Safeway Offers Lackluster service in a low-income neighborhood.

Posted Mon May 7, 2012 12:00 pm, by Wendell H. written to Safeway, Inc.

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It has been four years since I last frequented the Safeway Store on Minnesota Avenue/Benning Road in NE Washington, DC. There are myriad reasons--the same I complained about four years ago. It is sad that years later, I find myself writing yet another complaint about similar issues.

The store is in a very dense neighborhood--mainly comprised of lower-income residents. I get the feeling that Safeway knows the population of the area and for that reason, fails to provide adequate service.

As I enter the store at 5:30 pm, I see several check-out lines (several others were broken), and two self-check out lines. The checkout lines were half way down the aisles. There were folks in the self-checkout lines with 40+ items.It took me approximately 30 minutes to purchase a box of Cheerios (I'm not joking).

The staff were not helpful and several were hanging around the "managers/staff" office, laughing and joking--DOING NOTHING. In addition to the lack of checkout lines and the lackluster service, the food, specifically the produce, is still subpar. I wrote about this several years ago.

This is the reason that I will continue to drive to Harris Teeter or Yes Organic market before frequenting this store again.

Who manages this store? Do District Managers frequent the store? How about a surprise visit to see, first-hand, the lackluster service happening at this establishment?

I would like District Managers, Vice Presidents or other senior level managers to visit this store and begin treating it as if the residents were not "low-income" folks of color. This is ridiculous.

In such a high-density neighborhood, I would like Safeway to hire a true manager--someone who understands the neighborhood dynamics. I would also like Safeway to conduct training for its employees--how about an "Undercover Boss", where the President visits to see the lackluster service given by their employees? And this should have to be requested, but how about fresh produce?

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Re: Safeway Offers Lackluster service in a low-income neighborhood. by Back_n_TX Posted Tue May 8, 2012 @ 10:54 AM I actually doubt it has to due with the income level of the area. I think it has to do with Safeway's staffing model. I go to a Tom Thumb occasionally in a nice neighborhood. At best they have 1 checker open, they never have the express line open, and they seem to want to force everyone (even if you have a full basket of groceries) to use their self-checkout model. So I only go if I need 1 or 2 things. Appears to me that corporate store operations is trying to cut costs by trimming labor. Could be wrong, but I'll bet a bunch that I'm right. Reply Interesting... by jeishere Posted Tue May 8, 2012 @ 12:11 PM I just read an article that another grocery store chain (not safeway) is gong to scale back the self service checkouts in their stores. The are having too much shrink that the attribute to self service checkouts. Reply Re: Lackluster service in a low-income neighborhood. by Nate. Posted Mon May 7, 2012 @ 8:22 PM Unfortunately, race and class often play a factor when it comes to the success of grocery stores in certain neighborhoods, but these issues seem to be a little bit different. The staff being unhelpful and not stepping in when the store gets busy is something that is a reflection on the quality of the employees and management. This has nothing to do with how Safeway treats the store. I'm not sure how the produce being old is a race issue either. Something needs to be done about it, but I doubt Safeway thinks "this store is in a low income folks of color neighborhood, so lets send them the crappy produce!" I agree with your point that a better manager is needed. People standing around when the lines are huge is not acceptable. If there are frequently long lines and some employees have nothing to do, these people should be cross-trained so people can be moved through the store more rapidly. Reply