Safeway

Clean store to include the Restrooms! I haven’t been in the women’s but I have it on good authority that it is so. Appears to be well-​manned with regards to cashiers! Some Safeways think that one or two cashiers is good enough for servicing customers. This store always has very helpful employees running all over the place restocking shelves. They have the best, for some reason, Cameo Apples, love ‘em The location of this store is great. Located on Hawthorne Blvd, you are within a few steps of many pretty dang-​on good eating spots. One of PTLD’S best comic book stores is right down the road, clothing, children’s and novelty stores not to mention a pretty sweet neighborhood all in walking distance on a not so wet, dreary, chilly day. DAWG-​ON prices of homes in PTLD are skyrocketing tho’, EEEEEEEEEEK Anyhow, this Safeway gets the Best Seen To Date Award!

My friend and I were at the self check out and, unfortunate for the assistant, really bad at it. But I have to give Mucho kudos to the lovely lady with patience tonight at about 4pm. She’s the best!

I went to get a coffee from this Safeway Starbucks… I couldn’t seat down and drink my coffee. It is a Homeless shelter. Not trying to act hillarysh or diss but it is BAD!!! Bad smell and uninviting!

Not sure people read reviews about Safeway stores but this place frustrates me ever since it was built. Tear down of the old place gave Safeway a chance to build a multi use store with an urban design befitting the inner SE portland culture. Think of any Whole Foods, New Seasons, heck even the Freddie’s store on 39^th and Hawthorne has more going for it. I imagine the façade looked good on paper but in reality it’s drab, cheap and ill fitting. Product is so so inside — all the usual Safeway stuff. But three things bother me beyond its lack luster design. Employees smoking at the top of the stairs by the bland outside seating area. I always walk around this area now. A weird assortment of long term customers in the Starbucks seating area — not an enjoyable environment (get your coffee at the local shop across the street). And lastly the can recycling bringing a unsavory cast of characters who now use this as their source of income. Our recycling is cleaned through by more than one person walking the streets the evening prior to garbage day. The recycling area is dirty and feels unsafe. I do not let my teen daughter walk alone to Safeway because of this. Safeway you have deep pockets. You have to spend a little extra to belong in cool neighborhoods. We go out of our way to shop at other local stores that emulate that Portland vibe, have unique local food and drink, and frankly just provide a more enjoyable shopping experience. Finally quit ‘running out of paper bags’.

This is ONLY a review for the pharmacy — the rest of the staff that work here are super cool, especially Ericka and Belinda (they should get medals for how sweet they are to people who often don’t deserve it).
The pharmacy experience I had was quite simply one of the worst customer service experiences I have ever had.
First I transfer my prescription in online and call 10 days later when I had not heard anything. Turns out, safeway pharmacy needed to request my prescription and had not — I double checked this with Kaiser. Despite this the incredibly rude (and verging on incompetent) blonde pharmacy tech kept insisting that she had done it and it was Kaisers mistake. I call back a few days later and get a different tech who told me that she had no record of safeway ever having called it in.
When I finally came to pick it up, and told her who I was, the blonde woman narrowed her eyes at me and rudely said she recognized my prescription then kept me waiting over an hour for what I can only presume was petty pay-​back for my persistence in trying to fill my «can’t-run-out-of» medication.
Then the final straw came when she ignored me completely upon check-​out and charged me based on my old insurance information which, of course, was invalid, so I was charged $ 45 full price for the medication that should have only cost me $ 5. When I questioned the price, I got an eye roll and a «that’s the price», like I was trying to haggle with her or something. When I called up again to question this, I was told that I was indeed charged on my old insurance policy, but that was my fault because I hadn’t asked for the right thing at the time.
Life is too short for this kind of aggravation. The pharmacy tech will no doubt be pleased to know that she now has one less customer to deal with.

Good prices, but rude pharmacist. I’d rather go to another part of town or Fred Meyers. I’ve noticed this poor treatment several times since the store opened.

I bought a doughnut from this location last night. It was a cream filled chocolate glazed doughnut. I left the store at 7:30pm, and couldn’t wait to get come and eat it, so half way into my trip back I bit into it. This doughnut was not eatable. I spit out the contents in my mouth back into the bag, and could not believe the taste that was in my mouth. I would watch out with these baked goods in the glass case. It would be nice if Safeway put out a list of time these batches of doughnuts came out, so I am not eating something that could have been in the case for a extended amount of hours. Like I said it was horrid. Killed my night.

This Safeway frustrates me so. Easy to get in and out of (unlike some Fred Meyers and most New Seasons). Friendly employees. GREAT pharmacy. But the produce, bakery, and deli are always so. .. *meh*. And how can a store be so big and yet seem to lack so many of the basics usually on my shopping list? I still go to this Safeway often, but every time, kinda wish I hadn’t.

The store is always clean and have the friendliest staff. All of my medication needs have been taken care of by the Pharmacy department who are all amazing and nice. From the Pharmacist to the technicians. I have not experience what other Unilocalers have, sorry but not sorry! I’ve been coming to this Safeway back when it was old and run down, and I can say the service is even better than it use to be and they were great before. My son and I always love coming in seeing familiar faces including Erica! We love her!!!
PS if you don’t like this Safeway, feel free to shop at the nasty one on Powell with the long lines!

This is the best Safeway I have ever been too. It is well organized, the staff are really nice and friendly, and it is so blissfully quiet. While I often prefer the products at New Seasons and there are some things missing from this store (like israeli cous cous and orzo), the shopping experience at this Safeway is soooooo much more peaceful.

