This is NOT a review about this store at 1701 Santa Rita Road. Nor is it about Safeway overall (though it seems to be a systemic problem). It's about something I've been seeing in many Safeway stores. I hope that Safeway management in headquarters Pleasanton, California will read it.
I have long admired Safeway stores' delivery of exemplary customer service to the public. The company seemed to have made the decision to focus on quality customer support 15 years ago and it really paid off.
The store however has increasingly hired people with abysmal English abilities and placed many of them behind deli counters. The situation of poor communications in Safeway Delis is among the worst I've ever seen.
I'm an "Everything On It" kinda guy, so I don't think I should have to place a very simple sandwich order 8 or 9 times. And I love people talking body to me, but when transacting, the spoken English goes a long way towards efficient transacting and happy customers.
If I'm at a Safeway deli and point to a salad and ask a simple question about it, it can often put the counter person in Robot Mode, rushing off for a container to scoop the food into, because he/she knows too little English and assumes that I want to order that salad. I prefer the lesser of two evils, slow workers who can communicate, understand the order, and waste less time. I don't equate making motions to give the appearance of understanding to actual work.
This has started to spill over to other departments too and I've encountered people with low communications skills working Safeway Customer Service desks.
Safeway must know that other customers are experiencing this problem in its stores. And if it were to poll its other employees it would find that the utterly low bar in communications that it has now set is angering them too. These other Safeway workers tell me: "I came to this country with no English, and made it a point to learn the language. Dealing with these new people at work is frustrating for me too."
I respect a person's desire to work hard and recognize the desire to look busy as a way of correcting one's lack of abilities, including language skills. But can Safeway PLEASE at least start its English-challenged people in departments where that don't require heavy interaction with customers?
Maybe Safeway can learn from Lucky Supermarkets, a chain that puts its non-speakers in the back, working on inventory, or picking up shopping carts and things in the parking lots. Yet,even this not acceptable if it's taking away jobs from Americans and hiring people who can't speak the language. Even Americans with degrees are taking minimum wage jobs, so while I realize this may raise the bar for ESL people like me, hire people who speak the primary language.
The language gap and chaos is worsened by most Safeway Delis' use of a "no-number" queueing system, A.K.A. "no organization" queueing. Even when their bosses, losing patience, bark orders at these workers in their native tongues, they look just as clueless. I witnessed the Marina Safeway deli during a big event at Crissy and there was more bedlam than at a Tyson-Holyfield fight.
Though Safeway may be saving a lot of money by hiring these people, and it won't miss losing my neighbors' or my deli purchases, it is still destroying its brand. A deli should also be viewed as a potential draw for customers. I'll gradually shop more at Lucky & Trader Joe's and will not miss aggravation and wasted time at Safeway.
If you insist on not giving tests I recommend basic training in English -- teach words and phrases like "What, May I, How much, Do you, Can you," and numbers and quantities.
Grades-
English skills in general: C
Grade on English skills in Safeway Delis: F-- (double-minus)
I'm brand new to Yelp and if posting a review that refers to many Safeways I've purchased deli products from is not the right process or format please let me know. I live in San Francisco where we have a lot of food options -- usually right down the block from the Safeway delis. read more