The area of Mt. Vernon Square is developing rapidly. Unfortunately, this Safeway location is increasingly unable to keep up with the growth of the area. Tonight, as is typical for this Safeway location, there was only one cashier on a busy Saturday night. The line was backed up the length of an ENTIRE isle. Either no effort was made to move night stockers to cashiers, or there wasn't enough staff to do so. Also, no manager visible to handle the agitated customers. Customers were abandoning their carts, letting their children eat the goods that hadn't yet been paid for, and customers were vo cally expressing reasonable impatience. Safeway, this is an unacceptable shopping experience. Please staff appropriately to meet the volume of this growing area. At the very least, keep the self checkout area open until you can hire and staff according to demand. Utterly disappointing. And highly unfair to the wonderful employees that you do have on staff that are doing their best to keep a smile. read more

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It's rare that I come here, but I occasionally visit as it's about 6 blocks from job. On Mondays they have a chicken special for $4.99 and the baked chicken is amazing! I've also been able to pick up really cute houseplants like my new Monstera plant. When I purchased the plant I drove up and was able to find street parking easily but there is free parking in the garage below the store. read more

Has been saying my medication would be available "tomorrow afternoon".... for each of the last four days. They're obviously never going to fill it, and they won't even tell me why. It's not even a controlled substance! Absolutely horrible, horrible service. read more

It's a very tiny store, usually out of most things with quite limited options compared to other Safeway locations. The checkout lines are always horribly long. read more

This is closest supermarket to Chinatown, and while not too many people actually live in the neighbourhood itself, for those of us who do this is an essential. It's sizable, well-stocked, and has some great deals on craft beers if you know what to look for. read more

Safeway - New Belgium Starship IPA - Grocery Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

I'm more-so a "Giant" grocery store type of girl but this Safeway is conveniently located by my job so I stopped by during my lunch break. This is such a wonderful neighborhood grocery store! They didn't have everything I needed but the manager Scott was very helpful. He tried his very best to help me search for the items I was looking for & when we couldn't find them, he offered good alternatives. I even watched him bag some groceries for a very old lady! He was very approachable & kindhearted. Scott if you're reading this, thank you for your wonderful service today! The lady that worked at the hot bar was also extremely friendly, nice and helpful. Oh! The guy the worked in the meats department was also all those things as well. We had nearly a 10 minute conversation today as he tried his best to help me decide what I should cook for dinner tonight. I was so indecisive. Lol. Needless to say, the service I received was terrific and I'm sure I will be returning. read more

Safeway's messed up again. I ordered food to be delivered between 8 am - 10 am. It is now 11:33 and guess what? It's still not here. I called them and "The food is on its way." That was over 30 minutes ago. They always do this. My advice? Order your food from Amazon Fresh. read more

Safeway has improved drastically in the past few months. Safeway has increased the number of workers and installed functioning self-checkout machines. They've also been a lot better at restocking their food. This has not always been the case. I applaud their recent efforts to improve the market for both their customers and employees! read more

There are not many grocery stores in this part of DC, and this Safeway is the best option. The produce, floral, and cheese sections are all really good. I am grateful that this store kept running as well as possible during the pandemic. I haven't used the pharmacy, but all of the employees I have interacted with have always been helpful and professional. I don't understand the bad reviews here. This Safeway is great and a real asset to the neighborhood. read more

After nearly four years of waiting and waiting and waiting, the 55,000 sq/ft Safeway City Vista IS FINALLY HERE!!!! Barely two blocks walking distance from home, fresh food every night is now a reality! Today, Thursday Sept 11th, was a 4 hour long pre-opening shopping experience for anyone who wanted to check it out. Free samples were coming from everywhere, just browsing the aisles and Starbucks was passing by offering creamy pumpkin latte frappucino and strawberries and cream frappuccino. Then numerous different Safeway housemade and pre-packaged products were sampled everywhere. I digress, the store is great, beautifully laid out fresh produce, friendly staff everywhere... of course the friendly and helpful staff seems to always start off strong in a new DC business.... but over time it changes quick, let's hope this is not the case here. Fresh Bakery, nut bar, deli, meat and seafood counter, pharmacy, olive bar, salad bar, hot prepared food section, sushi, beer and wine, flowers, cards, magazines, plenty of organic and gluten free products. I must it was all too overwhelming... you'd think I'd never been in a grocery store before! It's so close! There are 9 manned check out lanes and 6 (I think) self check out lines. The customer service counter was excellent. I was greeted promptly and given money back due to a special that didn't ring up properly as well as the addition 10% discount for shopping on this day and using a Safeway card. A great experience all around. Five stars for having an amazingly stocked, great feel, fantastic service grocery store within 2 blocks of home. I look forward to shopping there often! I can't believe the Safeway has finally here!!! read more

