Up to their old tricks again! Thanks to the disrespectful, ignorant behavior of a number of their employees (who resemble unfriendly government bureaucrats), I stopped shopping at Safeway in American Canyon a couple of years ago. However, a few weeks ago, I tentatively returned there - just for my favorite yogurt flavors, simply because other nearby stores don't carry them. I thought optimistically, "What could go wrong if I go there only for yogurts, and use the self-checkout (thus avoiding the employees)?" I should have had second thoughts. They found a way to get me again!
I went in there today and headed for my favorite yogurts, which are usually $1.99. To my delight, on the shelves I saw labels advertising their price as 99 cents. "That's great! They're half price! A chance to stock up!" I thought. So I took twice as many yogurts as I had intended to buy.
But, at the self-service checkout, they rang up at the full price of $1.99. I brought this to attention of the Safeway employee in the checkout area. She told me, in the unfriendly manner of a government bureaucrat, that the 99 cent price was available only to customers who "scan" some kind of "app" (which I don't have). No apology for the misleading label, no apology for the inconvenience, no apology for wasting my time. She simply went on to say, in an abrupt manner, "Do you want me to take them back?" I replied, "Yes, you can take half of them back." She just picked them up and walked away with them in silence.
I examined the 99 cent labels on the yogurt shelves. At first glance, all you see is "99 cents" in large type. But there is also tiny, tiny, tiny writing, which, at first glance, I had assumed to be serial numbers or expiration dates, but, when I looked very carefully, with my eye almost touching the label, there was the "small print" (VERY small print) about scanning the app to buy at the discounted price.
So now I'm staying away from Safeway for good (I'll just have to buy my favorite yogurt flavors when I'm in other cities) for two reasons: (1) The staff are just as disrespectful and uncivil as before. (2) They try to trick customers with misleading price labels.
A quick tip. I see that a lot of reviews on Yelp describe Safeway's American Canyon staff as rude. I recommend avoiding the word "rude," because it only encourages rude people. They are perversely proud of the label "rude" because they think it makes them look "powerful" or "important." It's more appropriate to describe their behavior as disrespectful or ignorant.
A note to you, my reader: Safeway responds very quickly to negative reviews on Yelp in the form of polite AI-generated replies, full of gushing friendliness and helpfulness. So watch out for it. By the time you see this review, it will probably already be there, below this review, in all of its AI-generated glory: read more