Safeway

Honestly, a lot of Safeway’s problems here are out of their hands. Usually there are a number of panhandlers patrolling the entry way. That’s no problem, I usually give them a dollar or two. But at times, they can get to cussing. There’s also an adjacent alleyway where crimes have been committed with a certain level of frequency.
On the inside, things are ok. The manager who helps people at the self checkout is great, you can tell he puts effort into the experience. Some of the cashiers can be lacking in customer service, but others really try to make the best of it. I might recommend Trader Joes at this point.

I do not understand why Safeway does not have a higher review. My friend and I went to Safeway today to grab some dessert. We walked around the large selection to quickly come across an item called a «brookie»… (YES the hybrid between a cookie and a brownie!!!) To our excitement, we hurriedly grabbed the «brookies» and found our way to the ice cream section to grab some vanilla… When we got home we did a little microwavin and WOW… Magic I tell you.
Safeway is ahead of the game people, get with it.

Some sketchy people reside right outside of the doors of this Safeway location. Regardless, this is your standard grocery store with a minimal selection for foods. Had to dig around to find my Cheetos Puffs and other snacks for the road trip. No one is there to help but I got in and out as fast as possible.

This place is awful. I sincerely wish this place wasn’t convenient to my work place. Not only is the parking lot scary, but every experience Is soooo awful, I leave fuming angry 75% of the time. I had asked to purchase a bag because I just cant fit an item in my bag, the cashier rolled her eyes at me and then double charged me for one. The attitude is so poor I was afraid to even make it known. I had mentioned even earlier then the bag incident to another cashier about how I’ve noticed alot of the meat is literally sitting in pools of blood «which can cause it to spoil much quicker, as well as contaminate it» the checker actually said he didn’t care because its not his job… So much for the safety and well-​being for the shopper’s. I’ve got countless stories of this place.

I understand they don’t have a big selection and the deli is smaller, but they are located in the udistrict so they kind of have to cater to their biggest clientele aka college students so you have to hold back a Tata on your typical Safeway standards.
That being said, the staff here are always eager to help and are very friendly. They will even point you to the right direction (other stores nearby) if they don’t carry the items.
All and all, they are a great store with awesome staff.

I would hate it if this was my neighborhood grocery. It does have a homeless/​college student vibe going on that’s for sure! Get in, get what you need, and get out… FAST!

I think this Safeway is trying to compete with Gonzaga’s Safeway on who can be more sketchy! I go here at least twice a week and 99% of the time there are people begging for money by the door. Inside is small and there isn’t a big variety of anything. If I didn’t live so close or have a Safeway savings card, I doubt I would come here. On the plus side, the staff is surprisingly friendly. I would be cautious at the meat section — Unless it was packaged that day, it usually doesn’t look good.

The homeless kids that crowd the door, the aisles that are too small for carts, it’s got a dirty feel to it. The only thing that gives Safeway 2 stars is, they sell food.

We all need to buy groceries. We all live near Safeway. Should we buy some of our groceries at Safeway? Hey I say go for it. The prices are average and it’s got a real unpretentious vibe. Everyone’s welcome at the Safeway.
The cashiers are friendly, which I guess is true everywhere. Less the sterile avatars-​of-​the-​corporation style here; this place is more the «it’s kind of a dive but we make that looseness work for us» variety.
If you’re buying condoms you have to go to the Service Counter but as a result they cost half as much as they do at the Walgreens across the street and I’m not exaggerating about that. They also have a little tag around the store which says «LOCAL» on items which are local (unless I’m thinking of a different store), which is cool.
There’s stuff Safeway’s not great for but that’s easy, spread it around. For instance there’s a Trader Joe’s not far from here. It’s like the radio advertisements go, «Safeway and Trader Joe’s: A Great Team (sound of a baseball being successfully hit far, which you can always tell a good hit just from hearing it)»

If anything in Seattle deserves one star, it is this Safeway. Inside it is ok, although the time I looked for a decent bottle of wine I thought I’d wandered into a ⁷⁄₁₁. Outside it is the wild west. I’ll just say check out the Seattle crime map, and minimize your time spent walking quickly from and going back to the nearest possible parking place.