Safeway - Grocery Overload - Grocery Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

The absolute worst grocery store I've ever been to. The parking garage smells like a homeless encampment. Tried to do pickup order since my dog was in the car. After 25 minutes had to go in the store to pick up my order and deal with the dumb slow woman at the customer service counter read more

This Safeway location opens on Sep 12th 2008. I visited the pre-opening today and was VERY impressed. This store (#2737) is far and above any other Safeway I've been to in the greater DC metro area. According to district manager Craig Hanning the store has the largest produce section in the Eastern division of Safeway. They even have tropical dragonfruit. Among the extras at the store are a Starbucks, Bergmann's cleaners, Floral department, nut bar, olive bar and a full-service scratch bakery. The wine department is two fully stocked aisles and Hanning told us they will employ a full-time wine steward. The store also has 6 self check out stations. The customer service was outstanding at the pre-opening. They may hit some pot holes in this area over the first month. Those are the inevitable growing pains of starting a new 150 employee store from scratch. Let's be patient with them during this period. The facility is well laid out with a tremendous selection. Definitely on par with the new Harris Teeters. Hoooooray! read more

Safeway - Entrance from Parking Garage - Grocery Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

This Safeway store is nicknamed the Soviet Safeway. The reason is because it's one of the smallest Szfeway stores in the country with narrow aisles and a limited selection of groceries. Nevertheless, you can get what you need for basic food, drink, beer, wine and health supplies. It is very crowded on weekends and evenings, so I recommend you visit on weekday mornings and afternoons. It's open 7 days a week from 5am to midnight. read more

Safeway - Safeway Store, 17th and Corcoran Streets NW, Washington, DC. - Grocery Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

It's 24-Hours, so that's always a bonus, especially at this location because it's the only legit grocery store in the neighborhood, making it a pretty popular place. I'd suggest coming here during the off-peak hours if you plan on buying a lot. The store is clean, and unlike other reviews, I've always been treated nicely by the staff, even at 1 AM. The downsides are: the weak hot bar - usually fried chicken and mac an cheese; the high probability of it being pretty busy and being bumped into the people; the Starbucks employees have a tendency to chat a lot and it can take a LONG time to get your drink. read more

What's the beef everybody. It is a 24 hour store. It had a pretty good selection, there is a Starbucks inside. The fruit was just fine. All the other products were just off the shelf fine. It was easy to UBER up and UBER back to our apartment. It was the best around when you look at the smaller convenience store. I would go again. read more

This Safeway is the cleanest Safeway in the district! Free parking, humongo produce section. This Safeway renews my faith in Safeways in DC. well..except for the cashier with gum on her finger and a cookie in her hand. read more

Sorry but this place is always disheveled and I've bought meat several times only to realize it was past due after getting it home. I've also seen rotten fruit and veggies still in the bushel and I'm officially done. I'll just walk another six blocks to the Giant. read more

I'm surprised this place is rated so poorly. I moved to the area 3 days ago and I've been here 3 times and I really enjoy the store. Its a large venue and the selection seems great. I've always heard negative things about this particular store but the only negative I have seen are the shady characters hanging outside. I actually enjoy this venue especially since the one in Chevy Chase is the most deplorable excuse for a store I have ever seen in my life. read more

Their ice cream (e.g. Ben & Jerry's) is consistently refrozen and has the consistency of Italian ices. I often see vegetables molding and rotting on the shelf. I am afraid to purchase meat here. The staff is rude. read more

