Safeway Food & Drug

Stopped in to get a Mega Millions ticket to find the customer service station was closed, but still found help from the cashier handling self-​serve, which I appreciated the friendly service.

Amazing. Millions of people in line at 4:45 on a Sunday and only ONE non-​self, non/​non-​express lane open. The wait so far… 25 minutes in line. The staff at this store are wonderful. THE MANAGEMENT SUCKS!!!
(Note: the «open» lane on the right in my photo is an Express lane; the sign is hanging from the ceiling and not visible in the pic).

Seriously? $ 6 for an artichoke? Also $ 6 for a 12 pack of soda since I didn’t buy your «buy four» deal. What a rip-​off. Last Safeway visit.
P. S. Artichokes are two for $ 3 at the Sprouts on Colfax.

Okay, so this is not the greatest part of town. In fact i’m not sure you want to park at the far end of the parking lot after dark. But I am giving five stars because of the employees. They have always been extremely friendly and helpful. More so than any other grocery store I’ve been to in Denver. This is including various other Safeways, King’s, Lowes, save-​a-​lot, whole foods, Walmart, trader joe’s and sprouts. For the last year I’ve been going here about once every 2 weeks on average and I’m always surprised how all of them in my experience (from produce, the meat counter, checkout and pharmacy) genuinely seem to care about me as a person and not only a customer. Makes no sense. I’m baffled. But I just want to give them their due.

As a frequent customer (every week), I love the product selection and availability of sale items. The service counter employees are friendly and helpful as well.
However, I am perplexed with the staffing on the checkout lanes. 5−7pm is always a busy time for the grocery industry. I have 10+ years experience working for family owned grocers on the retail side, as a vendor for distributors, and finally as a corporate consultant for SUPERVALU. I have never experienced a store with such consistent issues with checkout lane staffing in those 10 years.
What is the deal, Safeway Uptown? Only having one checkout lane, and 4 – 5 self service kiosks open (while the others are *not working*) is unacceptable during the busiest time of day, for the volume your store pulls in sales. Your grocery aisles are clogged up with lines of customers waiting to checkout.
Store management needs to get with the program, perhaps visit nearby grocers that don’t seem to have this issue (i.e. king soopers, sprouts, trader Joe’s) to get inspiration on how to manage your cashier schedules. The customer complaints in these long lines are rampant every single time I shop at your store.

I’ve been frequenting the Un-​Safeway for years, mainly because it’s within walking distance of our place. It’s getting more and more crowded and I still see the occasional fist fight in the parking lot, but overall not the worst place. The liquor store panhandlers seemed to have decreased as well. The prices are better than they have been in the past, but they are definitely slow when it comes to re-​stocking items. Other items will be put in the place where the pricing for the sold-​out items (butter, tea, eggs, etc.) are and that irks me a little. I once asked about their Kerry Gold butter since there wasn’t any for 3 weeks and was told the butter rep hadn’t been to the store. The Manager said he would order extra asap and he did, which was great. Alas, it has now been sold out again for the last two weeks. They also had the mini shopping carts here for only about a week (before people «borrowed» them) so the big carts are a bit of a pain to maneuver in this crowded store.

This place is RIDICULOUS!!! Approx 35% of the shelves are empty (or holding expired products). The only lane ever open that is not self-​check Is express, 15 item max. There are homeless people begging for money IN THE STORE. The produce stockers don’t rotate produce, neither do meat stockers. Literally every single roll but one of plastic produce bags were empty. I found string cheese that expired on sept 12. I realize this location is in denver’s famous Five Points neighborhood, but Five Points is no longer strictly gang territory and is now housing ppl paying $ 3k a month for rent. Not that the *should* matter & effect the quality of merchandise, but it does. Thank God a new King Sooper’s just opened on 20^th, I guess I’ll have to try them (they have an average of 5 stars…)

They always have the groceries I need. Period. I know the layout of the store and the employees are courteous. It’s not Cherry Creek. If you’re looking for that type of scene, this is not it. As far as grocery stores are concerned, it’s as good as any.

