20215 Wed Jun 12 16:42:54 -0700 2002 19 1 San Francisco Bay Area 0 69471 Today Safeway's stocks went down very sharply. What can the company do to improve? Personally, I feel none of its customers is ever happy about waiting in a long time to give "big" money to the company. If I am worth $120 per hour and wait for 15 minutes, it is like losing $30. Wed Jun 12 16:42:54 -0700 2002 0 Hiko Ikeda 1 69475 I think they're like Lily Tomlin's idea of the Phone Company - "We're the Phone Company. We don't have to care!" The only reason we shop there is because they are near where we live. We could shop at Bell Market (which is now owned by Ralph's) and pay even more. I believe Safeway (and all the big grocery chains for that matter) know this and don't really concern themselves too much in the way of customer concerns. I think they try to make a big, public deal about it but it's lipservice. Everyone knows the Safeway employees are required to smile and ask you if you need help in finding something or ask you if you need help out. But my question would be: Is forced friendliness and coerced smiles really adding to the customer experience? Especially, in light of the fact that most shoppers know this? I'd also add that the same questions could be made of banks or gas stations but that would make this post longer than it already is and take us seriously off topic. Wed Jun 12 17:01:14 -0700 2002 69471 0 Erik 2 69501 In general, ladies in Asian grocery stores are more friendly, I think, and can process our purchase far more quickly. Wed Jun 12 21:03:18 -0700 2002 69475 0 Hiko Ikeda 1 69480 I quite like the Safeway near my house (corner of Bay and Powell). No matter which supermarket you go there bound to be some lines, it depends on what time of day you shop I think. I think their prices are fair, and service is decent too. Granted their offerings might not be as great Whole Foods or as cheap as Chinatown, but they are close to where I live. I admit I go there for convenience. But I don't see why something is automatically bad because it's a large company. Wed Jun 12 18:05:37 -0700 2002 69471 0 Wendy Lai 1 69491 NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER use their online grocery. They are NO WEBVAN. It took me THREE DAYS to get my order. My original order was Friday at 6. I live near Bay Bridge traffic hell, so out of considaration I changed the time to a later delivery. No one came. Turned out the program changed the time and DATE. They said they were busy Saturday, so not being in a hurry, I said Sunday is fine, but it has to be before 11 am. Noon comes. No Safeway. I call. The store manager says I am their first concern. I will have my order at 12:30. One o'clock comes. No Safeway. The manager left for the day and didn't tell anyone about my order. Finally get my order at 2:30. My first order complimentary coffee and biscotti are missing. I call corporate to bitch. I say I will never order from Safeway again....on or offline. The corporate hack says, "Is there anything we can do to get your business back"? I say, "Give me my coffee and biscotti". He says "Well, we're busy. We'll try to get them to you by Wednesday". Never arrived. I no longer shop Safeway period. Wed Jun 12 19:33:07 -0700 2002 69471 0 Stanley Stephan 2 69580 Three days!!! Thu Jun 13 19:54:28 -0700 2002 69491 0 Hiko Ikeda 1 69525 Corperate grocery chains are laughable... They do nothing to make their employees proud or pleased to be there. They spend vast amounts of time and energy trying to convince you that contrived customer service is a good thing. I am good at what I do because I realized that I was woefully undertrained. I didn't know enough about my product to be qualified to sell it to the public. I took charge of my own education. I used my own time and resources. Because of this I am able to serve my customers well. You want a great example of how screwed up and clueless corperate grocery is? My assistant manager did my yearly evaluation about a month ago. She rated me below average in performance (said I was "slow") and custumor service. 2 weeks ago our district manager came in and congratulated me for being "the fastest checker in the county" and getting "2 more 100% CSS (our customer service rankings) reports. The people involved are too interested in politics to care about the customer. They want to impress their superiors, not you the customer. Pretty shortsighted. Chow!!! Thu Jun 13 04:58:03 -0700 2002 69471 0 Brandon Nelson 1 69532 Safeway stock went down sharply because Safeway missed it's 2nd Quarter earnings mark and it's 2002 profit estimates. According to today's issue of Investor's Business Daily, Safeway cited the weak economy, more customers buying from discounters such as Wal-Mart and troubles with it's efforts to centralize purchasing and merchandising. Albertson fell 5% on a downgrade by Merrill Lynch, and Kroger fell 6%, although Kroger may bounce back today since it reported that it will beat it's 1st Quarter earnings after the close of the market yesterday. The grocery business is a tough one with razor thin profit margins. As a publicly held company, Safeway's first responsibility is going to be to it's shareholders, not it's customers. Shareholders