Safeway

This is a decent, average Safeway, although certainly much improved since the remodel. Like with the Town and Country/​Central Market, the one in Poulsbo is much better.

A couple months ago I was in a real pickle — and needed an emergency delivery of flowers and a gift for a young 6 year old boy’s birthday that same day. It was the same day as homecoming — and so ALL THE FLORISTS were busy.
Safeway came through — they EVEN swung by another florist to pick up another bouquet of flowers and delivered balloons, stuffed animals, a card, and the bouquet to the recipient on Bainbridge Island.
THAT’S SERVICE. Thank you!

Drove to the site at 5am because that’s when they open. But they decided not to open until 6 today. Never going back

UPDATE (3÷2÷15): A second occurrence of NO BAGS happened. Seriously, who is running this clown show? A grocery store with no bags to pack your groceries. That’s like Grocery Store 101. C’mon!
Every time I shop this store, I leave pissed off.
EXAMPLE: They are ALWAYS out of something I need/​want. ALWAYS. Without fail.
EXAMPLE: A particular bag salad was out of stock. I returned 5 days in a row for this salad. I was told day after day, ‘tomorrow’. THREE WEEKS later, the salad finally appeared.
EXAMPLE: Things actually collect dust on their shelves. I picked up a bottle of seasoning, coated in dust. It wasn’t the only bottle of spice/​seasoning either. Ack.
EXAMPLE: Their novelty selection is always picked over/​out of stock… ALWAYS.
EXAMPLE: Frozen cherries. NEVER IN STOCK, no one has a clue when I ask about them & they never seem to appear in stock.
EXAMPLE: The clerks/​cashiers are usually pretty busy talking to themselves & at an awkwardly loud level about things you probably shouldn’t be talking about in mixed company. Mixed company being, YOUR CUSTOMERS. I don’t really want to hear about the flop party at your house the other night, or how drunk you were, or what a dick your boyfriend is, or listen to you giggle over inside jokes.
EXAMPLE: Last week, I went in bought over $ 200 in groceries. They were OUT OF BAGS! BAGS! Like to put your shit in! What in the world? How does a grocery store let themselves run out of BAGS. BAGS! Try putting $ 200 worth of groceries in to your car bag-​less. It’s quite infuriating.
UNREAL.

Once again I go into this store and the scanner rings up the wrong price. I was charged $ 7.99 for an item that was marked $ 5.99. Since I purchased two of them, I was overcharged $ 4. But I caught it. The main reason I noticed the overcharge was because this has happened to me numerous times in the past and I now pay attention to the price to make sure I am not overcharged. Safeway used to give you the item for free if you were overcharged, but apparently not anymore. Perhaps they were loosing too much money with that policy. I have learned to minimize the times I go into this store, due to the frequency of being overcharged. They expect the customer to be their quality control rather than instituting appropriate checks to be sure they aren’t gouging the customer. I’ll continue to minimize the business I do at Safeway and take it to T&C where I have NEVER been overcharged during the 23 years I have shopped at that store. The quality of the food is also substandard, with the lettuce frequently being old and about ready to wilt, the fruit of poor quality, and the staff seemingly just putting in their time, rather than wanting to help the customer.

The people who work here could not be nicer. I had a friend who forgot his wallet — the checkout lady tried to lend him the money, even though he was from out of town. Whenever I go, the checkout people are really the best!
There are things that are both good and bad about any Safeway, but the staff here make this one great!

On the plus side, I like the build out, the variety, the staff, and the hours of operation.
On the downside, their prices aren’t so great and the quality isn’t fantastic. Their grab-​and-​go warm food bar section is great for a quick lunch or take home dinner.

What do you want? Its a major chain supermarket.
This is one of the two groceries on the island and the Town and Country has gone out of its way not to compete with the Safeway because it can’t. There isn’t much overlap between the two stores which is a good thing. The Safeway is great for stocking up on staples where you’re not that concerned about the quality or want standard brands. Its cheaper, its open 24/​7, and it has a larger stock of common household and pantry items. If you need to watch your budget, this is the better bet.
That said the produce isn’t that great, the meats are all factory farmed, don’t even think of looking at the fish, and their selection of organic and fancier items is very limited. For that, go to the T&C and expect to pay more.
It does sell beer and wine (selection not anything special but they do have a decent selection of local beers) and as of June 1, 2012 they’re going to sell liquor (again, don’t expect anything special).

What is there to say it’s Safeway. Consistent with every single Safeway that I have ever been to.
The do have a great produce section that is always well stocked and everything is very fresh. The store is never crowded and it is easy to move through the isles.
The only problem I have with this store is the deli. One evening I went in to pick up dinner and went to the counter and asked for an 8 piece of their fried chicken. The woman at the counter told me that they didn’t have any made and it would take 20 minutes. I was pretty pissed. It was dinner time and they didn’t have any CHICKEN! In addition to the chicken problem, I have found it hard to get someones attention in the deli in order to get deli meats and other items like potato salads.

This store I am impressed with and like very much. Although only having 1 experience that could have been better it improved my overall outlook about this store. This store still does its best to improve and makes me want to totally shop in that store and to this day this store earns my business. Customer Service has made a difference in how I rate a store and how people get treated overall.
Nice Job and Keep up the Good Work

Being only one of two supermarkets on the island, I’m glad this one is really good. It’s in really good location: just about the center of the island. It’s open 24 hours a day = Awesome. I’m not really sure why it needs to be open all the time though. I mean, most of the residents on the island are used to places being open until midnight at the latest. But I suppose, whether intentionally or unintentionally, that being open 24 hours a day gives the local high school kids a place to meet up or even hang out. I guess. Well, it’s everything you can expect from a Safeway: decent produce, meats, bakery, hot foods section, a good Pacific Northwest selection of beer. It has the only Starbucks on the island as well. I tend to come here more often for groceries due to the slightly larger selection and slightly lower prices. I guess when all the restaurants are closed, I can at least stop by here to grab something to eat.

As mentioned in my Town & Country review, on Bainbridge you often cannot find everything at just one of the grocery stores and have to hit both (or drive to Poulsbo).
The Safeway has a much more logical, supermarket flow and gets bonus points for being open 24 hours. I have found the meat selection to be better than T&C, but the produce is not quite as good. They probably have the wider selection overall of the two as well.
Overall, though, it’s pretty much a draw.