Clean, well stocked, staff mostly but not always friendly. They check your receipt on the way out but guard is usually very congenial! read more

Safeway - Main entrance of Waterfront (DC) Safeway - Grocery Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

Same store, if not worse. If you like watching Safeway staff talk on their fons and chew gum, this is the place for you. If you like to watch staff stand around and talk, although they clearly see people ready for checkout or in need of service, this is the place for you. If you like to be dog gone sure that your clerk feels they are doing YOU a favour by breathing air (and NOTHING else), this is the place for you. If you prefer to be treated like a valued customer, this is NOT the place for you. read more

I tend to stop by after work to grab a few groceries before I go home. This place is always busy, but I have only had pleasant experiences with the staff. You can expect to spend a long time here in line, but if you come right after work or later at night, then you can avoid the lines. There have been times when whole sections of the freezers have been empty to my dismay. read more

Rude, unmotivated staff. Bring a book for the lines because you'll be lucky if two lanes are open, and the self-checkouts aren't half off or broken. Crappy selection. We need another option in Southwest because this is what happens with no competition. Just awful. read more

The store is not to bad, but some of the workers should not get out of their bed their customer service is terrible. I went early one morning when there is not a lot of people in the store,just to get a few things. I was the only one in the dairy isle except the male stocker who was stocking. he asked me was I looking for something. I said pumpkin spice creamer, and that's when he started. "He said that's like looking for eggnog in July" They don't sell pumpkin spice in December just put some cream and sugar in your coffee. " I don't know why people look for flavor cream during a pandemic". That's one Scrooge I thought. I picked up some creamer and proceeded to the cashier, who throw my stuff in a bag, as if to say get out. I appreciate the Front Line Workers, but some of them could use some friendly flavor creamer in their morning coffee. read more

It has been 20 years, and two generations, of the 4th Street SW Safeway store. Different building; same deficiencies. I am reminded, with each time that I absolutely have to shop in this store, how poor the store represents the Safeway brand. Food Lion stores are managed better. Today, I walked up to Safeway. Only to be reminded how the employees are in desperate need of customer service training; the technology poorly maintained; and, the stock hit and miss. Such a shame. I will continue to patronize Giant, Trader Joe's and Harris Teeter. read more

PROS : - close to metro, free wifi. - now has wine - looks of this century, unlike the previous safeway. - staff is nice. - groceries..in your neighborhood..in DC !!...amazing.... CONS : - "attention service desk : 4-0-1 " all day on PA system, SO annoying i bring earphones when I shop.Don't know and don't care what it means !! - produce : they put the plastic bags as far away from you and in the most illogical places, annoying too... - some of the wine bottles have anti-thft devices on them, some bottles of the SAME wine dont have them totally random. - they treat you as a potential shoplifter, you have to hunt for your receipt upon exiting because some little pricks from the neighborhood steal from the store. - even though the store looks nice now, it's still a Safeway, meaning the selection is still the same, mostly processed food from big corporations. read more

Hi I wanted to give a review for the flower department, the lady Charnette did an awesome job on a few flower arrangements for me. I would recommend her to everyone, she does a great job and the flowers are so beautiful. Joy read more

I've shopped this particular Safeway for two years now so a review is warranted. Things here move slow. In fact, it's almost like walking into a nursing home where everyone and everything functions at a snails pace. It never fails when I'm in the store between 4-5 pm there is normally one register open with a checker and the line of customers flows through the produce department. I refuse to use self check out because the register is programmed to pen point what it believes is thievery even before the scanning of groceries begins. It gets old standing there listening to a non human voice say there's something in the bagging area when in fact nothing actually is. Just like the 17th Street location this store all too often has bare shelves and items go missing in action for weeks. Yes, that's right... at least three weeks waiting on select canned goods to reappear. And of course once I find a product I like it just simply disappears for whatever reason and never ever reappears on the shelf again. This happens over and over especially in the frozen food section. The wild thing is this occurs to items that sell very well. As for the pharmacy, well it functions but not as swiftly as CVS. For quite sometime I never saw a manager present inside this store. Even on very busy days when it was obvious another register needed to be operating. Then one day within the last few months I noticed a manager on the floor helping out. Wonder why it took so long? Very odd, but par for the course. Be prepared to witness customers attempting to use their credit and debit cards place their cards in the chip reader the wrong way while never realizing why the system isn't reading their card numbers. It just adds to the chaos and delay in the long lines. You will come away wondering how people in this store even function enough to make it out of bed. Perhaps dysfunctional people are attracted to a dysfunctional grocery store chain. I would say for bread, bottled water and milk this store serves a small purpose, but even those things go missing for days. Good luck! read more