are not going to be happy with a 12% decrease. Profit, or lack of it, drives the organization, not the customer. The issue is money, not service. Thu Jun 13 11:24:56 -0700 2002 69471 0 Gayla 2 69550 And there, in a nutshell, is the problem. Corporate America (not just Safeway) is fixated on pleasing the shareholder, and not only shareholders, but shareholders trading in short-term investments. They forget that to have profits you need to have a solid business with good employees and loyal customers. In the long-term, corporations that look only to please short-term investors will fail. But the execs don't care, because they already cashed in and got out. Corporate America today is selling stock, not groceries or cars or steel. That's the mentality that leads to dotcom busts and Enron. And before the topic police get me, I'm amazed at how little I shop at chain supermarkets these days. I shop at TJ's, Berkeley Bowl, farmers' markets, specialty stores, even the Walgreen's next to my office rather than make a trip to the supermarket and stand in line for dish soap. Thu Jun 13 14:34:51 -0700 2002 69532 0 Ruth Lafler 3 69556 Thank you for saying exactly what I was thinking (but probably putting it better than I would have)! And yes (keeping it on topic), I've found the same thing. I don't have Berkeley Bowl nearby (alas!), but I do have Trader Joe's, Costco, a couple of reliable produce markets nearby, Thom's for all that hippy-organic stuff, and of course a whole slew of Asian grocery stores within walking distance (although sometimes we'll drive down to 99 Ranch). About the only thing I buy at Safeway is whichever brand of canned chili (yes, it's one of my guilty pleasures) is on club card sale at the time. Oh, and Knudsen cottage cheese--Berkeley Farms and Trader Joe's aren't nearly as good. Thu Jun 13 15:15:04 -0700 2002 69550 0 Tom Hilton 3 69653 the subject of long lines is coming up a lot.....may I suggest that folks be a bit more creative about their shopping times? Even if you work 9-5, try shopping late at night - after chowing. Or early in the morning....I'm lucky enough to not work regular hours so I don't have to go when it's busy and I have an idea of when that will be. Or if I guess wrong, then I'll grab a copy of the Weekly World News and catch up on the latest Alien babies, etc. Fri Jun 14 17:46:09 -0700 2002 69550 0 gordon wing 1 69534 Four comments: 1) In my opinion, Safeway is bearable only because they have better prices on some basics, especially if you have a Safeway Club card, which is relatively hassle-less to obtain. 2) That being said, I limit my trips there to once per month because: A -- their lines are too long; B -- their forced smiles and "customer service" turn me off. Checkers are required to look at your name on the credit card and greet the customer by name (a practice which I find presumptuous). Nevertheless, I have a surname that is hard to pronounce for people who don't know French. You can't imagine how many times my name has been bastardized, or I've had to stand their waiting while the checker stared at my name and tried to figure out how to pronounce it. Why not just "thanks, have a good day"? The (moderately) low prices are not worth the long lines and the annoying customer service policies on a weekly basis. 3) If price is an issue, or you are looking for good produce and/or maybe seafood that is not in the big markets, the Outer Sunset/Richmond Chinese markets are a good bet. Parking is horrible, though. 4) If price is not an issue, and you happen to live in a convenient location, the inner Sunset Andronicos is my favorite. They have good to very good selection in most departments, and high quality -- if not low prices (actually kind of high). On average, a visit to Andronicos costs me nearly double a visit to Safeway (although this is at least partially because Andronicos carries some higher-end items that Safeway doesn't stock). Customer service is very good, without being patronizing or offensive, and the lines are fast. So if you can deal with the prices... 5) Get over yourself. Who cares what you "are worth" per hour? Are you shopping on company time? Would you be working if you weren't shopping? Get a life. OK -- back to work now. Thu Jun 13 11:29:51 -0700 2002 69471 0 marc 2 69662 For a diametrically opposed opinion of Andronico's, please see my response to the recent query about Palomino's. To reiterate, I have never had a good experience at the SF store. And my efforts to report problems have fallen on deaf ears. I have shopped sporadically at the Marina Safeway in the city for years. Lately, particularly on Monday evenings as late as 9, I've found shelves depleted of everything from cat sand to various cheese products and fewer and fewer items I used to go there for are stocked at all. The location makes it one of the pleasantest of shopping venues and it used to be the "jewel" in Safeways's "crown," but that no longer seems true. I have fallen into the habit of shopping at Cal-Mart in SF's Laurel Village, even though it's more expensive. It carries certain unique items I like and once there it's just easier to buy the other supermarket-type things, though I do the bulk of my food-shopping at