Safeway

I am from Oregon and used to shopping at Safeway. This one seemed a bit pricey but hey, it’s Hawaii. I will say they had a good selection of poke that was tasty as well — the man behind the counter offered us tastes and we were glad he did. (I am not an expert on poke but we were satisfied with it.) We were also surprised to see as many familiar brands as we did — Tillamook cheeses, Oregon Pinot Noirs, etc. Mangoes were not any cheaper than they are in Oregon, but the pineapples were. We were overcharged $ 3 on a sale item, so you may want to check your receipts, though this could happen anywhere I suppose. They had a decent selection of Kona coffees and macadamia nuts if you want to stock up before flying back to the mainland.

Something is really wrong at this store. The employees aren’t just disinterested, they are downright rude. I thanked the bagger and she turned away from me. The cashier did not speak except to tell me the total.
The prices aren’t that competitive. I can get better service elsewhere. I really do think something is going on as we shopped on a Saturday and the parking lot was nearly empty.
Oh, so was the meat case… and where the frozen chicken is kept, there was a really bad smell.
We live here so we have time to look around and choose where we sho and it won’t be at this store,

We were prepared for high grocery prices in Hawaii but because we had a Safeway discount card (from a vacation 9 years ago in Montana — thank you Keyring for storing my cards!) we got a weeks’ worth of vacation groceries at prices close to what we would have paid in NJ. The Chobani was 4 for $ 5 on sale, and the store brand crackers, frozen waffles and sandwich bread were also on sale for $ 3 or thereabouts. The staff was really friendly and helpful, and made sure we found the bargains. So get the discount card before you shop — this is a terrific option in Kona.

Per usual, safeway has great prices everywhere! Thanks Safeway!

Are you from the mainland? Shop here for your groceries. We visited 3 other stores in the area this evening and this was our 4^th and final stop. I had read online about where to shop for groceries and someone had mentioned Safeway for the free rewards program. We were hesitant to shop here solely based on the overall rating but SO GLAD we stopped by! Safeway is also related to Randall’s and Tom Thumb if you have those where you live or have heard of them before.
**KTA– not terrible selection but reminded me of a Kroger’s and since it was our first stop we thought we’d keep looking. **Island Naturals– excited it might be the Whole Foods of the Big Island but felt disappointed in a handful of aspects. **Walmart– we picked up a few things but couldn’t find it all here. Then we ended up at Safeway. Immediately upon walking in it automatically looked cleaner than KTA and had more product selection that Island Naturals and Walmart.
I noticed other reviewers mentioned bad customer service here. While I can’t say we needed any assistance from an employee– the selection alone is why I would go back. The cashier was not overly cheery but she did greet us upon the start of our transaction and also wished us a good day when we left. (I don’t typically find my cashiers in the mainland overly cheery so this was not a big factor for me).

I am back in paradise, being from Seattle I am not used to being waken up in the morning by Roosters, but I’m enjoying every,” cock a doodle do”! I shop at Safeway in Seattle, so I feel comfortable shopping here, it is a friendly place to purchase groceries and everyone goes out of their way to help but two employees went out of their ways to help me avoid a serious medical emergency.
I filled a perscription before I flew here, so I would have enough of a eye– drop medication to relieve pressures in my left eye. Apparently most of the bottle leaked out somehow and the first night I realized I omly had about four drops left in the bottle.
I talked to Kyle Higuchi, the Pharmacy Manager and he told me what I needed to do, just call my Eye Doctor in Seattle and a new perscription would be made for me. I did that but a BIG problem happened, my eye doctor was not qualified to fill a perscription out in the State of Hawaii, in Washington they could but here I needed the perscription to come from a Opthamalogist.
I then called my Eye Surgeon who originated the perscription but he retired, so their office had it on record that I was a patient of theirs and my new doctor called the perscription in and I was able to pick it up the next day!
Kyle possibly saved my eyes, because the nurse I orginally talked to told me it was very important that I not miss a day. Not only did Kyle help me with the medication, his co-​worker called Cigna and had them cover most of the cost for it!
Later today when it is a decent hour, and the Roosters around here quiet down I will call John Perillo, the Safeway Manager and let him know how much I appreciate his staff and especially Kyle.
If you are reading this and coming to The Big Island, trust Kyle Higuchi to fill your perscriptions here! he is Super!
BIG ALOHA to SAFEWAY!

For once I actually had a good shopping experience at this location. There was wagons in the well and there usually is none, I got helped quickly at the poke department when at times I needed to wait a couple minutes. The best part was the customer service from cashier Jorge, he greeted me as I was unloading my cart and asked if I found everything okay. The lack of 5 stars was because there is NEVER any clerks bagging groceries. The cashier needed to do it himself after completing my transaction so it was a few minutes wait so he could bag up $ 120 worth of groceries when it could be prevented had he gotten help.

The rudest employee I have ever encountered is Katrina in customer service, she refused to help me after standing at the customer service counter for over ten minutes because «I’m going on lunch» while rolling her eyes and walking away.

It’s a Safeway. People were nice to us. Elizabeth the checker was very nice. We found everything we needed. In and out with out a problem.

The better grocery store on the kona side, kta is a close second.
Produce was of higher quality, but of course expensive. They had a larger selection of all items I was looking for. You can most likely find what you are looking for at this store.
They also had a better selection of craft beer that I could find. I really suggest signing up for there club membership (it’s free) it brought the price down on select items.