Best thing about this place is the great staff at the pharmacy. The fruit in the store itself usually is not fresh and the ladies that work at the Starbucks are SOOO unprofessional and regularly have poor attitudes and act like you are interrupting their day when you come to place an order. I just left the counter and hear the barista let out a loud "ughhh" like she was annoyed by the customers. Seriously?And you can forget about being greeted with a hello and a smile. They often literally look at you when you walk up like 'what do you want'. Not to mention the drinks are often made poorly. As much as I love Starbucks, they kill my whole experience. Otherwise, prices are ok. Not an abundance of organic options. read more

They are committing tax fraud by double charging your bill at two tax rates. DC tax rate is 6% not 6% and 8%. No tobacco products were bought and neither did I purchase alcohol, so that extra tax is illegal. Watch. Your. Reciept. read more

The Safeway line has one cashier open with 23 people in line the assistant manager is not able to deal with the line and the manager is not able to be reached. It's not 24 hours. After 12 am this store can not deal customers more than 5 at a time. read more

Safeway - Grocery Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

Good Morning, I have been a Safeway Customer dating back to the early 90s as my grandmother used to drag me to the Minnesota Avenue/Benning Road, Washington, DC location during her random shopping trips. On a recent trip to Safeway (490 L St NW, Washington, DC), I realized years of support aren't enough to remove profiling. I am a black male that had a black shirt on, with a grey bookbag (It is sad that I even have to say this). I walked into your store around 10 PM, looking for a steak to grill this weekend. I looked through the steaks and didn't find anything to my liking, so I turned around and walked towards the exit. As I was near the exit, I was stopped by a security guard. Guard: What did you put in your bag? Me: Nothing. What were you told I put in my bag? Guard: I got a page to check the bag of the man that was walking from the meat department Me: Just check the cameras, I didn't take anything from your store. I understood the guard was simply doing his job, so I was not mad with him. However, I question why someone felt the need to demand that the guard checked my bag. But the crazy thing is I witnessed 2 others walk right out of the store, with bags, that didn't get questioned. I never felt more disrespected in a store that I have supported for such a long time. In the future, Safeway, please have probable cause before you tell your security guards to check customers' bags. Enjoy your day. read more

Hey folks, it's Safeway. If you want to pay Safeway prices, you can't expect Whole Food or Trader Joe's standards... I still remember in the bad old Marion Barry days of DC, when our fair capital was known as the Beirut of North America and ALL the grocery stores in DC had left town. It was only Safeway that had the cojones to stay in town... Of course, the three remaining stores in the District had their own personalities; there was the Safeway at Georgetown, called the Social Safeway because you could go there to hook up. There was the Safeway in Dupont, called the Soviet Safeway because they had long lines and the shelves were bare. And there was the Safeway in South West, called the Murder Safeway because you could leave the store and hear gun fire a few blocks away... Nowadays, Safeway has had to compete with the uber-yuppie grocery stores and they do an acceptable job. This store is clean and well stocked, although it is obvious that their rotation schedule for perishables leaves room for improvement. The soy milk, for example, was stocked the wrong way with expired produce in the back of the shelves. Still, as long as the customer is careful, you can go there and pay a fraction of the Whole Foods experience. read more

Remember that parking in their garage is for 90 minutes only (so don't take so long!) and is free only with a purchase of $5 (which is easily achieved). Make sure you have the cashier validate your parking stub/ticket. Otherwise, prepare to pay an arm and leg upon exiting. Also, slow down when entering and exiting. Pedestrians abound, especially with new surrounding residential developments. The inside of the store itself is clean and well-stocked, and I've never had an issue about not finding what I need. I did find it odd that they use giant plastic garbage bags to cover their olive bar at night. The clientele who come here are, as you'd expect, a mix of yuppies and bottom-of-the-barrel folks who like to scream down the aisle to their spouses what they want. Big disappointment is that booze in all of DC is not sold past midnight, so hurry in! read more

