appear to consumers to be the remnants that no one wants.  One other cabinet, normally reserved for pre-made meat items (think stuffed pork chops) was empty and turned-off.  My wife tells me it's been like that for weeks.

Another random cart of trash just sitting in front of an end-cap display.  And most retail expertise knows how important end-cap displays are - they are one of the impulse buy targets for consumers.

How about this HUGE cart of stuff right in front of the kitchenware display!  What consumer is going to move this behemoth to get to the frying pans or utensils that are right behind?  Never mind the fact that this huge cart blocked access to over half the aisle.  Yeah, let's inconvenience your customers as much as possible.

More empty/near-empty shelves.  These are also near the end-cap on one aisle.  

Safeway promises hot, fresh rotisserie chicken until 8:00pm, but you can't find it here.  I was at the store for over an hour and none ever appeared.  Check out those black and white advertising signs printed on three-hole-punched paper.  Nice attractive signs that really make an impact on the consumer (sarcasm).

Busted door lights.  

Two containers of yogurt, opened and on full display to all consumers.  They have been there for a while.  Yum.  

This display of hot foods lacks, well, food, which is one of the items that Safeway is supposed to sell. Check out more of those black and white signs.  Black and white sells. 

It can be hard to tell from this photo, but that potato salad had a "crust" on it that made it appear as if it had not been touched all day.  Those "teriyaki chicken skewers" (the reflection can be seen in the upper right) looked like dehydrated chicken.  Completely unappetizing - which probably explains why they, too, look untouched.  They also lacked anything that I could see as being "teriyaki".   I love that huge pile of corn dogs.  So - most of this display of prepared foods was old potato salad, a greek cucumber salad, corn dogs, and unappetizing chicken.  Really?  These foods are to help consumers put together a family meal for those that don't want to or don't have the time to cook.  This is the best you all can do, Safeway?

If you wanted sushi for dinner tonight after shlepping through this store, well you are out of luck.  This cabinet is completely empty.  

These magazines have been spilled on the floor by one of the checkout counters for over an hour now.

I also noted many, many aisles with caution cones (wet floors).  None of the floors were wet, so why not put these away?  All those caution cones all over make me think this store should be condemned.

I understand that sales will cause many items in a store to be sold-out.  That's why I did not photograph various other shelves that were empty.  A store can't always continuously stock every item and replace each shelf at all times.