They're shockingly slow at the deli where they make food like sandwiches. Nice people but work at a snails pace. Plan to spend at least an hour if you're ordering even just something super simple. read more

Wow, looks like people are afraid of "diverse" neighborhoods. I wish you'd stop being lame and just say "OMG BLACK PEOPLE IN DC! NOOOOOO!" As someone who lives right by the Safeway, it's convenient, and has groceries. I normally don't look for entertainment and someone grovelling at my feet when I go shopping. I have a list, I get my stuff, and I get out. Whenever I've asked for help, I've received it. As someone who works in retail, I understand how much there is to do, so I don't go pestering the staff all the time for nonsense. I will say, right after school hours, the kids in there are annoying and obnoxious. But again, who cares? I'm not there to have them sing me ballads and help me shop. If you're going in there looking for Whole Foods customer service where they have to kiss your butt 'cause you're paying 100% markup on mostly everything, you'll be disappointed. If you're scared of black people and wish the gentrification of DC would speed up so that it can look more like McLean and people with skin color darker than khaki won't bother you, you'll be disappointed. If you just want to get your stuff, and you realize that if you want super fresh veggies you should hit up the farmers' market once a week instead of a corporate owned store with vegetables that are flown from all over the world, damaging the environment, you'll love it. read more

CONS: Uncooperative, rude management. Floor staff always seem distracted - very slow cashiers & restocking. Hit the electronic line if you want to get out in under 20 minutes (but bear in mind half the electronic machines will always be shut down as well). Surprisingly common for packaging to be falling apart on the shelves and/or for people to have cut/torn open and removed items from packages on the shelves. Prices aren't too high but aren't very low either. Have seen e.g. 50% markups on some items relative to more upscale chains like Wegmans/Harris Teeter. PROS: The store's Starbucks offerings & staff are pretty solid, and the store's general grocery/staple offerings are pretty large for a Safeway. The Safeway Starbucks is within range of a free DC wifi hotspot (the Safeway Starbucks itself also supposedly has free wifi but they password-protected it for some reason) and can be a nice spot to get work done. Convenience of the location is hard to beat, it being literally 15 feet from the Waterfront metro entrance. read more

This is for the pharmacy. The phArmacist saw me standing there and did not have the decency to acknowledge me. I was the only person waiting and then had me stand there another 5-7 minutes before assisting me with picking up my prescription ....then she had the audacity to ask if I wanted an automatic refill? Nope don't even think about it. This lady was the worst! read more

This Safeway has met its match with Harris Teeter. Before HT opened there was no where else to shop in SW/SE - you had no other choice but to tolerate Safeway. The store staff at this location can be polite and helpful, but that occurs about as often as pigs fly. During my last visit to the store, I thought I would get some "fresh" seafood. In this day and age, nothing is really fresh, it's thawed from frozen and put on display. When speaking with the gentleman at the counter about my order, he asked me why I wanted my selection. Is that for real? I want it because I want it - why do you care? It's your job to provide me with my selection. Avoid this location and go to Harris Teeter. read more

