Safeway

As a long time resident of Vancouver, I have nostalgic memories of the pre-​2012 renovated safeway.
Post renovation Safeway is a bit chichi. but No one can deny that it is a huge step up from its previous iteration. The slick new lines and fresh architecture make for a pretty nice experience. The inside is more welcoming and dimly lit — a far cry from the harsh white wastelands of the typical grocery store.
I sometimes choose to shop at superstore due to the 25% price difference, but Safeway is nearby and makes me feel high class when I shop there: P

I only go to Safeway if traffic is horrible (I live 1 min away from this location) or if I have no ride. There have been more than once where I’ve bought something from here and realized that the expiration date is literally only a couple days away or ALREADY EXPIRED. I remember that I bought a box of juice, came home, drank it and it instantly had a foul taste. I was so shocked given that Safeway is a grocery store that isn’t even 100% organic and has outrageous prices. I expect them to have proper food handling and food care for the price I am paying.
I also agree with one of the comments that the employees working in the deli are never attentive and they are RUDE. I have stood there countless times and always had to wait for them to finish what they’re doing to serve me, like wtf? I don’t have all day to wait for you to finish cutting /​slicing cheese or listen to you talk to a co worker about non related work issues. It’s like a social club for them. It’s unbelievable. Then when they finally come to serve you, you feel very unwelcomed to the point where you wish you never even bothered with them. I hate this place.

Yeah! The Safeway is rebuilt now and is all nice, clean, and shiny. It looks exactly like a Vons (Southern California) inside, which is also owned by Safeway.
It’s conveniently located on Granville, so it’s nice to be able to walk by and pick up a few things. There’s also free underground parking which I appreciate a lot. Elevator or escalator to come up. Parking entrance is right turn on Granville southbound, NO LEFT TURN for northbound traffic. Exit onto 70^th Ave by the Liquor Store. You might also be able to enter here.
Prices are a bit high, but I usually only shop the weekly ad items. If you need produce/​fruits, might go to the little market across the street for better prices. The bakery stuff is pretty yummy, though. There’s a good selection of Asian items. All the supermarket aisle signs have Chinese sub-​titles. :|
Don’t need a club card anymore to get those weekly ad savings. Hurry! I hated those cards, extra hassle to carry around and always tracking your purchases. Good riddance!

This Safeway has been my go-​to for the last few months. They provide a good selection of meats, cheeses, breads, and so on. I find their produce is a bit more expensive than most. I started to think I was accidentally buying organic but I wasn’t. For the sake of my review though I don’t normally buy produce from these guys but it’s something worth mentioning.
Their frozen food section is ok, with a good portion of their frozen stuff on special. I suspect that this is because I rarely see people down that section in this store. So I wonder if it doesn’t sell as well. Either way it works for me!
Their meat section is good if slightly poorly organized. I had a hard time finding regular ground beef, I thought I found it, but it was ground pork. I wish they would organize it a bit better.
Their lunch selections is pretty respectable! Sushi, Chinese Food, and the Sandwich Bar are good and offer reasonable prices :)
While not perfect, this store is pretty decent. They should look into changing the hours advertised. I like doing my shopping early and sites online say they open for instance at 8 on Sundays when they open at 7.

The only reason I come here is because I live near by and get my prescription filled here. I cannot say enough good things about the pharmacy and their crew. Always treated with respect even after watching them deal with a frustrated customer ahead of me.
While I appreciate the store is clean, I must admit I generally cringe at the prices on all goods. Even rummaging through the «need to sell now before expiry date two days from now» bargain bin, the savings aren’t great but better than regular price.
I cannot give them anything higher than 3 stars, especially after my last trip. I wanted a deli sandwich and stood there while two girls were going on about how it was a busy day and were calling to another person to come and make «this customer «a sandwich. This was at 8 pm. I was the only one there. One girl proceeded to keep marking cheese slices while the other one said the only had one kind of bread left… but neither had addressed me at all and they knew I was there. Suddenly there was action and my tummy got excited only to be defeated as they reached into the fridge to pull out «the last sub» that they were going to mark price wise and put it out. All I wanted was a sandwich. My tummy rumbled in protest and my brain fuming. I didn’t want to say anything in anger because I was hungry so I shook my head and walked off. They saw it and said nothing. Guess they got to finish their day without making another sandwich. Could not believe they didn’t have the decency to verbally acknowledge my presence and the fact I wanted to spend my money in their department.
I ended up buying a butter chicken «meal» for six dollars. The «meal» was a portion which would be no problem for a child with half a stomach.
Unfortunately I was left hungry and kind of sad. I used to work for Safeway and it’s disheartening to see that some departments have completely given up on customer service.
I’ll continue to get my prescription from the awesome pharmacy department but I’ll refrain from spending elsewhere in the store.

