I wish I could give 0 stars - Sales Associate/Cashier Safeway Employee Review

Engaging in customer service daily

Can be super busy or super slow

Floral was genuinely one of my most fulfilling jobs. My manager at downtown Renton really helped me understand what I needed to know and was super kind and understanding. I'd work there again if I ever got the chance Grocery department was also super helpful to me when it could be, they were patient and kind with my first job experience. Cashiering usually had me end up in the SwS. Either way I never had an issue and management was usually pretty on top of things. The wage was fantastic and really felt like I could afford to live somewhere someday. Which is a rare find. Some employees take a bit to warm up to but most were super kind and I'd argue eventually all of them are, at downtown Renton. I had such a good experience working with everyone I met and it actually broke my heart when I had to leave. I felt like I made good connections with everyone.

I dont have a lot, but when the store got busy and I couldn't get a key to unlock our alcohol section it really held things up. Its something I'm sure was a trust thing but if Im the only one stuck at the SWS section it could take minutes to find someone with a key to get alcohol or cigarettes while people tried walking out with things they couldn't take to the main store. [I can understand this was more of a trust thing, but it hurt my efficiency and i would be looked at for not being fast enough]. Getting a manager override to void a transaction or remove an item someone no longer wants or I may have overscanned by mistake also caused huge backups in the line. Still not sure why I needed someone just to stop a transaction. Sometimes I was one of two cashiers on duty if that during peak hours. Someone would step in to help sometimes but it was infrequent. Infrequently customers would be annoyed with me for things impossibly out of my control, such as not getting the correct items on a sale or a sale out of date that wasn't removed. Rather than explaining to the customer the options available they'd give the discount anyway as to not deal with it and I feel as though that hurt the customers experience with me in my opinion. It wasn't that bad, but it always sticks with me. Some customers in the area are genuinely abusive. This isn't anything about staff but thats something to note about just the general area and something to note. Floral dept. to me did not have downsides that I can think of.