Hot Ghetto Mess Safeway. That is what I'm calling this new Safeway at 4th and M Streets, SW. We have the Soviet Safeway, the Singles Safeway, the UnSafeway and now the Hot Ghetto Mess Safeway. The place has been opened just over a month (one month and one day exactly) and management have already lost control of the store. I'd been there a few times during the business day while visiting the DCRAC and found no major problems problems. Sure the servers giving out samples were all talking to their friends and ignoring the customers. Perhaps not all the customers, but obviously the European American ones. But still I felt safe, but last weekend I went on a Saturday evening and never felt so unsafe, so abused, and so disgusted in my life. There were gangs of local kids wilding through the store, to the point I thought I was in danger. There were so many wrong things on the shelves I couldn't find half of what I wanted. Seems like when they run out of something, they just shove something else on the shelf so it won't be empty. The lines were atrocious, and the staff rude, surly, and obviously only there to meet some quota the local ANC must have demanded. To add insult to injury, I have diverticulosis and had to use the toilet. BOTH stalls were clogged up, with human waste splattered left and right. I went to report it to the manager, and found none on duty. I had to wait 20 minutes for one to come back off her break. The surly little queen at the customer service counter kept rolling his eyes at me every time I reminded him I was STILL waiting to see a manager, and when one DID deign to show up, don't ask me why I wasn't surprised she was a helpless old cow. Needed a shave, too. At first I thought I would never use this Safeway again. But, upon writing this I'm determined to return there often, just to be the thorn in their side and MAKE them behave as they are paid to. But what should I have expected: You put a store in a ghetto environment and .... well you know. read more

Every time I have to go to this grocery store I cringe. It's awful. They built a huge new grocery store and then decided that they would just fill it with a bunch of crap and rude employees. The produce is disgusting. They have a decent variety and even have an 'exotic' section. But it's all rotting! I've actually seen a basket full of moldy avocados on multiple occasions. They have an herb section that is pathetic, it looks like they put the herbs there when they opened however many months ago and haven't bothered to change them out. I've also purchased tomatoes there on multiple occasions and had disastrous results. The seeds inside the tomatoes sprouted and the sprouts burst out of the tomatoes. Talk about disgusting. I've tried getting clementines there multiple times and have yet to have a single good clementine. It's awful, I don't know where they get their produce but it's the worst I've ever seen. They have very little variety in other departments, but I will give them credit for slowly improving variety. The staff----they are so rude and SLOW. It has never taken me less than 10 minutes to check out, with one person in front of me. They don't seem to care that the customers aren't getting paid to stand there and therefore are eager to leave. The upside of the staff is that if you donate money to whatever cause they are supporting that month somebody comes on the loud speaker and asks for a "WOO WOO!" That elicits the most enthusiasm from any staffer that I've ever seen. It's a terrible grocery store, but unfortunately the only one near me so I have to go there if I don't want to drive. I'm not writing this review so much for the benefit of other Yelpers, but hoping that a manager at Safeway will read this and think about perhaps improving some of the deplorable areas of this grocery store. Also, don't get a sandwich there...it will take no less than 20 minutes and most likely be the worst sandwich you've ever eaten. read more

Just got back from our usual Sunday shopping excursion and easily felt sick as we paid at the checkout. Here's why: the people in front of us were obviously stealing and the cashier was OBVIOUSLY helping them steal. With one cart overflowing with groceries and another full of chips, many items never made it out of the cart and onto the conveyer belt. And it was more than obvious that the cashier wasn't scanning one item and doubling, tripling ... adding them multiple times to the bill. When we finally got up to the register they switched out cashiers (an inside job? Perhaps) and we later saw an employee unlocking one of the carts (because the wheels lock when a cart is taken off Safeway's grounds - TO KEEP PEOPLE FROM STEALING THEM!) so that the customers could cart their hoard of free food back to their home. I'm completely disgusted as a honest paying customer. And I'm appalled that I will be feeling the brunt of stealing customers AND stealing employees. Check yourself. read more