Rainbow, with fill-in from Real Food (the last stores of which have now been sold, by the way). Fri Jun 14 20:07:21 -0700 2002 69534 0 Fine 1 69544 Gee guys, our Midtown Safeway here in San Jose must be the Nordstrom of Safeways. I shop early in the AM and I'm treated like royalty. One day the produce trucks were slow to arrive and there were no bananas. When the truck arrived, the produce person found me in the frozen food aisle and presented me with an armload of bananas from which to choose. The flower person lets me peek in the fridge and the butchers are most accomodating. Maybe I don't see long lines because I'm an early bird, but the produce is fresh and remarkably varied for a chain store. There are great deals on meat, and lots of paper, cleaning, household and personal products I use that I can get on the two-fers. There are also several Safeway Select products I like, including their long grain brown rice and their garlic-basil pasta sauce, which has only edible ingredients, and is a great basis for lots of things, especially when you're in a hurry. The long stem roses at $10/dozen are as reliably straight-stemmed and fresh as I can get anywhere. I still shop at the more boutique markets . . . The deli and bakery are clearly mass market and I really don't expect to find goat gouda or a fabulous selection of olives at Safeway, but on a daily basis, I'm a fan. Thu Jun 13 13:28:06 -0700 2002 69471 0 Judith Hurley 2 69562 I'm with Judith on this one (I never thought I'd find myself defending Safeway). The Safeway near my house doesn't have bad lines except on the weekends. The produce, while not as cheap or varied as my corner market, is infinitely better than the Publix (cellowrapped) and Pantry Pride of my youth, and a cut above Cala/Bell. The people seem genuinely friendly, even if they can't pronounce my name. They do also force the TJs cashiers to ask if you found what you were looking for, which they typically do with a complete lack of interest. Chains don't necessary have bad service in every store. That said, I buy cereal at Target, dairy at TJs, and produce at the corner market. I loved WebVan, especially the meats and seafood and organic produce. But generally the Safeway club specials are good buys. And besides, it's my nearest Wells Fargo ATM with a big parking lot. I'm not a fan exactly, but I can think of a lot of worse companies from a food or service point of view. Thu Jun 13 16:12:07 -0700 2002 69544 0 Windy 1 69561 A moment of brutal honesty... You are only "worth $120" an hour when someone is paying that for you. Your "value" while running your errands and living your life isn't determined by your payroll check. That is the way I was brought up. It is a social perspective that has served me very well. Chow!!! Thu Jun 13 16:08:47 -0700 2002 69471 0 Brandon Nelson 2 69563 Or to look at it another way, your time is worth not what someone would pay you to do something else, but what you would pay someone to do what you're doing so you can do something else. If your time is too valuable to stand in line, you can always hire someone to stand in line for you. If you choose not to, then you're making your own decision on the value of your time. Thu Jun 13 16:15:32 -0700 2002 69561 0 Ruth Lafler 3 69626 I always figure my time is worth $5-10 per hour. I arrives at my initial "worth" (years ago) by taking my salary and dividing by *every* hour in the year (so much less than the hourly rate). But it also makes sense. I could clip $.10 coupons from magazines and papers, and possibly save $5 in an hour. Ergo, it's not worth it. I could park at a lot five minutes further from work and save $3. That's worth it. If I were only saving $1, it would be iffy (since it's 10 mins total). It's useful to have a rule of thumb number like that so you can prove to yourself that certain wastes of money are justified. But heck, if I were worth $120/hr, I'd pay someone $100 per to be my slave for tedious chores. Heck, for $100 I might offer to be such a person! Fri Jun 14 15:01:08 -0700 2002 69563 0 Marc Wallace 1 69601 Come on folks, its fun to do the marketing, I would pay to do it. That was Webvans flaw, going to the market is a social activity and most of us really like it and want to get out of the house and squeeze the fruit. As much as I love the Berkeley Bowl, Andronicos, Draegers, and their ilk, sometimes I really hate paying $10 for a chicken. The safeway on Mariners Island in Alameda and the one on East Hillsdale in Foster City have wonderful service. The last 3 times I have been to the new Andronicos in Walnut Creek I have walked up to an empty checkstand and got instant service and genuinely happy checkers, but my wallet felt like a skinned salmon. $2.89 for a large Hass Avo? Something like $7.00 a pound for corned beef round? If its free range organic, maybe. Safeway serves a purpose, just like the more expensive places. Buy your laundry detergent there on buy one get one free and count your blessings you just saved $8.00. Fri Jun 14 03:32:03 -0700 2002 69471 0 Bung 2 69647 Sounds like the company's service different, depending on its store locations. Anyway, today its stocks ended lower again. Fri Jun 14 17:14:17 -0700 2002 69601 0 Hiko Ikeda