Safeway Reviews

Pros

There was a good work/life balance

Cons

Inflexible culture - hard to change and get new ideas adopted

Advice to Senior Management

none

Pros

Here's the deal. It's not a bad job, ideally. You'll make sandwiches for customers at a little Subway-esque sandwich area. You'll fry and bake chicken, onion rings, french fries, etc. for another section of the deli full of hot foods. You'll serve cold salads. You'll slice meat and cheeses. There are basically four sections at the store I work at: The sandwich section, the hot foods section, the cold foods section, and the meat area. Four parts of the deli, none of which are difficult or overly tasking on their own. And therein lies the "pro". None of the work is very difficult on its own, and you're even making a little more than minimum wage, which is nice.

Cons

Now, the cons. This depends almost entirely on which branch you're working in. At mine, our manager was completely inept; she had no idea how to do her job correctly, so we were out of inventory all of the time and we were often understaffed. You recall when I mentioned four sections of the deli department, yes? Each of those sections draws its own crowd, and with that crowd comes a line. So picture four sections, each with lines of about two or three customers. And to combat those 8-12 customers are you ... and one other employee. Yes, that's right. Two people. For a department consisting of four sections. So you're both running around with your heads cut off, trying to help as many people as possible and being yelled at every time some customer who's just waited 30 minutes in line finds out that you don't even HAVE what he wants because your inept manager didn't order it even though you've been out of stock for a week, and somehow, throughout it all, you're ALSO expected to make pre-made salads and pre-made sandwiches to be sold on the sales floor. Yes, that's right. You're expected to create inventory AND do customer service. And you're understaffed the entire time.

I met one employee who said that the situation at his previous branch was even worse; he was the ONLY person in the entire department, and he had to help as many as 16 customers all by himself, while making sandwiches and other inventory for the next day. It's -ridiculous- how overworked we are. This place needs at least five people to run smoothly, but they never want to staff more than three. Utterly ridiculous. You'll be doing everything by yourself, and you'll be expected to just grin and bear it.

Don't get me wrong, either. I love this job on those rare days where we have enough people. On those days, it's the best job ever. But that -never happens- anymore. And it's only worse at other branches, apparently. Please consider this when, upon speaking to a hiring manager, they ask if you would like to work in the deli department. They're not asking because they think you would be cut out for the job; they're asking because our employees are so overworked that they usually quit or venture to another department altogether. We cannot keep people here, because we're so overworked.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire. More. People.

I've said it dozens of times, but you never listen. Never. You're just content to watch the place burn, and you take pictures with your company smartphones as it does. I'm sick of it. Either hire more people, or put more people on staff at a time -- just do something. And for the love of god, evaluate your deli manager every once in a while; instead of following US around all day to make sure WE'RE doing OUR jobs correctly, why don't you evaluate HIS performance? He leaves in the middle of the day, for god's sake; the department is basically without a manager for NINE HOURS. The schedule, which HE WRITES, always leaves just one or two people in the entire department. Even the cramped little Starbucks kiosk has more people than that, and it's 1/12th the size of the deli department. Evaluate the manager who lets this happen.

I mean, really. You can't understaff us to the point where we can't even get inventory out or refill our hot food case with fried chicken, and then complain TO US, YOUR UNDERSTAFFED WORKERS, when there isn't any inventory coming out of the deli.

And the real kicker is when you -cut- our hours and eliminate even more people from an already stripped workforce, under the pretense that our department isn't getting enough sales. Want to know why people aren't buying anything from our department? I'll tell you right now: they're sick of waiting 20 minutes while an understaffed group struggles to help everyone at once, and there's never any inventory for them to purchase because that same understaffed group hasn't had time to MAKE any inventory. It's a downward spiral that I noticed within two months of working here. You're MANAGERS; how can you not see this? Ugh, I swear to god...

Pros

The relationships I built with the customers, who are the one responsible for our jobs,

Cons

Unfair way management will throw you under the bus for something that they made a mistake on. and no one in upper management will listen to anything you have to say...

Advice to Senior Management

Look at the managers at store level and listen to the employee who work for them., if store moral is bad beyond belief. then something is really wrong.

Pros

Health Insurance for part timers

Cons

Low pay, deli disorganized, hire underqualified people

Advice to Senior Management

hire better people and pay more

Pros

Need employment and trying to find a company in which you can start from a low level and advance as far as your willing to work.

Cons

Takes up a lot of your time in comparison to the amount of money that was paid to the employee.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the employees and offer constructive criticism as needed to floaters because going to different stores we didn't have anyone to really help.

Pros

flexable hours,benifits, easy work,chance for advancement

Cons

never told of job well done

Advice to Senior Management

be honest

Pros

Safeway is a steady company that rarely lays off employees. The work life balance is acceptable and there is general support for talented individuals who want to move around the organization.

Cons

Compensation is well below the industry average and many talented employees leave for suppliers. The old fashioned management is and those who are less than stellar performers are left over. Within Corporate Brands specifically, innovators are quickly beaten down and leave within three years causing major reorganization and confusion within the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Top leaders need to embrace education and innovation as opposed to focusing on unattainable year over year growth goals which leave little room for strategic changes. Management cannot continue to gouge their employees via increased benefit cost and reduced bonus potential.

Pros

Interaction with customers.
10 Percent corporate brands discount on grocery purchases.

Cons

Promised enough hours to qualify for benefits. Constantly kept just under the required amount of hours each week.
Pressure to purchase all groceries at Safeway.
Club Card tracking.

Advice to Senior Management

Give your people full time work instead of having several part time employees that you don't have to provide benefits for. You would be amazed at the loyalty you would gain.

Pros

under worked and over paid when working in the Portland Division.

Cons

transfered to Norcal and lost all seniority rate of pay and vacation, 2 yrs and now considered a new hire.

Advice to Senior Management

don't expect us to do $5fridays with less hourse, its hard enought getting our jobs done as it is.

Pros

The benefits through the union are the best reason to work at Safeway. The good employee's far outway the bad.

Cons

Management, both store level and up, is hit and miss. Some know what they're doing and others you can run circles around. Corporate has the stores operate in an ideal scenario rather then what the world is actually like. Everyone is overworked and unde rappreciated, yet expected to work with reduced hours.