Disappointed again with the sanitation, selection and service at this Safeway. Hands down the worst grocery store I've ever had to use. Wish there was another option in this neighborhood - would never shop here again if there was another grocery store in SWDC. Tonight's disappointment - no ground pork to be found at 7:00pm on a Saturday because "we don't grind pork." Told by the meat department "we don't grind pork here due to cross contamination." However, there is ground turkey, ground beef, ground veal and ground meatloaf mix (veal, pork and beef) - all in generous quantity, but no ground pork - AND they don't grind pork due to "cross contamination" - WOW. Really? Harris Teeter has ground pork for me before. Giant was ground pork for me before. Way to go Safeway. Wish there was a .25 star rating - have had the worst shopping experiences at this Safeway. read more

The old Safeway was hood...the new Safeway is good. Great actually. It's the best chain grocery store I've been to in DC. And it's literally above the metro stop....well worth the trip! read more

This Safeway is so terrible. I don't know why I torture myself by coming here. The selection is fine but the checkout clerks are in absolutely no hurry to check you out. This last visit was 36 mins to check out with only 4 people before me. Save your sanity and spend a few more dollars by going to Harris Teeter. read more

Sunday evening and you only have a few counters open. I hope whoever who chooses to buy Safeway will reconsider not doing business as usual. Should never use the fact that it's close to your place to evaluate picking a grocery store. Fail Safeway. Fail. read more

great that a store is just a metro stop and up the escalator away. don't be teased by the little fruit stand in the front of the store, the produce aisle way in the back has more stuff. it's nice there is a salad bar and lots of produce. i should have discovered this place years ago before suffering with the cafeteria food at work. negative: only 2 check out lines open and a long wait for self check out. read more

New Safeway started out great, but is on a downhill progression. They don't stock items regularly anymore and some produce is simply old or yucky! The Starbucks, Salad Bar, and WIFI are nice, but in order to keep this store up -- they need to keep up with the service they provided during the opening month. I've already been starting to frequent Whole Foods again by my work. read more

This is the most conveniently-located grocery store for me but that's really the only good thing I have to say about it. Aside from location, this Safeway is perhaps the worst grocery store I've been to in recent memory. While the inside is relatively clean and modern, everything from the produce to the customer service is unacceptable. On numerous occasions, I've come across produce that is basically rotting on the shelf as a result of being over-saturated with water and left in place for too long. And while I avoid obviously bad products, I've definitely unknowingly purchased spoiled or expired dairy and frozen foods on numerous occasions. In fact, I recently purchased a spoiled item and returned it only to receive another spoiled batch of the same. There's clearly no quality control in place here. The store itself seems poorly organized given the ample space available and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to the hours of the deli, bakery, or self-serve buffets (e.g. olive bar). Often there are no staff to be found behind these counters and when I've asked about when the olive bar opens/closes, I've gotten mixed answers that seem to indicate it's essentially on the whim of whoever happens to be working that day. The checkout counters are almost never adequately staffed during commonly busy hours and lines are exceedingly long at all hours of the day and night. Staff seem generally disinterested in their jobs and even less interested in actually serving customers. The customer service desk itself is intermittently staffed and requires long waits while a cashier calls over whomever is supposed to be working there. I'd venture to say that there's a problem with management at this store but upon reading reviews of other Safeways in the area, it seems Safeway has little interest in improving their practices. What a waste. read more

Nice new building. Same old s#!t. I thought, you know what would be lovely, some nice cold chicken. That sure would hit the spot. So I picked up some wings from their deli counter, took them home, took a bite and guess what. Frozen solid. Thanks Safeway. PS put some freaking stanchions up in front of your self-check out registers. Every time I go there's a fight over someone cutting in line, because it doesn't look like there is one. read more

I work in the area so the grocery store is a really convenient stop during lunchtime or on my way to the Metro. The sushi bar is also convenient for grab-n-go sushi. I'm not a big proponent of supermarket sushi, but if you know the area, you don't have much of a choice in terms of food selection and it gets real boring eating sandwiches all the time. About sandwiches, the sandwich counter at the Safeway is the worst I have ever experienced. The line is never that long, and I realized that that's because everyone gets tired of waiting in line!! There is only one person making sandwiches and she takes at least 5 minutes to make each sandwich! I waited 30 minutes for a freakin' pastrami and swiss sandwich, which wasn't even that good. I don't understand why they don't hire someone else, or why this woman cannot multitask and make 2 sandwiches at a time!! It is absolutely absurd!!! read more