This place is embarrassing.
It’s the only shop in town — inextricably, the only full-​service grocery store west of campus. Why a competitor (besides specialty brands like Trader Joe’s) hasn’t swooped in to take away the highly dissatisfied customers from Safeway is beyond me. Providing even a marginally better experience would convince me not to go here again. And when I get the chance, I do avoid this location.
Their selection is somewhat limited. You won’t find a full range of personal care supplies, and their depth in certain product lines is limited. In other words, if you’re dead-​set on a particular flavor of a particular brand of chips, you shouldn’t rely on this location to have it available. It’s more like: take it or leave it (do you really want to walk to another grocery store?) That’s their main calculus. If there were competitors this location would be out of business in a heartbeat.
The facilities themselves are not great. The place is small (limiting the aforementioned selection). The self-​service scanning machines are particularly problematic. They seem to get upset every time I use a paper bag, because paper bags have a non-​zero weight and the brilliant engineers (or actually, it’s probably business people who are obsessed over shoplifting) haven’t figured out how to account for that.
The food is awful. It’s not fresh, it’s highly processed, and it’s overpriced (for such garbage, at least).
The staff generally does their job. That’s about the best I can say. They are often icy. Once I had purchased a six-​pack of Smirnoff Ice earlier in the day, drank one at a friend’s house, and stopped at Safeway again on my way back home. The checker interrogated me and asked me to show a receipt. I was awestruck at this. Really, if I was stealing it, do you think I would carry it in plain sight? I was disappointed that the checker didn’t trust me. Sometimes, late at night, the security guard and the checker will carry on conversations that are extremely inappropriate. I have a fairly high tolerance for controversy but some of the things they say are outrageous.
I do take issue with other reviews that complain of the «sketchiness» of this place. Yes, there are homeless people in front of the store. Does that mean they’re dangerous? Does that mean you should avoid them? This kind of judgmental attitude is frustrating and unnecessary. They’re just people. They’re certainly less likely to rob you than a Wall Street banker. Think about that.
Avoid this place, not for the homeless people who hang out in front, and deserve some sympathy and perhaps some of that food you just bought, but for the awful selection and service.

Druggies. Homeless. College drunkies. Poop.
okay maybe not that last part.
This place is a block away from a bus stop that has a police car permanently parked out front of it because of all the drug sales/​use.
Hopefully that all sets the tone for this review:
They have a pretty dreary selection of stuff, probably because it’s the size of a one bedroom apartment… The staff average out to be about… ehh kinda begrudgingly nice.
Some checkers are checking you out. like in the weird way. and other are checking in (or should be) because there’s something a little off.
Oh well. it’s close to home, and i do love my cream cheese dipped hot cheetos with chocolate milk.
So so.

There is a reason my friends and I call this the «Not so Safe way»…
Every time I walk into this grocery store, it’s because I’ve convinced myself to save time by stopping in since I work so closely. I am NEVER happy about this decision. From the shifty characters that are always hanging in the parking lot to the continuous barrage of homeless individuals out in front, the experience is never off to a good start.
Once inside, it’s obvious that they only concern is peddling processed and cheap products to the college aged demographic. Their produce is always meager. The other day it took me 4 minutes to find a sweet potatoes because the 6 potatoes (no joke…6) were hidden in the corner of their small display. It’s pretty lame.
Finally, the staff here have a general malaise that just takes it down another notch. Seriously, have some pride… get it together.

I’m a huge fan of Safeway but this one is just ridic.
I never write reviews about stores but this one is just that bad.
The staff is ⁵⁰⁄₅₀ on friendliness. Some of them are great and super friendly but I’ve had a few encounters where they just don’t give a f*ck and are super rude. Craig at «customer service» is definitely one of those people.
I don’t buy produce there or bagels (which I love!) b/​c it seriously disturbs me thinking about all the gross hands that have touched those things. If you see some of the people that stand outside of the store or shop or shoplifting in there, then you probably understand what I mean. I really just shop here if it’s late night and really need something.
BUT my BIGGEST complaint is management! Idk how many times I have gone in there around 9:30 and the lines are ridiculously looooooong! And when I say «lines» it’s two checkers sometimes even ONE! If you are constantly busy in the evening, in a college town, with a lot of night owls (is 9:30 even that late really?) I would think you would have more staff on hand OR at least have self check up and running! Your line (s) shouldn’t be down the aisles on the reg, just saying.
So basically just the dirtiest/​worse Safeway EVER!

We call it the «Grapes of Wrath» Safeway. Go there, and you’ll understand why.
It is grungy, dirty, sketchy (sooo many super shady characters that hang out there, and all of them want your money). They have 10 different types of ramen noodles and not a single box of fresh berries. Dafuq? Not a single sheet of Nori in their Asian foods section. Nori! It’s not rocket science! Their produce is garbage. Tomatoes that taste precisely like cardboard, avocados that feel like they’re made of stone and go from under-​ripe to rotten instantly.
Once I tried to order something from the deli, and the plump angry woman at the deli counter MADE ME PAY for the deli meat at the counter even though I told her that I had other shopping to do and would pay at the register. She treated me like I was some kind of common criminal, like she thought I was going to STEAL $ 5 worth of deli food! Unbelievable.
I can honestly almost never find what I want there. It’s good for a quick run if you’re out of something, and the booze selection isn’t bad, but unless you’re there for beer, frozen pizza and ramen, this is not the place for you.