I’m not sure what’s the bad review of this Safeway is about but it has everything I needed. Yes, it’s pricy but some of the price is comparable to California. I got what I needed and I’m happy, Babybell cheese, and it was on sale as well.

Beautiful design but could be a bit cheaper. You definitely pay the extra for the looks! Well, it’s a lifestyle choice!

So I have an update to my last post… really want to add something positive but to be brutally honest there is nothing forth coming.
I came in to the store today to buy some veggies to supplement the dinner meal I was about to prepare at home. Overall really disappointed with the level of quality in the produce. If you’re going to charge primo prices for your produce it better be top-​notch in quality and freshness.
* All bell peppers are or are nearly $ 5 a piece in the wall displayer and all had blemishes or looked inedible. (These are in the same display shown in your profile picture).
* English cucumbers are an ok price but all were soft. I wish I had taken a picture some were so soft the ends were shriveled and looked on the verge of moldy.
I notice another customer going through the same frustration although they were a little more vocal about it. He actually approached me and said, «if this was my store I wouldn’t put this out» …“if you came to my store would you buy this”. He was referring to the pre packaged mandarin oranges. He picked up one of the oranges that were in the bag and said, «if these were fresh I should not be able to do this» he said as he picked it up and squished it to pieces.
I had to agree with him and told him so. He also said to me «I’ve been coming here for years and it didn’t use to take 20 minutes just to find a navel orange you would want to buy you should at these prices be able to just pick one up and put it in bag». He told me that he was going to complain to the manager and I hope he did but just in case he didn’t I felt the need to share this experience.
In contrast to my last post in regards to their service, it has improved somewhat the staff for the most part are more friendly and helpful. Though this is one less «beef» I have with this store there are several more of which I won’t go into at this point. One of the major ones I can say in one word and if you work in the grocery business you know the term «rotation».

How is it possible that there is nobody working @ customer service at 6:00 on a SUNDAY?!? Waited at least 10 minutes and no staff even said a word to me… definately won’t be spending my $ here anymore. Also waited quite some time at the deli counter while there were 3 + people behind the counter and not one said a word to me!

Large, new Safeway store. Free parking below. Great prices and variety of goods. Lots of asian foods and their veg. seem to be fresh. Lots of take out hot food also. Liquor store next-​door for one stop shopping. Staff commented that prices were unusually low till store gets busier (so why am I reviewing!).

Bakery closes at 7. I’m not certain what they expect to happen for the other 5 hours…

First off, let me say this: Safeway offers great food at great price, so no knock there. However, this location is terrible for their customer service. I understand that you hire employees to cater to the demographic but being fluent in English is important, not everyone speaks foreign languages. In addition to the madness of trying to decipher what an employee is saying is the nuisance the employee thinks you are because you do not understand their version of English.