I am sorry but the staff here was so rude at the deli and uncaring I was shocked. The store was very slow and dead. However, no one at the deli want to walk over and help me. Fine sometimes people are busy. Then when they do walk over they asked they gentleman who was behind me if he needed help before me. I did find this very frustrating since I had already been there well before him.
When I was asked how I can be helped, I asked for a veggie sandwich with no red onions. Not only where the onions added, but the sandwich was poorly put together. Half the veggies didn’t even make it into the sandwich.
Next time I want a deli sandwich, I will just pick up one of the pre-​made ones.

When you have the experience I had at the Kona Safeway last week how can you NOT share it on Unilocal???
I wanted to get a selection of local beers for my vacation. They had a limited selection of larger bottles that I put in my basket, but I wanted some varieties that only came on small bottles and only in six-​packs. But some of those six-​packs had bottles missing so I figured I’d grab a single from one of them as well.
The cashier – an angry young woman – spotted the small bottle in my basket as she was ringing up the customer in front of me. «WE DON’T SELL THESE LIKE THAT!!!» she snapped, yanking the bottle from my basket. I nodded, a bit turned off by her making such a scene, but nothing worth fighting over.
But apparently she still wanted to fight, as the complaints continued while she rang me up, literally complaining about how the Japanese kept taking single bottles out of the six packs and other issues with people disobeying rules in her universe.
The cashier in the bakery was also pretty rude, no smile, left with my cupcake for a moment without even saying, «just a moment please.» And the cupcake was truly vile, tasting like chemicals and sugar.
Oh, and the prices really do suck there.

As soon as you walk through the store once, you will immediately notice 99% of the employees are unfriendly, unhappy, and unhelpful. No one greets you or asks if you need help, but instead they are just huffy and slam things around. The crazy prices makes it definitely not worth the trip here, especially once you peruse through their «fresh» produce and see the entire section of leafy greens are brown and wilted. Then you get to checkout where the cashier (John D.) does not make a peep the entire transaction until he sullenly gives you the total and then proceeds to stand there and twiddle his thumbs while a 9 month pregnant woman bags her own groceries… WOW!

The Big Island implemented a bag charge effective this January 2013. Unlike San Francisco which charges $.025 a bag, it’s a nickel or a dime delending on where you’re shopping. However bags are still free at Safeway as of this writing.
There’s a small poke section. $ 13.99 lb unless you’ve got a Safeway member card. Then it’s $ 10.99 lb.

I was personally not impressed with the produce (old, rotten, and disgusting). And I also wasn’t too fond of the way we were greeted by John. Said he wishes it was better and he wasn’t doing good. Ok, 1. you live on freaking Hawaii! How miserable can you be? 2. If you don’t wanna deal with dumb tourists like me, then don’t work at the only grocery store that I know of from home! Other than that it had really nasty looking ground turkey meat which was kind of repulsive. Not at all impressed. 1 star for the Wente wine which made me feel like I was at home.

Came here to get some snacks.
Plenty of parking here in the lot out front.
As with many other Safeways, the food here is unfortunately quite overpriced. I would recommend going to the nearby Wal-​Mart instead. But if you need groceries, this is no different than what you’d find on the continent itself.

Where have all the checkers gone? I have shopped at the Kona Safeway for 13 years. It’s never a particularly positive experience, but it has gotten so much worse in the last year or so. For example, I was in there at 4 pm today — a busy time for grocery stores. There were only three (3!) checkers. The 6 of us in my line had only about 10 items each. But no express line. (I’ve learned that the self-​check machine often takes longer if I have anything at all unusual, like a gift card or an organic pear.)
So why can’t we get through a line in less than 20 minutes? I don’t want to hear about the slow economy and high labor costs. The CEO of Safeway has a compensation package of $ 11.5 million per year — there’s profit there that could be shared with the over-​worked, under-​paid cashiers, thereby improving the customer service. KTA is a far better shopping experience and the produce is local and fresher!

Moved to Big Island 6 months ago… from CA. Never have cared for Safeway’s prices… stopped by the Kona store because of it’s location… after a dental appt. across the street. I ordered a «panini» with turkey and havarti cheese… it was the most horrible sandwich I have experienced in a very long time. Dry… dry… dry… I sat in the parking lot… tearing off all the outside white bread pieces… throwing them to birds… and could only eat the small bits of turkey and cheese. I will never again get food there. Beware… and the prices are high!

If you are visiting from any where else in the world, except for maybe Tokyo, the prices of food in Hawaii is expensive everywhere so enough with the star dings for the price. I like Safeway and will usually go here before going to Sack and Save or KTA because of the cleanliness and selection. The deli, meat, bakery and even the produce selection is pretty good.
My biggest ding on Safeway is the constant guilt trips they give you to donate to a charity. There is usually someone at the entrance with their hand out, they ask you at check out if you want to donate and to top it all off there is the old dude at the corner while you are driving out with his hand out. Enough already. I like the way they do donations at KTA. If you buy certain products, KTA will make a donation to a school of your choice at no extra cost to you.

When you walk int it feels like walking into your freezer. BRRR!!! Who the hell runs this place, Frosty The Snowman?
It goes without saying the prices will give you a seizure. You expect that with a large chain store on an island. But then notice all the stuff they don’t have — and what they do, I could find down the road for almost half the price.
Staff is grumpy, especially at the seafood counter. What is that guy’s problem? It’s like he’s in a permanent bad mood. Retrain or send him to another employer! The lady at the deli glares at you like you’re going to plant a bomb. The mainlanders and rich folks who frequent the place won’t smile, be courteous or show a bit of aloha. They’ll shove you out of the way if you don’t pay attention.
Save your money and your peace of mind, go to KTA, Costco or even Target.