This Safeway must be the neglected Stepchild. It has a lazy deli crew. I mean come on. I came in for a hot breakfast sandwich one day and was not offered to make one but walked to the heat lamp and handed a pre-​made one! And then there is no place to eat in this location. And no free WiFi. I get it you don’t want to create a hangout for students to suck free WiFi or the homeless to hangout ²⁴⁄₇. But that’s life in the U-​District grow some balls install some seating and put a time limit on hanging around and sucking the WiFi if you must. As for the pre-​made breakfast sandwich, I get it you may have a rush in the early morning. But learn your rush hours and after they have passed make a sandwich when ordered by your clientele.
And yeah the Real Change sales guy, is a sweet man. Nobody is bothered by him and he wishes everyone a good day whether you buy a paper or not. But on the other hand some of those other characters that hang around the parking areas are pretty shady.
They need to invest in a pressure washer and a person to use it to clean the pavement and north parking area daily.
I actually avoid this location after my experience. I go further north to the one on NE 85^th Street @ Roosevelt Way. Much nicer place.

Walking in and out of this place stresses me out.
The north parking lot is an open air drug market.
The south parking lot isn’t any better because of the pay phone.
The only reason I would come here is to use the coin star machine… if you exchange your coins for certain online retailers there is no coinstar fee!

Whenever I reach the midpoint between Safeway and my place, which is about only a mile away, I have this feeling that my heart is shriveling up and just sunk into the bottom of my gut. Then my knees lock and my palms get sweaty, and all of a sudden, I become irrationally worrisome.
The closer I get to the Safeway entrance, I become increasingly paranoid that some animal or wild creature is resting on the rooftop waiting to take a shit on me. How else can you explain the different trails of birds’ poops, cigarette butts, and spit that leads to the doorway of Safeway? This place is seriously bad.
The meats here are always discolored every single time. It looks like it is afflicted with gangrene. It is as if someone took the liberty to punch and kick the crap out of the beef flanks after it was already cut and packaged.

Deli section: Rude staff. Recently I wanted to order a breakfast sandwich but there was no staff at that section. It was around 9am when I was there. I had to walk over to the other side of the deli section and asked a middle-​aged lady with dark hair, «is anyone making breakfast sandwiches over there now?» She looked at me annoyed and said in a threatening voice, «OF COURSE THERE IS…» And then she went on and on mumbling for like 30 seconds. I was going to ask her, «wait, what?» and before I was able to do that, she said, «What kind do you want?» I was so confused the whole time. I wish I was quick enough to record her or at least her threatening voice as a proof. I really do not understand why she had to respond that way. And by threatening voice, I am not even kidding. I have received bad service before and seen staff having a bad day or something, but never ever have I seen anyone threatening me for wanting to make a simple purchase.
Another time, I ordered some Asian dishes (chow mian and stir fried dishes) from the deli section and OMG they are so tasteless. I didn’t know anything could taste worse than Panda Express. But Safeway wins on this one.
Selection: They do carry a good but basic selection of everything. That means, if there is a particular flavor or brand you are looking for, you will have to go to another Safeway.
They do have two parking lots on each side of the store, which is nice.
I am not sure if I will come back to this store as often. I will probably only stop by for a quick snack or something in the future.

I actually like most Safeways, but will never do a big trip at this store again.
It’s pretty small with a limited selection of many items. It reminds me more of the Queen Anne stores (
) than the nice big one in Ballard (
). There is no pharmacy but they do have a (smallish) parking lot.
I was surprised at how many things felt slimy. I had to wipe my hands off repeatedly as everything that came out of a refrigerated case felt wet!?! I hope the temps were set correctly cause I have never experienced that before. The produce wasn’t bad though. Organic peppers were on sale for cheaper than the other ones.
The staff was in my way several times because they were stocking many areas. It was early evening, a time when most people do their shopping, so most stores wait to do stocking until late night or earlier in the day. Apparently not here.
And the guy that rung me up was kind of a dick. When he started I cheerily asked him if he could wrap my eggs in their own plastic bag. He didn’t respond at all (though he did do it). Then, after I spent $ 140 he questioned me about a 35 cents off coupon. What a jerk.
This Safeway may be close to our apartment but makes the sorta ghetto Capt Hill location look downright fabulous and inviting.