My worst problem with this Safeway is that they do a piss poor job of removing EXPIRED dry goods from the shelves. I shouldn't have to check expiration dates as I'm purchasing groceries! Of course I do with milk and yogurt, but chips? Granola bars? Who checks those? Not this Safeway apparently. Other than that, the parking lot is tiny and jams often occur during busy hours. One thing I will give them is the excellent selection of gravy and sauce mix packets, given you double check the expiration date before purchase. They also have self-checkout lines which is nice when you only have a few items. read more

This Safeway is quite convenient for us neighbors since its close to so many neighborhoods! Its more expensive than Giant but its closer and its open 24 hrs. But I just can't understand why the greens salad section is always in bad shape, products are "sweaty" and generally on sale because they will not last long... and there is never Arugula!!! I am quite disappointed at this and if its fixed, I'd be happy to update my review. read more

Started shopping at this store over past 6 months as I found the produce and meat selection to be far superior to Giant where I shopped for many years. Prices are high but at least quality is good. The trade off is that the employees are extremely rude and I'm not referring to just one bad apple! Also they have very aggressive panhandlers trolling the parking lot which they need to get under control before a customer gets hurt. So if you want to feel like the employees are doing you a favor and you aren't afraid of being accosted in the parking lot this is the place for you!! read more

Horrible. Horrible horrible, just awful customer service, total lack of respect and regard for customer, downright pathetic, offensive. How do they stay in business - oh right, there's no other competition in Kensington and MC traffic is so bad, Kensington residents will put up with this to avoid driving to giant in Wheaton or rockville just 1.5 mikes either way or to mom's which is tiny bit closer than rockville giant - honestly you all should boycott his store until they start treating people fairly without racial bias, I thought Kensington residents were progressive. Not so much, white On white on white. Hold the rye please and definitely no marble bread for the folks of progressive Kensington. read more

The store is very convenient and has decent produce and a bakery. (The baguettes are around $1.50 or so.) There are a few things the Rockville Giant has that this place doesn't, but the Safeway is great for weeknight shopping. In the past the self-checkout systems here have had a lot more problems than the Giant's, but the staff have been pretty good about coming over to fix them. read more

I fully realize that things are not going to be the same because of the limitations and regulations put on everyone because of the COVID-19 debacle, but this Safeway does not seem to be making much effort to help its customers. Tuesdays and Thursdays from 7-9 AM are supposed to be reserved for seniors and those with conditions with immuno-supression. There is also supposed to be a limit on the number of shoppers in a store at one time. I went there yesterday morning about 7:30 AM. This was my first visit since March 6 but I was prepared for shortages and a different way of shopping. First of all, there was no one at either door to see how many people were entering and leaving. Yes, they had two doors open, one in the basement parking garage and one on ground level, and neither were manned. There were a lot of people in there. The aisles, which are narrow, were not designated one-way so there was no way to keep a six foot distance. They were made more congested by some huge carts and employees filling delivery orders. Only two registers were open and the lines for them were put up two aisles. One aisle was the paper towel/toilet paper aisle so it was busy. Because Safeway insists on keeping the aisle displays sitting out, often shoppers were brushing against those waiting in line. Several people were not wearing masks and I did not see one Safeway employee on the floor checking things. A woman asked two teenage girls (!) where there masks were and they ignored her. This store has been my neighborhood store for years but no longer. I am going to travel a little further to Giant, Whole Foods or Harris Teeter. read more

We have been shopping at this store since 1971 and while the remodeled store is much improved and pleasant to shop in, management of cashier stations is very poor and has been as long as we have shopped here. In my many years of retail management, the golden rule is, never allow lines at the registers, This is where you receive your funds. My wife and I shopped there this morning and there was only one register station operating for large order check outs and while we were there, there were always three in line for several minutes, The cashier did a super job, but there was a definite need for at least one more full service cashier station to be opened. Where was management? They were no where to be seen. In addition, the customer Service area was unmanned and an employee was waiting there several minutes stating that she was "waiting for my paycheck and I want to go home". This employee called for help at that area and when we left the store 10 minutes later, that area was still unmanned. When will Safeway assign a competent manager to this excellent shop? read more

