Safeway
Reviews and Complaints

My father recently bought a gift certificate for the Black Angus restaurant from Safeway Supermarket. At the time he bought it he was unaware that the local Black Angus had closed for good.
After being told the nearest restaurant was 1 1/2-2 hours away, he tried to exchange it for someplace closer. He was told this was not possible. It was against their poslicy. They would not give him his $50.00 back or exchange the card for some other place. The store manager told him he could call the corporate office, but there was nothing they could help him with. There is no way to email this company with a complaint.

I regularly shop at the Puyallup Safeway, and I have been okay with it up until 10/6/2009, when I shopped for groceries. Everything was fine until my 12-year-old son went to the restroom and found urine on the floor. He told a cashier (the one who rang up our groceries, but I'll tell you about her later) and he told me that the cashier said, "It's not my job to clean it up. Find someone else to do it." Just because he isn't a paying customer, he shouldn't be treated like a nobody! Well, anyways, the store was packed, and we went through the checkout line where the cashier who told my son, basically, that an unsanitary bathroom is okay. I made a comment like, It's just too bad that nobody around here can clean a bathroom. She said, and this is verbatim--"I heard about this from your son, I don't want to hear it again." She was in a pissy mood and wasn't even watching what she was doing--she rang up my laundry detergent (I bought only one) three times! I pointed it out to her, and she said, Well, if you have a problem, why don't you ring up your own groceries? I threatened to get the manager and insisted that she started over, and surprisingly she did. My son took a candy bar off the rack and handed it to her to ring up. She snatched it out of his hand. At that point, I said I was leaving--after I got the manager. She said that I had to put the groceries back. I walked off, and she followed me. I went to the video and lottery desk to ask for a manager, but whenever you need a manager, they are never around. She threatened to call the police--very funny, as it is NOT against the law to refuse to buy groceries and it is NOT against the law to complain to the manager! She followed me out the door, which at that point, I was about to call the police. She spoke with one of the employees who was pushing carts outside and said, "Oh, yeah, there's that fat [censored] who is making my life miserable!" Needless to say, this was at 6 p.m. and I ended up having to re-do my shopping at Top Foods (the other store that I do my shopping at)--and let me tell you, I had a much better experience there! Not to mention, you don't need a club card in order to save money--if you don't have a club card at Safeway, you're getting robbed blind. Well, I threw the card away 'cause I'll never set foot in a Safeway again! I'll only shop at Top Foods and Grocery Outlet from now on.

-Terrie S.

P.S. --I realize that everyone has a bad day every once in a while, but her behavior was very unacceptable. Since when is it fine to cop and attitude with customers? When is it okay to call your customers a fat [censored] just because they're complaining? Hopefully, the surveillance cameras caught her stalking me out to my car, and snatching the candy bar out of my son's hand. Customer service is not her cup of tea, obviously.

I purchased Dover fish fillets from the meat counter and after rinsing (they smelled strong) and cooking, they were not edible. They were mushy and goey inside. This is not the first time. I recall several other times I have bought bad fish from Safeway. When I returned the fish, I explained to the person that it was not the first time and that would they please tell the meat department that they need to change SOMETHING! I was told yes, she would tell them. As I was still standing there, a clerk went by and she handed them the fish and said ..." take this back to the meat department. " No other information. I will never buy fish again from this store.

Ron the manager of the safeway, has repeadly refused my coupons that Safeway sends me in the mail. I have to call Safeway complaint line, and it takes days to get corrected. They say I will will get a call back, but they never call. Why should a consumer have to go through days of asking why wont he honor my coupon. I have asked him several times why he is refusing to honor their coupons. He has even made the coment of " I dont have time to worry wehat or what not a coupon says. Well I do and I have posted my story on Facebook, and I work frontlines for a major Airline, and I share my storey whenever can. Ron has asked me to shop somewhere else, and well I would never shop at Safeway, or any of their stores.

Safeway is selling on their shelves items past the "best time to purchase" and are not doing anything about it. The store in Pinole has been repetitive filling their shelves with old products and people (like mu husband) in a hurry and trusting the ethics of the managers in charge of providing quality, end up buying and perhaps consuming food that are spoiled.