I agree with the above posters that the new building is very shiny and much larger. Presentation and planning stepped up, as did product availability. The produce section is much healthier looking.
Sadly, all these things cannot balance out poor staff training and attitude.
The first time I tried to shop here, it went fairly smoothly… I checked out my groceries, then asked the cashier to call me a cab. She seemed confused, and finally told me to go to customer service. Customer service shoved a phone at me when I asked them to do it; I didn’t know the new address, or where the cabs usually picked people up. It was awkward, and I had to play twenty questions with the girl who was just standing behind the counter while I made the call… but I figured… «Hey, they must still be working out policies for this stuff. I’ll try again.»
Second time to shop. I tried using the «self check out». One of my items didn’t scan right, so the staff had to come over. Staff took the item, and wandered over to a phone, called overhead for help. No one came. She called three more times before just standing there awkwardly, waiting for someone else to do a price check. Still no one came. Then she walked the three steps over towards the deli department where the item was. Asked the girl over there; that deli staff member didn’t know the product information either (It was a Cheese and Mash, found in a rack five metres from her in the deli department).
At this point, I had been standing in the «Quick Step Checkout» till for ten minutes. Exasperated, I walked the twenty steps to where the item was, grabbed a same brand different variety but same priced product, scanned it, and asked for my product (Cheese and Mash) back. While I had taken that twenty steps, she had given the pack to staff for a price check.
We wait another five minutes. She comes back with a price… but not with the original product. Staff in the department had mixed up «Cheese and Mash» with «Creamy Baked Potato». I clearly state that the product name is «Cheese and Mash». A second employee goes to go fetch one. This time they bring back «Loaded Baked Potato!». Still not «Cheese and Mash», as I had clearly stated. Twice.
I ended up thanking the employee to end the interaction, grabbing the correct product, myself, from the same area, and leaving.
Poor training, poor listening skills, poor product knowledge, and utter customer service fail. I’ll be continuing to shop at Whole Foods instead, as I did when the store was closed for renovations. *shakes head*

The new Safeway is a vast improvement over the old store. Modern yet warm, the layout is large and well laid out. It has a far larger selection then any other Safeway I have been to in Vancouver. I was also impressed with the shopping cart escalator. All in all a very positive addition to the neighbourhood.

Grew up going to this Safeway, and its always had a soft spot in my heart. Just came back here for the first time since they re-​opened. Had some problems, pretty brutal with kids and a broken elevator and some other things. getting the groceries back to the car was a nightmare. Went to talk with Ron, the 2^nd assistant manager, and he was snide, and didn’t even apologize. Will never shop at Safeway again.

One of the older ones for sure, it’s remarkable they still haven’t updated… hopefully soon as a new condo developent taking place where the old Royal Bank used to be, or is it behind it, drive by granville so fast lol.
Whoever designed the parking lot, in particular the first row nearest to the doors, must be crazy. You have to back out at an angle, while shoppers coming and going.
Thus why i choose the middle one, or even the farthest one right by the sidewalk on granville, at least no door dings.
Inside, it feels old, & lights also don’t seem to be so bright. decent size.

Ya, the store is old etc but that I can deal with. What I can’t deal with is the bitchy staff from the deli. Don’t ask for custom made sandwiches too early in the day or you will get a sandwich made with a poor, pissy attitude!
Its a shame cuz safeway deli’s make a pretty good sandwich and this safeway location is on my way to wreck beach. I would like to take a sandwich to the beach with me but I don’t want to «interrupt» the deli staff at 10am to make me one again!

This supermarket was definitely a step down from some of the Safeway stores in the Burnaby area. There isn’t even a Starbucks inside (GASP)!
One good thing about this Safeway location is that they sell all day bus tickets here, which came in handy. There are also many bus stops along Granville St; very public transportation friendly, sadly more so then in the Los Angeles area.
Props to them for having indoor recycling and FREE wifi.
Fun fact: you need to put a coin deposit for borrowing a supermarket cart, but it’s dispensed back to you when you return it!

Moved to this area 1 ½ years ago and since then, I have been continually disappointed by this Safeway. Products kept on the shelf too long, terrible service, unhappy staff, bakery is terrible, all this in a very old building.
Only saving grace is the pharmacy. I contacted the head office and I’ve been told that it will go through a complete renovation in the near future. Hopefully the staff too.
Avoid it until then. Cheers!

Safeway is trying to change. I did comparison shopping in high school cooking class (what a field trip!) and Safeway was definitely the most expensive, with Save-​On and a Buy-​Low pretty close to each other. Since then, every time I come to Safeway, I ended up getting only the necessary items and Club Card Sale items. Now, they have many yellow tags saying ‘new reduced price’, which — though I haven’t independently confirmed that they are certainly lower than other stores — have changed my perception of the chain for the better.
This location also has very helpful pharmacists. Although I have never brought my prescriptions here, a few different pharmacists have been equally helpful with my specific over-​the-​counter questions.
I just realized I don’t know if their carts take Loonies or Quarters — just proves that I used to view Safeway as a necessities-​only stop where I only need a basket. That may change, maybe not.