This Safeway was huge! Underground parking and escalators to the top floor for shopping. This was my first Safeway in years after moving down to southern California. We get Vons, Albertsons and Ralphs there. We came here after our trip around downtown Portland to shop for some camping necessities after our stay in Portland. The store here is pretty huge. Nice and clean with standard groceries, produce and options. We didn’t get much else except basic produce and spices. They seemed fresh here. No major complaints. We decided to use the self check-​out machines and there was a wonderful woman helping us there. I think she was transitioning and she had a pretty smile and humor. She was nice enough to help us out with our check out. Other than that it’s a good supermarket to get quick produce and be on your way. This was a lifesaver for our camping trip.

This store is everything that I love about Portland perfectly displayed in it’s eclectic and helpful staff. Sam and Deena up front are fantastic and wonderfully efficient, James in meat/​seafood is always singing a jolly tune while catering to my sometimes picky needs, there is always someone available to help me find something in produce. I love that this is my neighborhood grocery store for the incredible employees. (Oh, and the store itself is easy follow and comfortable.)

Decided to have my Adderall prescription filled at this Safeway for the first time this weekend. So I stopped by, gave the pharmacy tech (a blond girl with a nasty disposition) the hard-​copy of my prescription. She glanced at my ID and insurance card and told me to come back in 20 min. Cool, right? Just your everyday trip to the pharmacy. Nothin to see here…
So I come back in 20 minutes and a different pharmacy tech (a young guy) asks for my last name, grabs the prescription and rings me up. I pay my co-​pay, sign the waiver of counseling thing and I’m on my way. No problem here EXCEPT THAT ADDERALL IS A SCHEDULE II CONTROLLED SUBSTANCE!
The pharmacy tech that rang me up totally didn’t even ask for ID! He handed me the prescription and sent me on my way! Although, I can’t necessarily place all the blame on him, the pharmacist was standing right behind him and saw the whole thing happen. Hey Safeway pharmacy… read the label: its dextroAMPHETAMINE! #safewaysucks

I like this Safeway above all others because, even after the remodel (and that old one was hiiiiiiiiiideous), this store has remained quiet. Fred Meyer? Insane. New Seasons? Basket crashing injuries. Hawthorne Safeway? Beautifully quiet. They never have much checkout staff, and I hate the stingy little parking lot, but you can get great «Manager’s Special» sale prices here you don’t see as much of at the other stores. This is the Safeway of Convenience.

Another awful review for this pharmacy. Rude Rude Rude incompetent staff who are beyond unhelpful. Will no longer fill my prescriptions with them

Erica is awesome as is the older gentleman that works the self checkout. I love this safeway

This rating is specifically for the pharmacy. They ALWAYS seem short staffed and stressed out. Because this is the closest pharmacy to where I live I’ve gone here 3 times for a flu shot. They often run out of the shot. A rediculously long wait has always been par for the course. This last time they made me make an appointment for 4 days out. Gesh, I could get a doctors appointment sooner. The staff is reasonably polite but like I said, always stressed out. An annoying place to get a flu shot for sure.

This Safeway is not in my neighborhood, but it is on my way home from work. Sometimes I stop by for the night’s dinner and when I do, I end up with things that weren’t on my list because I don’t mind browsing a little here.
You go to Safeway to get the usual suspects; There is no real focus on local and nothing you can get here that you can’t get elsewhere, but as far as Portland Safeways go, this one is preferred.
The produce selection is much, much better than other Safeway locations and the staff are always very nice and chatty, I like them tons.
It’s still not my first choice for the meat selection, but they’ve got the basics. Including extra cashiers if necessary and parking. Love the underground parking lot.

Safeway is such a funny place. Their store generally carries brands and products that I don’t use, however, they are a block away and it’s convenient to go there for toilet paper, organic stuff, beer, wine and occasionally some kind of mediocre breakfast cake for a work event. I use my club card for the discounts and it must generate such a funny shopper profile for those marketers analyzing my shopping data. I’m sure they’re judging the amount of beer and wine I buy.
I’m also holding a grudge about Safeway, too, from the summer before last when they were building this new enhanced «Lifestyle» format. The construction was so annoying, literally doomsday death machines vibrated my windows all day long. It was such an obnoxious project and it seemed to take forever. The construction people would park their stupid vehicles by my apartment because they ran out of room in that entire block they were capitalizing on – not to mention having a block of SE 27^th closed for an uncalled for amount of time. When the project was completed, this behemoth additional 20,000 square feet space of a grocery mecca literally blocked the sun from shining on my apartment. It’s not like they use all that space. There’s just stupidly high ceilings and empty guard tower looking things.
I would have given this store only one star, but the reason I gave two is what keeps me coming back: the staff. Erika for one is awesome! There’s the clerks that work the self-​check out spaces and they’re all great. The Starbucks guy is nice too, the manager is always friendly and i don’t hear any of the supervisors treating the staff badly. Everyone smiles and I feel that over the years I’ve been in this neighborhood I’m getting to know these people.
To summarize, if you like processed, mainstream proctor gamble bovine growth hormone GMO stuff, this store would be a 4 or 5 star. If you’re like me, you can get a limited amount of basics for survival plus a nice choice of beer or wine.

They only ever have two registers open, and there’s no self check-​out. It’s fine if you don’t go between 5−7pm on the weekdays usually. The Starbucks isn’t that great either.
However I do love every other Safeway, but this location is A-​OK. The staff are friendly, they just need more checkers. There are homeless people outside usually at all hours, just ignore them and you’ll be fine.
If you’re looking for a place to go grocery shopping in the area, I would suggest Fred Meyer if you can make it to 33^rd and Broadway.