It’s okay to get what you need, but nothing great about this place, unfortunately. The «Unsafeway» moniker was earned by its location, but I find the clientele or people hanging outside are never ones to bother anybody. The issue with this place, aside from the fact it is dying to be renovated, is the staff. Aside from one woman, whose name I wish I remembered but I believe she is a manager and absolutely phenomenal (a bright spot in this dim place), the staff is completely uncaring, inefficient, and uninterested in helping or being friendly. They have everything you need and your grocery shopping job will get done, but it will not be an experience you look forward to repeating. With the new King Soopers opening my eyes to how grocery shopping could be it will be difficult to visit this location again.

Ah the Un-​Safeway.
It’s located in a slightly-​sketchy area of town, has a seemingly-​permanent group of intoxicated drifters hanging around, and the prices are a bit higher than elsewhere.
I’m a big dude, 6’3″ and 220lbs+, so I usually don’t have people hassle me. But it has happened here. Sorry, I’m not giving you a dollar dude, you’re holding a beer and are obviously drunk now. Go away. No, spitting on the ground and cursing me isn’t going to change my mind.
Staff is fine. Selection is fine.
Keep your eyes up, looking forward, and don’t give in to the rabble and you’re fine.
I still go to «Queen Soopers» in Cap Hill though for most of my groceries.

You will see in my check in that I called this the UNsafeway. That is because it is located in a «transitional» area. That being said, it is perfectly safe. It is just that you generally see a lot of rif-​raf, bum activities and parking lot altercations. The pharmacy is GREAT. I go there to get my dog’s anti-​seizure meds and the pharmacists and staff are always friendly and helpful. As far as other services, this Safeway lacks. The check out services are almost always insufficient during moderate to busy times. It gets the job done either way, nothing special about this location.

Absolutely disgusting store. Please see my photos. The store needs to be seriously renovated or closed down. I cannot believe, with the thousands of professionals living in the area near downtown that a better grocery store is not available. No other positive points can excuse filth or complete lack of basic maintenance.

Formerly ghetto now semi-​ghetto gentrified Safeway, still with occasional shootings and stabbings on or near property.
I’ve lived in the area a very long time and only rarely shop here due to several things. The prices are always more than Queen Soopers down the road on 9^th, there is a population of thugs that (still) go here though the place isn’t anything like it was in the early 1990s when it looked like something out of an LA gang movie.
It’s been renovated to draw in the new gentrifying hipsters so they have more of a selection than they used to, but again generally overpriced. That’s just how Safeway is in general.
I’ll pick up a thing or two here now and again but unless I want to needlessly blow a bunch of dough, I simply don’t shop here.
A cop told a sibling of mine years ago that federal money kept this store open because there was so much shoplifting it would have closed a long time ago. I wonder if that’s still true.
If you like Safeway and don’t want the accompanying Five Points issues, go down the road to 6^th and Downing. Much better, quieter, safer area.
Oh and if you want to see if they have something in stock before going there and decide to call, don’t bother. I tried that once and the woman that picked up the phone humored me, set the phone down for 10 seconds, picked it up and then told me they had it. I went there and wasted my trip.

The bad experience begins in the parking lot. The beggars, tresspassers drunks, junkies, and homeless folks compliment the ½ size parking spaces and people that do not understand how to park. The store doesn’t feel safe or clean. The odors that come from the meat department seem to be a cross between a dirty Cambodian seafood market and a bleach factory. This place is understaffed as well. However, they have great apple fritters and fried chicken.

It is called the un-​safeway for a reason!
The «safe» time is around 8pm or early in the morning.
The selection is usually pretty good, prices of things are on sale are usually pretty good, the just for u items are usually good too. But regular price is generally higher, so only buy on sale
I’ve harassed the staff to get me things on the top shelf, helped me with the self service check out and more.
IT is the closest option for grocery shopping, not walkable, but less than stapleton from downtown.

