Safeway

I rarely shop Safeway for a variety of reasons but if I need something I haven’t found on my regular tour of Boulder’s groceries, this is the Safeway I visit. It is the most convenient of their newer bigger stores in Boulder, though not particularly close to me. It is a nice store, dean, with friendly employees, but maybe a bit dark for me. Parking is easy.
It is not as busy as many other groceries in Boulder but I have not found that to be a problem with freshness of the sorts of things I often buy here. They do carry some CA based brand name packaged items that are hard to find elsewhere. And if I am at the nearby arts and craft store, it saves time for a quick pickup without another stop.

The people who work here are very nice and helpful. I just moved down the street and have been making frequent trips to fill up my fridge & pantry, every time I go in there is this one woman (whose name I don’t know :/​) who always greets me and makes pleasant small talk. A few days ago I misplaced my phone and several employees helped me look for it. Turns out I had left it at the counter of another store while I was running errands. The next time I went into Safeway, Robert (the manager) asked me if I had found my phone! That was very nice of him to ask and show concern to my cause, I’m sure they see hundreds of faces a day so it was cool that he remembered. He even was the one who let me use his phone to call mines during my panic mode.
The people here are so nice and professional.

Consistently the best Safeway in Boulder. While, generally speaking, I’m not a huge fan of the way Safeway organizes their stores, I’ve grown accustomed to it and at least know, for the most part, where to find things here. What sets this place apart is the service. Every bagger, checker and manager I’ve interacted with over the past 6 months since I moved in nearby has been polite, friendly and professional. I’m here on a daily basis, and I get a «local» treatment feeling from the employees here — but I get the feeling that’s just their M.O., and not necessarily about the frequency of my patronage.

2012 Review #289:
I think I’m gonna start a new list. Well, maybe not, but I’m thinking about it. This list would be: convenient places to buy donuts.
Why does one need such a list? Because donuts/​doughnuts/​whatever are the absolute best way to attract school-​age children to before-​school activities. So, when I need to make sure I have students showing up for 7:45am rehearsal, I bring donuts. It’s just the smart thing to do. And, I always have to buy these donuts on Monday afternoons, and I always have about a 5 minute window in which to buy said donuts.
What does this have to do with Safeway? Well, Safeway in general is not extraordinarily laid out. Almost every Safeway I’ve been in is organized differently and puts things in a completely nonsensical order in the store. This store’s bakery is on the side I wouldn’t think, (left entering the store), next to the new fancy sushi area with wood floors. But, for all the fancy stuff this Safeway has, they do not have pre-​boxed dozen donuts. The *other* major supermarket not only has boxed dozen donuts all day, every day, but they even put them right by the entrance, by the freshly baked french bread, which Safeway also does not have. So, instead of this errand taking me one minute and $ 3 at King Soopers, I have to hope there are 12 donuts remaining in the case by mid afternoon, and pay the kind of outrageous price of $ 5 for a dozen donuts. Do the students get fancier kinds with sprinkles this way? Yes. Does this arguably help middle school morale? Sure, but it’s not worth the extra time, the extra money, or the icing-​coated fingers I always end up leaving with.

Good variety of items from organic heirloom tomatoes to all natural beef and chicken. They also have a variety of fresh chili’s, beautiful ginger and perfect parsnips. I typically shop a variety of markets to find everything I need, but this particular Safeway had a good 72% of the items I was seeking — and at a competitive price. Customer service was not exceptional until check out when I had the most helpful cashier named Jeffrey ring me up. Boy if I had a grocery store, I’d certainly be looking to recruit him away.

This safeway is a standard safeway. The products are neighborhood appropriate and the staff was helpful and nice.

I’m not a fan of this Safeway. They recently remodeled this store which has improved the atmosphere quite a bit but it’s still too dark. They don’t carry what I guess you might call the «high end» products that regular grocery stores carry, such as Jimmy Dean. But my main compliant about this Safeway is the employees. They are so indifferent, so unhelpful, so exasperating that I prefer to shop at King’s and Whole Woods, even though Safeway is by far the closest grocery.