Safeway

Downtown Sacramento doesn’t have any full-​scale grocery stores. If you are looking for groceries in the area, your options are limited to Rite Aid and 7-​Eleven. The former of which closes relatively early in the area. The nearest grocery stores to this area are in Midtown. There is a Grocery Outlet on 17^th & Capitol and this Safeway on 19^th Street near the 16^th Street Light Rail Station.
This Safeway is part of a retail complex which also has a Panda Express and Peet’s Coffee & Tea. The interior of this Safeway is quite nice with high ceilings. The produce section is large and they have a fancy layout in their health products area in the middle of the store.
The grocery selection is average, but I like that they have local California products that I haven’t seen in any of the Seattle area Safeway stores. Came here to grab a few items to bring back to the hostel I was staying at. Found what I was looking for, but I did think that the yogurt section at this store was lacking. Only could find a few options. Maybe there was a larger section that I didn’t see?
As for checking out, the process was fine. They have self checkouts here if you prefer to do this process on your own. For tourists, know that Sacramento has enacted a plastic bag ban earlier this month so you will need to bring your own bag to the store or pay 10 cents for a paper bag.
Overall, found this Safeway to be convenient to pick up grocery items while staying in downtown Sacramento as it is close to Light Rail.

After living in Sacramento for over 30 years and shopping all over the place from the most expensive to the cheapest grocery stores, this 19^th Street Safeway has got to be the best of the best. Their produce is 1^st rate. It’s the largest I’ve ever seen in a public normal store. They ranges from papaya to mint leaves to kale to sweet Young coconut to basil leaves. It’s crazy the wide varieties and selection of the produce.
I’m an Omega juicer and Vitamix blender, so I only shop at the produce section and nowhere else. I am definitely happy. And after awhile, you get to know the workers, such as Tina, Simon, Lisa, Larry, and so forth.
I have no complaints about this store. They got me on the produce! Life in your food, life in your body.
If this store burns down or shuts down for some reason, I would cry and go back to shopping the Asian markets in South Sacramento, which I hate so much because it’s so ghetto but cheap as hell!

I love this store because there are some good deals especially with produce and meat. The best thing is that this store is open 24 hours. For me, the best time to shop is early Sunday morning. They are replenishing all shelves and if you want some help, there are so many employees around. The best thing is that there are not a lot shoppers here at this time of day or the entire week. Plentiful parking, aisles wide open and it’s quiet on an early Sunday morning. I feel like I can get in and out quickly with the rest of the world sleeping in. Safeway is a good store just beware of synchronizing your app so it’s up-​to — date before you go to checkout. And Safeway is somewhat sneaky (in my opinion) with their prices so watch what you buy and be sure to check your receipt so you saved some money. Also, they have new carts which is nice.

This Safeway is ALWAYS super busy. Try to avoid going between five and six. It’s really jammed packed them! The parking lot is small and chaotic. But the inside of the store is always clean and fully stocked.

Wife and I come here from time to time since it is one of the closest grocery stores so that’s a big plus. Love when we find great deals and save on food when we can. Last couple times were a little challenging finding what we needed instantly. But the staff is always readily helpful to assist. Overall good experience 4 out of 5 for midtown’s Safeway.

Absolutely no parking at this ill designed parking lot from 5 to 6 p.m. word to those who don’t want to drive there and come away with nothing. Go to Wal-​Mart target or another market from 5 to 6.
Really disappointed that I went at 538 and no parking whatsoever. Never been to a market where you couldn’t at least park far
You’ll at least have the same problem with panda and Verizon.

While we were in the neighborhood eating Ramen nearby, I remember this Safeway from 2009 because of the horse.
Yes, the lovely, silver, gleaming, impressive, artistic, masculine-​looking horse sculpture. It’s quite a sight to admire.
I think it has hypnotic powers because it had me in a trance.
This horse is magnificent.
The people working here not so much.
You gotta check out the horse.