Let’s start with the positive because there’s plenty of good going on here…
Here’s the best part– the store manager recently donated 10 cases of water, which I matched for the Denver Rescue Mission.
Huge, well stocked organic fruit and veggie section. Tons of great fruit and veggies. The prices are really fair too! Even the conventional produce looks great.
Their fresh flowers are nice and they have a good variety.
Their meat and fish section offers a decent supply of both grass fed and line caught selections.
Overall the store is well stocked and I have been able to get what I was looking for each time I’ve been in. I live close by and this is the nearest grocery store.
I would say that the store is in need of a face lift and there’s some riff raff hanging around the store at times. I have never been bothered and the store employees have always been great to deal with.
If you have an issue go talk with the store manager. He will quickly remedy the situation. And if anyone doesn’t feel safe, tell someone so they can so something about it.

For the first time in my life, I can look outside my window, and see a grocery store within 100 yards. That excites me a lot. It also excites me because the staff is friendly, and the store itself is pretty nice too (hell, they even have Starbucks inside). So why only 3 stars?
I went the other day, broad daylight (had to go to UPS Store next door and figured since I was in the parking lot to go check it out) and parked along the wall. I saw about 5 – 6 people on the property line like vultures cussing at each other (it seemed like turf wars over God knows what). I let them do their thing. Then go figure as I get to the front a guy comes up to me. Can you not tell I am hear to go grocery shopping, not to talk to hecklers? Shit.
I finally get inside, get a cart, and I hear on the intercom, «I need security to the deli right away». I could only imagine what else would happen between me getting to the first and last aisles. I just tried to tune everything out after that.
As I said, the store itself is nice, but if shit like that happens in broad daylight, I can only imagine what happens at night (as it is open until midnight). I am a big guy, and getting robbed/​heckled is not the issue for me, its for people that are half my size or those who cannot defend themselves for whatever reason. So until they really truly clean it up, I don’t feel like coming back here.

Its a pretty clean safeway. Easy to Navigate with the way the aisles are setup.
On par with the other Safeways i have been inside.
Lots of lanes open, Self Checkout was a breeze.

Cute little «urban» Safeway in the Uptown neighborhood. I’m not sure why everyone thinks this location is so «hood» and «ghetto.» It’s anything but. Sure, there’s a security guard at the entrance, but so what? It’s not unsafe. It’s not the «Unsafeway.» It’s my perfect metropolitan grocery oasis.
Avoid this place after you get off work on the weekdays (5 – 7 P.M.). There is definitely no room for everyone and their big ass carts taking up the entire store.
People will line up for the self check out and block an entire aisle, just so they don’t have to interact with a cashier. Myself included. What is it about those self check outs that just make a person freak out? I have no idea, but I love them!
It’s a chain grocery store. What more do you want?

The Unsafeway is a misnomer on some accounts. Sure, you might get stabbed, robbed or harassed by a bum, but the Unsafeway is sort of the safe way when it comes to usefulness. They always have fresh produce and a great selection of well, everything. They even have vegan butter. Take that, fellow ghetto dwellers.
I’m not saying that I want to commit to the Unsafeway, but we have flings every so often. She’s close, reliable (even in her scariness) and has cleaned up quite a bit in the past year. The place used to be dingy but now I walk in and feel pretty okay about buying my Naked juice and organic tomatoes. I might even go as far as saying that the store’s open, airy layout is superior to the clusterfudge that is Queen Soopers. And for the most part, the Unsafeway is cheaper than Whole Foods.
Don’t come here looking for your cosmetics though ladies, Target is still your best bet. The Unsafeway is loyal only to Cover Girl.
Unsafeway, you’re not so bad. You’re like a walk on the gentrified wild side and I think you’re pretty ok.