After trying to find a market I liked in my new city and never being happy, i found myself by a matter of circumstance at the Safeway in Kensington. Or as i like to call it The Stepford Safeway. Everyone at this market is NICE, from the cashiers, to the pharmacy people, to the butcher, to the customers. It really is like taking a trip to Stepford with how nice everyone is. Its got typical Safeway savings ( get a card so worth it) and the lines are usually short but the real plus is how nice every one. I was pushing my cart though the dairy section and another customer actually greeted me with a "Happy Tuesday" and a big smile. Yup Stepford! read more

This Safeway gets the job done. There check out lines are usually moving and the self check out aisles run smoothly 90% of the time. This Safeway has recently stopped selling powdered Parmesan cheese in the cold aisles and mostly sells shredded Parmesan cheese. They also do not carry the 24 packs of Seltzer water unlike the newer Safeway in Wheaton. Makes me sad. read more

horrible place, this by far is the worse Safeway I've been to. customer service sucks so bad. I asked three workers at the customer service and have no idea where or what their products are. Cashier started being rude and refuse to say hi back. read more

I live about 4 blocks away from this Kensington Safeway but I only go there if I have no other choice. I can't really speak for the day time service as I always shop there in the middle of the night, due to my work schedule. This Safeway consistently provides poor service/rude cashiers as long as I have been shopping there (since June 2016). At first I thought well she is having a bad day, but it never got better. There used to be an old Asian cashier that you had to be looking for around the entire store, after finding her and telling her that you needed help checking out she would stare at you and then would go back to what she was doing. Logically you would think ok she is a bit rude but surely she heard me/understood me and is coming to help me soon. But no, not a chance, normally people would start waiting by the register, 1, 2, 3 , 4 people besides myself; 10 min would go by and she would never come, she would simply just ignored us. Sad. One time after spending more than 45 min shopping at 2 AM I just left my full shopping cart there, and went home with no food, even though I had nothing for me and my family at home, no food. I was that upset. Every time I went there same story. So, seriously, don't bother with this place, is nice and clean but the employees act like the store is theirs and that you bothering them. All other reviews say the same thing and I agree: 1. poor customer service/rude employees and 2.very overpriced merchandise. Dollar Store, H Market, Giant, Target and Costco are all within 8 min...I still wonder how they still have customers and why I still go there sometimes. I was there 3 times in the last 30 days and they have another African American cashier now on the overnight shift suffering from the "Angry Black Woman" syndrome,she is obviously angry and bitter and takes it on the customers who have done nothing to her, our only sin is needing her help checking out or asking her a question. She acts as if she is about to bite your head off for no reason whatsoever. There is one nice cashier from Egypt or some place from the Middle East, every time I go there I am hoping she is there, but they should all be nice, all the time, we are giving them our business! Stay away from that place. The other Safeway 5 min. away in Georgia Ave, across Wheaton Metro is also open 24/7 and I have NEVER encountered a rude employee there while shopping during the overnight shift. Review about time period June 2016-February 2020 read more

"Serenity now....serenity now..." - that's what I was chanting to myself as I was standing in a barely-moving line at a register at this Safeway on a Sunday evening. Does this Safeway not know that Sundays are prime grocery shopping time? It seems not, as there were very few registers open. And the cashier that I got was slow as molasses - as he was ringing up the woman in front of me, he would stop after every few items to chat with her. Buddy, if you cannot talk and scan at the same time, you are in the wrong line of work!! read more

This store is within walking distance and that is the only reason why I shop here. High prices and very poor customer service from employees right up to management. From reading the reviews, I see that I am not the only shopper who has experienced this while visiting this particular store. Let's just say that I do not appreciate being confronted and threatened by an employee that they are going to do bodily harm to me while I am trying to do my grocery shopping in retaliation of making a complaint about poor customer service and rudeness. read more

