Albertsons Sav-On

This store has been sold by Albertsons. Albertsons was failing as a business and sold all of its stores in Northern California. A smaller family owned grocery chain from Modesto bought the stores and renamed the store Lucky. All the employees are the same as before.

This Alberton’s is now a Lucky’s, I think, but nothing seems to have changed.
I use their CoinStar machine to turn in my loose change.

The Albertson’s closed and reopened as a Lucky Supermarket. A new entry has been created. The carryover of staff during the change is unknown.

Thousands upon thousands of products which are mostly not what I’m looking for. Occasionally they have bread with corn baked in (Grace Baking? not sure who) which is awesome and not seen anywhere else on the planet. They have decent fried chicken and mac n cheese, but most of the deli salads look just plain ridiculous. Good aisle for picnic stuff. The self checkouts are extra handy. As gigundo soul-​free super markets go, this one is gigundo, soul-​free and better than Safeway by a long shot.
Very few organic products, but every kind of packaged lunchmeat your heart could desire. Competetive pricing on drink mixers like tonic water.

There was something sad about this store. Maybe it didn’t have enough lighting, or maybe it was exuding the «in the process of a corporate takeover» vibe. Or maybe it was just too late to be shopping for groceries. In any case, I did find most of the items I was looking for, and the checkout line went quickly.

This store is like Safeway but dauntingly large and without any of the staple foods that I count on. No decent sausages, no decent bread, no buffalo, not even any hummus… wtf? The deli is much better than other Albertson’s delis, though – so much so that I get lunch there whenever I have to work in the vicinity of the Plaza. This refers only to the quality of their sandwiches, though: the pace of service is strangely bucolic, and when it comes to the salads the only way to be polite is not to mention them at all. Shoppers are meanwhile made to tolerate forgotten 80s songs that we were all happy to have forgotten. A mixed bag, as neighborhood grocery stores go.

I come here every month to convert my change with their awesome Coinstar machine. It is well worth the risk of biking six miles down busy streets — those pennies add up fast. I have also made many Coinstar buddies as we make awkward small talk while the machines count our change together.

This store is almost TOO big. I think I preferred the Albertsons/Lucky’s when it was on San Pablo (near Moeser)
Since I have the aisles memorized i can usually zip through here fairly quickly. Good sales. Nice checkers although I worry that their benefits are being whittled away by corporate decisions.
We never buy produce here, so i have no opinion of it.
They do have GIANT stuffed (aka «plush» is supposedly the pc word) animals. You know, the kind that you try to win at the county fair, etc and the kind that you hope no one will ever give your kid as a present, since they are so huge they almost need their own bedrooms.
NOTE: When I was a kid my dad gave me a giant bear for my 6^th birthday, I adored it. Somehow it mysteriously disappeared before my 7^th birthday… I suspect my mom, she never has confessed!
NOTE 2: Only 3 stars– The security at this store is very unfriendly to teens. My son and his friends have been harassed here.

This new giant Albertson’s has its own dry cleaner, video rental, and Starbucks (though there’s already one in the mall). For me to give three stars to a fluorescent-​lit temple of processed food is a compliment. This Albertson’s is very well stocked and has good «ethnic» food sections which is conveninent because while there’s an Asian mall in the neighborhood, we don’t have a good Mexican grocery. They also have a surprisingly wide selection of stone-​ground grains from Bob’s Red Mill. I try to buy their products from Albertson’s rather than the Naturalo Grocery so they will keep ordering from Bob’s. Their magazine rack is almost as good as Barnes & Noble that sometimes, we get stuck there reading magazines. The liquor department is pretty well stocked as well. A few year ago, they installed the self-​checkout lanes. I like those because it can facilitate checkout and you’re not bombarded with inane questions (paper or plastic? ATM or credit? cash back?), but these days, people who can barely operate a calculator have taken to the self-​checkout lane, so things have slowed down. I rarely shop here, but when I do, it’s not as aggravating as it could be to shop at a soulless supermarket.