Safeway

I live in the palisades and go to this Safeway all the time. No it’s not whole foods but the staff are all really really nice and helpful. The food selection is great for such a small grocery store. Very easy to get in and out quickly. Produce is usually excellent. Also they have an amazing wine selection with great prices. And every once in a while a super-​duper sale in wines with discounts at 75%.

It’s a fairly typical Safeway, but unfortunately due to zoning restrictions, it’s a very small Safeway. It often lacks the products I am looking for. Also, much of the fruit is not kept in the refrigerator, so it ends up going bad much sooner than it should. The grocery store is wildly understaffed, though the few employees I have interacted with have been helpful. The Starbucks inside is a nice touch. Between the small selection and poor produce, however, I prefer to drive farther away to go to a better grocery store.

The produce is not very good here, in fact seems like it’s been out for a few days. Also really small and not much selection. Fairly good wine choices.

This Safeway needs to be updated. I hope the owners proceed with their plans, because this area needs it! The selection of produce is pretty bad. They could also use some new staff members. The ladies at the checkout and everyone at the Starbucks is nice, but those working in the deli are awful. They act like you are interrupting and inconveniencing them if you ask for something in the deli area. There is one disgusting woman in particular that has a really sour attitude. Sorry I’m asking for your assistance, but that is your job! If you’re that miserable, find another place to work, if you can. With an attitude like that, good luck sweetie.

Just awful
It’s dark
Zero helpful employees
I went to check out and only two aisles were open and one was express and this was at 3 pm on a Saturday !
The non express cashier was terribly slow and after 10 minutes I simply left my full cart
What really irritated me was none of the employees seemed to care about the long lines
Never again!

I just got hassled and harassed by management for being alongside my younger brother when he purchased beer. They rudely requested a second form of ID from me, which, as a member of the service industry I can kind of understand. He interrupted me several times while I spoke to the teller, told me loudly and severely that ‘this was what was required by law’ (it’s not, it’s a tool used based on the judgement of the teller at the time of purchase, and is meant to prevent underaged sale). When I walked the two blocks home to pick up my license, I was forced to wait through line again as he smirked in the corner. Upon getting to check out, the store manager came by to ‘let me know the law’ (be rude and abrasive again). I understand the importance of preventing underaged drinking, but as a 30 year old male, this is tedious, exhausting, and fruitless. Where I have worked, an emphasis on customer service should always be present regardless of the interaction occurring. I found this unprofessional, I did not require raised voices or a lecture. Safeway just lost a 10+ year local customer.

It takes a lot to motivate me to write a review, particularly about something so mundane as a grocery store. I mean, who checks Unilocal to check out a grocery store?
But this Safeway is just awful. I live less than a half mile from the store. I will drive miles out of my way to shop elsewhere.
I haven’t been a fan of this store for a while, but the final nail was las night. I saw a mouse scamper across an aisle. I know grocery stores are rodent Meccas, but when your mouse problem is so bad that you see them in the aisles, I can’t imagine what it is like in the back.
Other reviewers have hit on other problems with the store. Awful selection. Frequently out of stock on many items. Meat department and produce are both tiny and poor quality. Store is filthy. For some reason, self checkout lines frequently closed. Prices inexplicably high.
It’s a shame. Nice neighborhood with no decent grocery store.

Surprisingly small and mediocre grocery store, given what a ritzy neighborhood it’s in. Not a bad place or bad service, just so small that it’s more of a big drug store. And there’s a CVS next door.