I'd give this supermarket zero stars if I could. It's a huge, hot mess. They are always out of basic items (garlic and parsley for example) and sale items. The staff is oblivious. They sing at the tops of their lungs (not pretty), shout to each other between aisles and are clueless about their inventory - Cilantro? What's that? Frequently sale prices for items aren't entered into the database and the staff is unable to make corrections. It seems to take the store manager to make corrections. Want beans ground at the Starbucks stand? Too bad - they don't know how to do it. Except for one guy, the staff at the self-checkout have checked out. Two e-mails to Safeway have gone unanswered. I live just down the street from this market but won't go back. read more

Bakery worker doesn't understand about cake and order. Really I got feel bad with my husband. read more

Jason B. in my opinion, Kensington is a nice town because it lacks the same faceless sprawling development that brings chain stores to every suburb and pushes out small businesses. I was disappointed that CVS moved in, but the Kensington Pharmacy survived. Yay. I don't like the way items are shelved in this Safeway now that they've remodeled. Similar items are spread over several aisles and areas instead of being concentrated in one place. Conventional and organic produce is mixed and the produce area has traffic jams. In the meat department, there's a big sign centered over the chicken fridge that says 'organic' but only a tiny fraction of that case contains organic chicken. I have always liked the staff and have no complaints about service. Their meat department has great sales. read more

Great Safeway, clean, well lit and friendly staff.

Live in the area and I walk everywhere so I do not have a choice but to come to this Safeway and I have to say after giving it many chances, I do not recommend shopping at this location for many reasons:You will rarely find what you need in the produce section and expired or near expiring produce is sold at high prices. They will have sale labels out in sections of items that are never available. My biggest complaint is that I will spend 20minutes looking for an item and after having no luck finding it...there are no employees ever in site to help you. I then spend another 20minutes looking for an employee to ask if it is available. I rarely find someone and have to go to front customer service desk. If I do find the guy that is usually working in the produce section, he usually has no idea if they have it or not and basically I follow him around for another 5minutes until he tells me sorry he does not see it. He does not know his section or his produce (whats come in, what hasn't come in) at all! My roomate has the same issue here. Yesterday I came in to buy 4-5 simple items and was in the store for no joke 3 hours! There was no one around to help and the help I eventually got after having the flowers lady intercom for someone to come over was the same guy that never seems to know where a simple item such as a jalapeno or organic onion is located in what I would say is a small produce area. I asked him where the jalapenos are and he points towards the cash registers and other side of store...I said to him no, I think its in this section, its a pepper. I literally had to break it down to him like small green shaped pepper that is hot. Finally he understood. Then I needed organic ginger. The sale sign was there but no room for ginger anywhere and no where in site. I asked him and pointed out the sign..he said I dont know I guess we dont have. I needed organic onions..they usually always have them. I spent 15min looking for them. In those 15min not one worker in site. I then started to look for the produce guy...I spotted him after 10minutes going out the front door..and then back in but not to the produce section..there was no one! I went to customer service..no one there either. Finally they called the guy to come back to produce and he was like I dont know and started looking around for the onions...well you should know. Eventually he tells me he cant find them so they probably dont have. Another issue I have with safeway is that if something is organic they decide to double the price. Its ridiculous some of their prices. And then some prices dont make sense on smaller cheaper produce..such as the parsley..the regular non-organic parsley is 1.49 and then the organic bunch of the same size is 1.49 as well...why would you buy the non-organic if they are both the same prices?! An onion cost me like 2.00 and at Trader Joes I buy an entire bag of organic onions for $3. Also, I have noticed alot of times they have expired items on shelves and produce goes bad quick. Oh and they have this monopoly game going on right now where they basically have you playing this game and keep you shopping more because every now and then you will win something and guess what ...the item you win not only is always a 50cent to 1.00 item but alot of times they do not even have the item. I won a safeway signature brand salt...after searching for it for another 20min this day and then again looking for an associate for another 15 and then again having to go to customer service until the very helpful and nice man working the self checkout had to jump to customer service and run to help me find it...and discovering there is not even a label for it in the salt section...like it does not exist! If you forget to get your monopoly ticket at self checkout and come back the next day to get it with your receipt...he cant just give it to you..he sends you to customer service where you have to put in your phone number etc. It is not that serious..its a safeway monopoly game ticket and I am showing you the receipt...just give me the ticket...why should I have to wait after spending 3 hours in the store buying 4 items because nothing can be found and no one can be found. Overall service is not that friendly, prices are way too high-especially organic items as well, produce is not fresh, expired items on shelf, no employees around to help you and when they are they know just about as much as you do - Oh and the starbucks area of the store...they will not give you refills like normal starbucks locations but the let you know that the managers are so strict and they are not even allowed to give you coffee refill even if you pay same day. I have to say the guy working most everyday morning to night at self checkout is a good worker and very nice and helpful...if there were more of him around the place. Venting complete. read more

