Wherein I encounter a nearly empty Safeway

[Eric the Grey]

Just a bit of a rant...

Wednesday, I went to the store to get the makings for Jambalaya. After getting nearly everything I needed except for the shrimp, and heading back to the meat department to see if they were back, I discover still, nobody there. I had already been buy here three times, and nobody was present any of the times.

Now, it wasn't late, only a little after 6pm, and the lights were all on, so in theory, there should have been someone around. I pushed the little buzzer button and waited a few minutes, and still no appearance was made.

So I wandered up to the front of the store to see if it would be possible to page someone. I reached the service desk and there was a sign on the counter saying "Sorry, Customer Service is Closed, sorry for the inconvenience."

Ok, seriously, WTF?

I looked around to see if anyone was around, and see one solitary person working checkout (in an express lane), and one person helping him by bagging. Dumbfounded, I walked back the way I came, towards the meat department again, and see the line he's working on, stretching the length of the checkout space.

Seriously, WTF? At this point, I'm pissed. I mean really where is everybody? I made a circuit of the store and noted not one other employee, not in any of the other departments.

So I put back the cold stuff I had picked up, back where they belonged and pushed my cart back to the service desk and left it there and walked out. The sad part is the Kroger store across the street didn't have the small shrimp I wanted, so I had to settle for larger ones.

So seriously, did Safeway suffer a mass walkout in Colorado or something that I didn't hear about? I haven't been back in there since, and I'm considering not going back. Between the lack of people on this trip, their procedure of placing the hand baskets upside-down so you cannot grab the handles to get one, and the fact that some of the stores seem to insist on having multiple express lanes open with no regular lanes at all, they seem to be going out of their way to annoy me.



Eric the Grey

[Can I Help Your A$$?]

I know where everybody is.

Home.

It's the recession. Everyone's hours are being cut to the ridiculous. AT my store, there's maybe 2 people on the salesfloor. There's nobody on the salesfloor 'til 11 am. They make cashiers do projects now. I think that corporate has been reading too much Harry Potter.

[Broomjockey]

Geez. One person for the whole store? I'd almost think that either it was an emergency staff meeting, or they really did have a mass walkout. You just can't run a grocery store with one employee.

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

I myself am thinking that those two people were the only ones scheduled because that's all the payroll they had for that night. Or there may have been a few other people scheduled, but there were callouts.

Wednesday nights aren't exactly the busiest nights for shopping.

I just wonder why there wouldn't be anybody at the meat counter if it was still open.

[Mr Hero]

I didn't know there was even a Kroger in Colorado.

[Bella_Vixen]

Becks and I just screwed ourselves royally.

On Sunday night, we managed to work and keep things running relatively smoothly, despite being the only two cashiers from 5-10 PM and despite not having a bagger after 6.

A big FUCK YOU to the night manager in training.

[Skrae]

I didn't know there was even a Kroger in Colorado.

King Soopers and City Market are Kroger stores. I can actually think of two within walking distance of my apartment (I live in the decent part of Aurora)

[MrWags]

Safeway is cutting back on payroll big time. It is not uncommon to see maybe 2 cashiers/baggers and a manager in a store. A real pain in the a$$ when I have to pry one of them away to make deliveries at night.

[Anakah]

It has to be the economy. My casino is working skeleton crew too. It sucks.

[Mr Hero]

King Soopers and City Market are Kroger stores. I can actually think of two within walking distance of my apartment (I live in the decent part of Aurora)

Aurora resident here. I haven't heard of City Market, but I do all my shopping at King Soopers. Nothing else is nearby unless I take a bus. I don't consider myself in the "bad" part of Aurora, though I did get robbed 3 months ago just up the street from my house. No more late night King Sooper runs for me. I think I have an idea where you're from since my parents used to live in that part before they sold their house.

You'll need to IM me so we don't go too far off topic here.

[Eric the Grey]

I didn't know there was even a Kroger in Colorado.

King Soopers and City Market are Kroger stores. I can actually think of two within walking distance of my apartment (I live in the decent part of Aurora)

Yup. I used Kroger mainly because I figured more people would be familiar with the name than King Soupers.

Safeway is cutting back on payroll big time. It is not uncommon to see maybe 2 cashiers/baggers and a manager in a store. A real pain in the a$$ when I have to pry one of them away to make deliveries at night.

Yea, that's the impression I got from the manager at this Safeway. I not only got a response via email from them, but an actual phone call and a $10 gift card. Trouble is, while I waited at the CS desk to talk to him, I watched the two lanes in operation, both express, process customers with full cart-loads of groceries. I told him politely that I would not be shopping there tonight because I only needed a couple of items and had to get to work, and didn't have time to wait in these lines. I suggested he take that back to corporate.

I do feel for him as well. It's not his fault the corp cuts back on hours. The corp needs to know how much of an inconvenience this is to their customers. I fully plan to follow-up on my letter. At least I will once I can put it in such a way that they don't take it out on the staff.



Eric the Grey

[DerangedHermit]

I am so glad the supermarket I work for isn't that bad with staffing. Usually, three people are on the front end until midnight (two cashiers and a CDH/head cashier). And most departments are staffed until 10 PM (except Pharmacy, Starbucks and sometimes Floral).

The other supermarket companies in my area are usually much worse with staffing employees. Waldbaums (which others may know better as A&P) almost always seems like there's only two people working on the FE, even at busy times, and Pathmark...well, it's Pathmark.