I'll put it this way: I recently bought a pack of hot dogs; went to make a couple and noticed two were missing. Someone had actually cut into the package and taken them. Seriously. Hot dogs. That's the kind of thing that goes on in this Safeway. It's probably more a general statement on SWDC but this kind of crap seems to happen a lot in this grocery store. Some great workers... many bad ones. read more

This is the worst grocery store I've ever been to. The lines are always forever long, people are rude, and today someone cut me in line and denied it. Won't be back. read more

Recently bought an item from this store in the produce section only to get home and discover that it's "best by" date was clearly listed on it as 11/28. I bought it on 12/15. Needless to say I was annoyed and grossed out and glad that I saw that before even opening the package. Customer service is alright and homeless people sometimes roam around the store. I wouldn't suggest this Safeway. read more

Another crazy experience at the world's worst Safeway. In the past year I have witnessed ignorance and intolerance numerous times. Usually it is Safeway employees demonstrating their complete lack of class and intelligence. Last night it was customers yelling profanities and slinging racial slurs at each other. It was so loud and offensive the police had to be called. It is embarrassing to live in this neighborhood. Thanks Safeway. Merry Chritmas. read more

This evening a man in line threatened to physically beat me. He then proceeded to call the couple in front of me a bunch of crackers. Let me be clear, I think this man may have had some other issues going on (anger, emotional) but at no point did I ever feel safe. The employees of Safeway were slow to react and luckily no one was injured. The "security" officers that showed up did nothing but ask him to calm down. As I'm sure you can guess, he did not comply. At what point do you actually provide security? Is it before or after someone gets beat up in your store? If going to a store where you will be intimidated and physically threatened is your cup of tea, please do visit. Otherwise go to the Trader Joe's in Alexandria, the Harris Teeter near Potomac Ave, or visit Eastern Market. Oh and by the way, your prices are not competitive. When you charge more for chips than CVS it's an insult to smart shoppers. read more

The customer service at their breakfast sandwich bar had got to be the worst I've seen in a long time. Be prepared to be ignored by the staff and when they finish talking about all their personal business one of them will suck their teeth and call for the next. This can be tested most mornings absolutely horrible representation of other Safeway stores. read more

This is strictly for the pharmacy. The pharmacist are awesome. Each time I visit they are professional and prompt. If you live in SW, the Safeway pharmacy is far better than the CVS on 4th. I highly recommend that you transfer your prescriptions from CVS to Safeway. read more

This Safeway needs to tidy up its just dirty. Full trash bags lie by the Starbucks while the baristas chat. The Starbucks won't let you pay for anything from the rest of the store even with your coffee order. read more

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A wonderful selection of ready made food and produce. The customer service is great. Sarah helped me retrieve a receipt I needed for expenses. It was handled in 24 hours over a weekend too. read more

At least they're consistent this Safeway continues the trend of other poorly run supermarkets

This Safeway does not have the best produce. The selection is okay but it's not always very fresh or even supplied. The parking situation is okay if you remember to validate but I've validated and gotten to the gate and it's failed to work. It was okay because not many people were there but had it been more busy it would have been a disaster. read more

This is fine except the lines are ALWAYS insanely long. Also, the sandwiches they make at the deli are delicious! Delicious... as long as there is someone there to make them. Alas, there rarely is so tonight, I'm dining on pasta & wine out of sadness. read more

The young lady working the self-checkout was less than friendly you could say downright rude. It was as if asking her for help wasn't her job. Isn't that position to help the customer navigate the technology and convenience of having a clerk by to help. She actually left the area in a huff. You can do better by hiring staff that enjoys the job of assisting customers. read more

They raised the old building, built a new store, and changed the management. The new Safeway is much better than the old.