This place sucks, The lines suck and so does customer service. And Angela the cashier condones line cutting and laughed about it when people complained. read more

Safeway - Avoid this place - Grocery Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

Like a Burpee catalog, this place is a bit seedy. Sure, it's located among a bunch of new high rise condos and rental apartments, so during the day, you might feel as if you're in Arlington, but at 2:00 am, it gets real. Stumbling in at 2:00 am on a Friday night (Saturday morning?) foraging for food, I was non plussed by the fist fight that started among some patrons and had to be broken up by security. Why are you fighting about food at 2:00 am? Chill, bro! That said, I did get all the food I needed. However, there was only one cashier open and none of the self-checkouts was working. Munchie fail when I have to wait to eat my chips and sandwich when I'm starving! read more

When I was first looking at moving to the Mt. Vernon Triangle neighborhood, I was taken aback by all the negative Yelp reviews of this Safeway.  Shopping at Safeway or any other major grocery retailer should be a pretty generic experience - right?  How could a Safeway garner such passionate and universal disdain?   I moved into the neighborhood and that question was answered in short order.  And most of it boils down to staffing.  While I have my occasional gripes about the selection or quality of produce, for the most part it's a pretty standard grocery store and serves the surrounding neighborhood at a basic level in that regard.  However, this store is terminally understaffed.  This is particularly true in the later evening hours, when it is not uncommon to wait fifteen minutes or more in line.  This is very irritating and ultimately, I think, must be blamed on stingy / poor management that does not want to provide sufficient coverage even if they know they have the business to justify it.   I will say that the one upside of this store is that it is open 24 hours a day.  If you live in the Mt. Vernon Triangle neighborhood it's also very conveniently located.  Regardless of the issues mentioned above, I will continue to use this Safeway (don't really have a choice honestly...). read more

Why do they not staff this place? Most of the people that work here are very nice, but they are put in impossible situations. What is the management thinking? read more

Safeway - Grocery Near Me - Washington, DC, District of Columbia

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Store is terribly organized and poorly staffed. Items that clearly aren't gluten-free are stocked on gluten-free shelves in multiple parts of the store, which puts customers with medical conditions in danger. Finally, it took me 40 minutes to check out with only 4 people in line ahead of me, and my total for two bags of basic groceries (without alcohol!) was $125. It genuinely would make more sense for my time and money to walk to Trader Joe's after work, brave the after-work crowds, and taxi home then it does to go to the Safeway around the corner. That is what I plan to do until they open another grocery store in this neighborhood. read more

Gwynne. Some unhappy woman named Gwynne who is at a check out counter is the most miserable worker I've ever met. She should be stocking shelves if she can't seem to find a way to smile at customers. Makes people feel like we are bothering her. No wonder nobody wants to go to this store. Avoid her checkout line or don't go. I'm not going here anymore. If there was a way to score zero, I would. read more

Well at the end it's a Safeway, so, I did not have high expectations but this location has definitely the worst customer service. Any time and any day, there are long lines and most of the self checkout machines don't work. read more

The staff here have gone above and beyond during the Covid-19 crisis. They have worked hard to keep the shelves stocked and have been positive and helpful in all of the interactions I've had with them. Twice, I've gone in and have bought more than I could carry, and they watched over my bags while I carried what I could across the street to my building until I returned for the rest of them They had shortages the first few days of the lockdown, but after that they have done an incredible job keeping items on the shelves. The staff put themselves at potential risk and deserve our appreciation and recognition from management (e.g., bonuses, hazard pay) for their service to the community. THANK YOU!! read more

Going to this safeway is about as pleasurable as going to the DMV. I wrote this review while waiting third in line - took about 20 minutes because there were hold ups weighing mangoes and using the credit card. Update: I'm adding 1 more star because actually they've been doing well with the registers during my past 5 or so experiences and it's been soo much better. If I see more consistency in the next few weeks, I'll add another star. read more