Safeway employees are apparently not discouraged from parking as close to the store as possible during their work shift. While not illegal, it is very rude and takes good spaces away from elderly customers as well as their "valuable" customers who may be purchasing a lot of items, and would perhaps not like to cart their items further across the cracked parking lot. Letters have been sent addressed to management both on the local level, as well as the regional level, and no differences have been made. I especially don't appreciate the two employees who utilize handipcapped sticker parking from time to time, and then run into the store so that they are not late for their shifts.

BEWARE~I fully believe that Safeway is guilty of false advertising.Looking at their "Super Price Coupon Specials!" it had buy any two Pepsi~Cola 12~packs and get 3 more free plus 1 free participating bag of Tositos.The regular price for the sodas was $5.99 each, but with the club card they were to be $3.99 each and I used the club card.I was charged $5.99.

I spoke up and said I should have been charged the club card price.A supervisor and/or manager was called over.She said that you have to pay the regular price for the items.I asked her where did it say that on the ad and she said that is what it means(however it was not stated in the circular).I find it interesting that there are tons of disclaimers located on the weekly ad circular yet no where does it say one has to pay full price for these items.When I went to Harris Teeter they confirmed that when they have a buy two get three free promotion and the item is also on sale, you pay the sales price.Safeway's customer service is lacking and I think they mislead customers on purpose since a lot of people who shop there probably don't want to take the time to complain about not getting an item at the price they should have to pay.The people in the long line behind me agreed that I should have been given the sales price.Beware of Safeway and make sure you study your receipt to see that you are charged correctly.

My local Safeway at 7th Avenue and Osborn Street has the Locally Grown signs everywhere, but they can not show you the actually produce which is grown locally. They say that the tomatoes are Arizona-grown, but the case they come in, the stickers on the produce and the tags say that they are grown in Mexico. I also found herbs they clam are grown locally, but the label on the package says Argentina. Isn't this fraud, does not truth in advertising come in to play? Its deceptive. Makes me wonder if their Organics brand is actually organic.

Today, 2/28/09, Safeway store in Vallejo, CA on Admiral Callaghan Lane overcharged me for grocery items that were advertised as reduced prices. I was charged for two extra items I did not have which totaled $13.17 and $15 for other items that should have been reduced by coupon reduction. I went back in the store to claim my refund which totaled $28.17. The Cashier who addressed me rudely, was already helping a senior woman figure the amount of her refund for overcharged items. This is not the first time I have had to do so.

My boyfriend went to the south davis safeway to redeem over $100 we had collected over a few weeks in lotto scratchers... Well he walked out with only $76! This idiot blindly trusted who ever was handling the tickets, and even though he knew the number was too low, he left anyway thinking there was nothing he could do since "the clerk tore the tickets." bull-bleep! We had a stack of over 20 cards, from $1 to $3; a mere three of those cards were, respectively, a $21, $28, and $15 winner (Two rockin 7s and a poker game). Now, you tell me that doesn't bleeping add up! I am more angry with my idiot boyfriend for not speaking up and at least figuring out w-t-h was going on there, but still, in the future I will only redeem one or two cards a time myself and that way hopefully not be ripped off.

Beware! Redeem in small quantities and know exactly the amount or be prepared to have some bleep bleep steal your bleeping money!

The scanners are charging different prices than the price listed on the shelf. When I called to alert the store staff to the issue (not asking for any reimbursement honestly it's so small its not worth my time to drive back and claim it) they were rude and handed me off to a stock boy to explain it too. When I described the products I had been overcharged on so he could correct the error and prevent future people from being ripped off, he said "they are still overcharging? That happened to me earlier today when I bought myself a soda". That sent off a red flag to me that the store staff knew about the issue but took no action to correct it, preferring instead to continue overcharging customers. Later today I will call the Alameda County Weights and Measures to file a formal complaint. I know Safeway was sued in 2007/2008 for overcharging looks like they have not learned their lesson and made any changes to their business practices.

It's only $2.40 out of my pocket this time but it signals a much larger problem with Safeway as an honest business.

was in line with all my items were ready to be scanned when the manager came by to ask us to move to register 10 again we waited with no cashier thenthe registers went off line some how and they couldnt fix them they didnt know hoe. Then after all that waithing the supercisor came back and asked us to move back to registers that we came from .the line at that time had grown very long so when we moved back to the first register we ended up at the back of lets say 30 people and askked the cashier and supervisor why we had to get to the end of the line all he said was he couldnt do anything about it. That set me off so bad.