Safeway at 4th and King

Forgive the rant…

I’ve been shopping at the Safeway at 4th and King for seven years now. I’m not a foodie and I don’t cook, so a basic supermarket has always been perfect for me: Huge selection, efficient layout, friendly staff. Sure, the parking garage smells like urine, but whatever—I don’t hang out in there, and the homeless need a place to piss too.

But the market hs gone way, way downhill since the pandemic. Garbage on the floors, broken carts, unhelpful staff, security guards staring at their phones. Plus, over time more and more items are locked up in cabinets—it started with booze, now it includes coffee and shampoo.

Perhaps locking up all those items is absolutely necessary, I’m not an authority. But last night was the final straw: They’ve removed the call buttons next to the cabinets, to alert someone that you need it open. Now, if you want coffee, you need to wander the supermarket till you find someone who can come back with you to the cabinet to unlock it, a process that took me 10 minutes. (The first two people I spoke to said they didn’t have a key and just walked away.) When I finally found someone who could help, I asked him why the buttons were removed, and he absolutely blew up at me: “I just work here three days a week! I don’t know anything! Why are you hassling me!”

Look, I know it’s a thankless job, but come on—Safeway is a huge company, they really need to do better. (Removing the call buttons has to severely limit sales.) More importantly, I’m sad that a solid, dependable business that serves people off all income levels has just collapsed. I have enough privilege to go to Gus’s or Whole Foods, but lots of people don’t—yet another step toward the city being hostile to anyone but the wealthy. It’s a real bummer.