Soul Sucking - Anonymous employee Safeway Employee Review

1.0
Apr 23, 2013
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-You learn how to deal with a high volume of angry customers. -They raise a decent amount of money for charities -You will learn to work really hard without needing the incentive of a reward.

Cons

-From the top down, no one cares about the employees. -You barely make enough to pay the rent, and if you have any issues with the management they cut your hours. -The union SUCKS because they are not proactive, and the reps are always on vacation. -Secret shopping is like standardized testing for adults, and we all know how well that's working out for our kids. -They are also a hugely wasteful company. It's difficult to work and barely make enough to buy your own food and then see them throw so much away. They don't discount anything, they just chuck it in the garbage. -You don't know your next week's schedule until a couple days before it starts, so balancing life and work, or another job that you probably need in order to pay your bills, is difficult. -Many of the customers have been hearing 'the customer is always right' from this company for too long, so they can be extremely rude and entitled. - You often have to work in other departments during your shift, but are still expected to get everything done in your department. They are always short handed so they can keep the hours down and pay less wages. Profit is their only goal, and you are their work monkey. The more they realize you can do, the more they will give you extra.

Explore other reviews about Safeway

5.0
May 4, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

THey have a great program

Cons

They have a great program.

4.0
Jun 1, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

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.

Cons

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.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All