I can only imagine how much work it must take to make a grocery store so horrible from top to bottom. It’s like management and corporate got together and agreed on a checklist of things to ensure the worst possible service.
If that was the goal, they are a blistering success. On the checklist are highlights like:
1. Truly apathetic employees
Waited at the seafood counter for about 2 mins. Wasn’t noticed. Asked for help, dude was paged, 2 more minutes go by. I say, «Well, I guess I’ll just have to deal without shrimp» and the woman was like, «I guess so.» Someone from bakery came by and helped me in the end. When I had a question, the meat department guy (who didn’t hear the page because he had his earbuds in) begrudgingly offered his opinion before skulking off.
Yes. He skulked.
Other employees were having a grand old time talking (and swearing! classy!) while the self checkouts needed help and the checker lines were eaking along at 3 MPH.
2. Limited selection.
Don’t do your big shopping trip here. They don’t have the detail stuff. Some of the produce looks okay, much of it looks tired, especially staples like celery, carrots and lettuce. Tiny store, not much to see here.
3. Other employees that were actively rude.
One woman kept walking in my path because she was returning items to the shelves and responding to a checker asking for a price. I had to keep stepping aside and she had no problem with it. Clearly, the store is her space and I am an intrusion in it. I felt unwelcome and in the way.
4. Sloping parking lot of death.
Dare to park in the tilty lot, and your cart will slide down the steep grade and you’ll never see your slightly too old celery and flat leaf parsley again. Probably for the best.
5. Prices are nothing to write home about, sales don’t register.
Yogurts were 35% higher than Target and Giant.
Milk was 10% higher than Whole Foods.
Lemons and Limes were 20% higher than Whole Foods.
Triscuits and Wheat thins were on sale and still 15% higher than Target’s regular price.
I bought several items on promotion and the register didn’t catch them. Or the promotion signs were wrong. Alas.
I live less than a mile from here and don’t plan on ever coming back unless it’s an emergency. Just awful. Working at a grocery store doesn’t have to be drudgery. I see these people and wonder what kind of management style contributes to so much unhappiness.

Old school Safeway without the charm. Unless you really have to, you should head to Social Safeway on Wisconsin.

AWFUL! TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE!
Although this is my local «neighborhood» grocery, I will be making the trip to another store… any other store. I have been putting up with the substandard selection, dirty aisles, and frustrating layout for too long. Today’s experience at the checkout (nasty teller, who refused to give me her name when I asked for it to talk to the manager) was the last straw. I will tell my friends and NEVER GO BACK!

This is the closest grocery store to me, but I will never go there again. The employees don’t speak to you, refuse to acknowledge you, will not assist you with self check out when approvals are needed, and stand around talking instead of working. The food is spoiled and aisles are dirty.

Maybe I went at an off-​time (although generally 6:30 on a weeknight is when stores are the most crowded), but I thought this Safeway was great. Of course it’s small, but there were a million friendly helpful employees around, everything was in stock, and lines were reasonable. It’s clearly been re-​done at some point in the recent past.

I absolutely could not find anything in this store. No one was available to help me either. What an awful experience. No soy sauce (out of stock), no rice noodles (a staple in all grocery stores small, yet menial international foods areas). I’m so angry I don’t even know what more to write. Boo, Safeway.

Never never never never NEVER going back, and you can’t make me.
I should’ve known when I pulled into the parking lot behind the self-​entitled jackasses who block the entire aisle to wait for a spot even though none is opening up right now… but they just sit and act like that’s ok. Then when you get a spot, you see more of these scum suckers parking under the «Safeway customers only» signs and walking in the opposite direction of Safeway noses high in the air.
That was my first clue — but that’s not Safeway’s fault, so I kept walking… into a store so cramped and crowded (I was the only customer in the store at the time) that I had to abandon my cart at the end of the aisle… or wait — no I had to do that because the two employees who were chatting about their personal lives and doing absolutely nothing wouldn’t move their oversized butts enough to accommodate a normal sized customer with a cart.
Let’s skip to the end… The end being some genius’ idea to eliminate the conveyer belt system and go all Trader Joe’s on my ass where I get to hand each item individually to the cashier one by one, which he scans then bags, then hands me back the bag to put back into the cart… (He can’t even put it in the cart??) This only after I interrupted his very important personal conversation with another overpaid employee who is also clearly doing nothing. Between all of these wonderful folks, no one offered to help me get my bags to my car, which was parked in Nova Scotia. I would’ve refused, but the offer would’ve earned them 2 stars.
Almost forgot — as I left, I drove my cart in a straight line from the cashiers to the door — which promptly opened towards me, trapping my cart between itself and that ridiculous metal handrail. Cherry on the cake.

This Safeway is very limited in what it offers because of its size, but the people who work here are remarkably nice! Anytime I am visiting the Georgetown area, I stop here before I zip back across Chain Bridge. This Safeway is a genuine community hub for its Glen Echo and Georgetown University neighbors.
It’s the attitude of the employees that has kept me coming back. Naturally, they have the usual fresh fruit and vegetables, a hot lunch bar and a sandwich counter, fresh fish and a good supply of canned and packaged foods. Paper goods are limited, but beverages and dairy items are available. I particularly like their check-​out counters, kinda short counters that work perfectly well, especially for small orders.

If you need the basics and aren’t looking for a lot of variety this is the safeway for you. It’s definitely small and you might not find what you are looking for. It’s better than nothing I guess.