At the Safeway in Kensington, MD (#35-2753) on January 15, 2013 on or about 6:40pm I was in the process of checking out at register # 4 with cashier Jxxxx Dxxxxxxxx. The start to the process had me (as I have always done in the past), giving the cashier my iPhone to enter my club card number/bar code as I did not have my eye glasses. She refused to take it, demanding that I read the number to her. I informed her that she needs to get the Manager if she can't take the information off the phone, she continued to attempt to belittle/berate me and eventually I told her that she can have the groceries. I immediately went to the Customer Service desk to summons the Store Manager (as I did the cashier continued to make remarks, i.e. that I was being childish, etc.) and was told by a Supervisor (Dxxxxxx Pxxxxxx) that the Store Manager had left for the day. I proceeded to explain the situation and that I wanted to lodge a formal written complaint on the cashier. (*Another customer left the store in disgust) My belief is that this cashier is in the wrong line of business and is definitely driving their customer base away. One frustrating issue is that this store does not have the proper scanners to scan rewards cards from customers smart phones! As a customer, at a minimum I expect the cashier to perform what ever action is necessary to enter the number without any fanfare! I ended up going to the Giant at Wheaton to purchase my groceries in an effort to have a more peaceful experience. I even saved money. There are good qualities about this Safeway that I admire more than the Giant and that is the produce departments quality and the general selection choice in the store; also a little quicker to access. However, the shopping experience has to be the edge of choice! The time that it has taken me to address this issue and go elsewhere to complete my shopping should ensure that administrative action be taken in regard to this issue. Whether I return to this Safeway will be determined on the response I receive from corporate in regard to this employee. I recently called the store today and again, the Manager is no where in the store. read more

Horrible service. Checkout personnel send me to the service desk. Service desk tells me that I need to go back to the checkout personnel. I use it for necessity only. It is pricey. Giant in Wheaton is cheaper but I've seen two physical altercations in that Wheaton Giant parking lot so the lesser of two evils, eh? read more

While this Safeway store is conveniently located near my office, I try to avoid going there, as although they usually have a variety of products at competitive prices, many of the items on the shelves (especially produce/dairy/meat) are either approaching or beyond the pull date. In addition, I find the employees are often unhelpful or rude. Even if you go to the trouble of tracking down a manager or waiting forever at customer service, they are still not very good at resolving the issue. The Wheaton store is out of my way, but far better. :-( read more

So RUDE... My wife is 9 months pregnant... The checkout person said "are you going to put your bags in the cart".... She said "no can you please help me." He said "No"... It was so bad the people that were in line came to help her. This is the worst managed grocery store ever! read more

Safeway recently expanded its store and added underground parking, which is good during bad weather. They have a Starbucks inside this location, which we use. Their deli makes good sandwiches. The grocery store has a good selection of products and their cashiers are friendly and people oriented. The store is clean. I do notice the friendly interaction between the employees and the customers. We have even shopping here for last 15 years. We also use their gas rewards points. read more