Not The Grocery Store «Full of Savings» It Once Used To Be
SITREP
I still like Safeway — and I will continue to shop here — but I am getting more and more disappointed as the deals & savings they once promoted as incentives to get people (and me) to step into their stores are no longer evident.
THE SETUP
Whether meats, chips, breads, soups, Italian foods, fresh produce, frozens, etc. etc., there has been a significant diminishment in all category of food & grocery products in both the savings & incentives that kept me picking up items here (as opposed to Trader Joes, Bel Air, Nugget, etc.).
= Deals they once had, such as the select Chicken pieces & sides combinations for $ 9.99 was a sure way to get me into the door on a hungry evening. They don’t have it any more.
= And hey, if you want me to get fresh produce here, you better start charging less than the MULTIPLE farmer’s markets that are every day of the week throughout Sacramento County and a better deal, and no doubt fresher quality.
So I am far less likely on whim to pop by the store. But it doesn’t end there, and in fact gets worse…
FOCACCIA BREAD
The Safeway Bakery actually has had an excellent output of bread-​products the last few years. And not only breads, but also I’ve picked up cakes for special occasions. Even sometimes just stopping for their garlic bread or for one of my favorite loafs: the Olive Cheese Focaccia bread.
So imagine my profound disappointment stopping by yesterday to find out that not only has the price of the Focaccia bread jumped up from $ 3.49 to $ 3.99 a loaf, but that the bread is no longer the classic rectangular loaf, but is half the size/​ounces, and is smashed into a cheap silver pie pan:
* More expensive
* Lower Quality
* Less than half the size it once was.
Talk about a TRIPLE FAIL.
Multiply this disappointment in other examples, again, in other food & product categories I’ve seen. But it’s not just the products themselves.
SMARTPHONE IRRITATION
Safeway promotes a smartphone application as a efficient mechanism & a means to promote customer loyalty. Part of this entails the tracking of earned rewards based on continuous buying, shopper habits, and category deals most likely to interest the shopper.
But if you have a system that doesn’t do an accurate accounting of the points and rewards for the customer, and in fact loses the vast majority of them, then you are practicing advertising under false pretenses.
«Hey Safeway, why isn’t my actual spending, my savings, my rewards, etc. etc. actually reflected on my Safeway smartphone application dashboard these last 4 months?»
END RESULT
This is extremely irritating and does NOT promote «customer loyalty». I’m just as likely now to pick up the majority of items from cobbling trips to Trader Joes, Grocery Outlet and Costco now since Safeway has really been a disappointment of late. Ce la vie…
THE LOWDOWN
There are still some deals to find here: you can’t go wrong on soups & soda from time to time; and once in a while, a 2−4−1 frozen special will catch my attention; and my cats are very happy with the Friskies selection here, though I get disoriented when the label is upside down on the bag:
But the deals are just not once they used to be, and so my patronage is not what it used to be to this store either.

This Safeway is definitely bigger than the other Safeway on Alhambra. There’s more space to move around inside and I don’t feel so cramped :) The store is clean and organized. Easy to find what you need. But parking is another struggle… parking lot is shared with Peet’s Coffee, Wells Fargo, Ryujin Ramen, and whatever else is nearby — spots are super tight and I always have to becareful when I open car door :(There’s a few 1hr side street parking too. Overall, Safeway can be expensive, but I usually check their ads before I come :)

Open 24 Hours. Let that sink in. SO HELPFUL. I don’t know how many times that has come in handy since I moved to midtown.
My only wish is that they had more dang bicycle parking in plain sight. My bike is my baby and I don’t want to tuck him away in a forgotten corner by the street, far from the entrance to the store. Argh! Also, regular parking. Forget about it unless it’s an ungodly hour. AND if you park in the small lot by the ice blocks development, because the regular lot is, as usual, full, don’t plan on being able to get your cart filled with yo stuff back to yo car. The carts lock up as soon as you leave Safeway property, probably as a deterrent for those would steal them. It caught me off guard recently and I nearly got hit by a truck. Awesome, Safeway.
I digress, this is a good solid Safeway with a convenient location in midtown. It IS safer than the stories say. There are usually security people around looking busy. It’s pretty much a one stop shop, and the folks that work here actually have souls; they are super helpful and chipper all the time. Very clean and kept well stocked.

I have a Safeway card, this literally saves you so much money. It is quick and easy to get. Customer service is great.