Convenient location to my house, so I come here to grab some items from time to time. Does not compare to Wegman's, etc. Evenings the lines can be quite long. Okay selection of products, but can't find everything (multi cultural foods, etc). Lots of competition coming for grocery stores, so they may have to step it up a bit. But fine if you just want to go in and grab a few things on your way home. read more

Decent produce section, which is why I sometimes go there, but major complaint is the consistently long checkout lines. Self check is helpful when it's open, but why have a dozen checkout lanes with only max of 2 ever open!? read more

The store is new and clean. They have a decent selection, but they are no Harris Teeter. The staff is very polite and friendly. Overall, its a nice place to shop. There are prices are a bit lower than Harris Teeter's and Giant too! read more

If this store did not have such a good location there would be no reason to go. Do not try to go on the weekends. If you go early, there is nothing on the shelves. If you go late, expect to wait 15 minutes at the checkout line. read more

This store is so dysfunctional. TWENTY FIVE minutes in check out line. No customer service. Mentioned long line to checker who said 'you have to ecxpect that on the weekends" !! how about expecting the crowds and dealing with it by actually having more check out lines! New or old, this store has always been a night mare. read more

I just don't like safeway. Maybe this location is ok, but I walked through and it made me feel kind of depressed that this is the best a major grocery chain can do. read more

Long lines due to understaffing. There is never a fast transaction here. If you like processed packaged food the have 20 isle of it. The produce is overpriced B and C grade stuff. They could do so much better but they don't. Hopefully someday they will. read more

First, the negatives: The front parking lot has a misplaced concrete traffic router near the Conn Ave entrance - please get rid of that! The Exit doors should be one "enter" and one "exit" - it is a pain to have to enter at just one entrance at the far end of the store, especially if parking far from that entrance. This is the only store in the world where you have to reach over a high counter to grab your grocery bags; it is wierd and not ergonomic - truly bizarre that a store ofSafeway's caliber has this configuration; the clerks don't like it either. The store is too dark with the dark wood floors, and things are not logically placed (try finding tofu) - the aisles have an odd pattern at one end of the store. I've filled out special order requests, and they have always been unresponsive. Now the positives: As far as the personnel: No complaints - every employee works hard, are very helpful (five stars here). Outstanding! If the prices are wrong on the aisle, you get the item for FREE! That happened to me once and I could not believe it! You can return any item for a good reason, even if no receipt. The store's convenient location keeps me coming back. SUGGESTION: Please have the minicarts closer at hand for use - they are usually stored so you have to walk to end of storage area. Although, I think this may have been addressed on my last recent visit. read more

I have been a long time customer since I live in Kensington. During the last snow storm I had worked thru the Just for You process and organized my shopping. The news and radio suggested not to travel so I called the stored to see if they were open or would honor the deals/coupons. I was told they would honor the specials even though some may expire. I did the shop the next day and saw many of the expired deals were still listed on shelves. Some items were not available. When I cleared the checkout, none of the deals were honored including many that were supposed to be active. The receipt was organized so that you or the customer service representative couldn't determine what was honored, what coupon was checked off, or if you actually got a special offered. The customer service representative was nice but untrained, couldn't figure out the receipt, and was unhelpful. I contacted corporate via email and was requested to state in detail what happened, tally all the issues, list the deals, etc. I did this and they said thanks but asked me to return to the store without resolving the issue or giving a specific person to speak with. Of the other issues, they didn't offer rainchecks for items they didn't have but were advertised. Although they advertised golden ripe bananas, they were actually raw and green. Since this was my first ever complaint, I thought this would be resolved but apparently Safeway is independently wealthy and really doesn't need my patronage. So, I hope you will join me and go to the Giant, Mom's, or Trader Joe's as Safeway doesn't honor their customers. read more