Please have a conversation with the woman running self checkout tonight, Oct 31 at 6:30pm, she has a major attitude problem. I hopped in the self-checkout line and was watching intently for an open spot when I was next in line. As soon as someone turned to leave I sidestepped somebody passing in front of me to go up to self checkout and the worker loudly exclaimed NEXT PERSON!!! I'm right here, you see me walking up, no need to rush me. Then while I was grabbing my groceries to leave she walked up and took my receipt and handed it to me to usher me out quicker. When I took the receipt she snapped "Really! You have to snatch it?!" And then stood there and bickered with me about how it's her job to hand me my receipt and there's no reason for me to snatch it (I literally just took the receipt from her, no ill intent). As I turned to leave she said in an extremely snarky voice, "have a nice halloween!", you know the inflection I'm talking about. A few things: 1) Rushing your customers out of the store will not convince them to come back (I definitely will not be back). 2) if you choose to hand a receipt to a customer and they grab it from you, maybe don't pick a fight with them. 3) if you are so upset and riddled with stress that you lash out over that, maybe you need to find an easier job. read more

Okay so things seem to have shifted recently. They added a bunch of self pay stations and recently updated the software so it is much quicker. More lanes seem to be open with humans as well. And the produce has improved. The selection is still limiting and random (only gluten free puff pastry in the frozen food section? No tahini? No parchment paper?). But at least they are improving. read more

- - BREAKING NEWS - - This Safeway has been re-named by its Duke: SORRY SAFEWAY. Please make a note of it. Your local Safeway #2737 is a comedy of errors, but unlike Shakespeare's play, it won't be very short unless you're visiting after midnight. I'm not an extreme couponer, but when I happen upon the big ones $3 off, $5 off, $7 off, I use them! Just last evening, I tried to redeem the $5 frozen coupon, it scanned as $0.01. The humidity-stricken blue-lipped cashier (more on that later) was unable to do anything, so she called for backup. Backup arrived, it was belligerent and loud. After pounding away at the screen, and entering "assist mode" she let out a big sigh and in protest said, "Dag, yo, I wish these fuu-," she paused and tried to calm down, "I be so happy when these coupons drop off yooo." She manually entered the $5 coupon after seeing the programming error, but it was quite an exercise to get it done. I've omitted the arduous journey back to the frozen endcap, complete with full commentary from the belligerent backup cashier woman thing so I won't spill over this 5,000 character limit. But, oh boy, it was quite a journey. The front-end of the store is severely congested and it's a miasma of stupidity, cluelessness and the epic slowness that is all too common in DC. Watching the employees bump into each other and shout back and forth is as comical as it is tragic. "Eyyy, Charlotte... where my phone at?" The saddest problem at this store is its horrific and pitiful selection of produce. It wasn't always this bad. I suspect that as the produce quality kept going down and the prices kept going up, smarter people stopped buying produce here and opted for Whole Foods instead. I mean, why buy two smaller, nearly rotten navels at $0.60/each when you can get one extra large navel that's fresh for $0.99/each? The math is easy! This organic moldy lemon barrel: http://goo.gl/HZuzk is all too common at this store. That photo was taken two weeks after I posted a much similar scene on Facebook asking Safeway how this can be allowed to happen. I also saw this: http://goo.gl/Z2Wpo and this: http://goo.gl/n80P5 and, yes, this: http://goo.gl/pMz7B There's also the other photos that I uploaded to Yelp. (The original photo of the moldy lemons, from two weeks ago, is in the Yelp photos.) Much of this produce travels from South America only to come to Safeway #2737 to be thrown away. Horrific! Anyway, back to the comedy... The preposterous crew of receipt checking sentries, which caused terrible congestion at the store's elevators and entrance/exit, have been largely disbanded due to customer outrage at the delays. While a small deterrent for some, it did seem folly that they just made a few semi-circles and a crooked line on receipts, but didn't check bags!? Customer service desk? There's never anyone there, so we'll skip that. But, in the rare case that you do find someone, she'll most likely be extremely unhelpful and not know how to perform the miracle that you're asking her for. Miracles include: Refunds on overcharged items, accepting a return for a damaged or contaminated baby product or knowing how to create a money order. At the self-check stations closest to the front door is the humidity-stricken girl, Miss. B, she is often donned by bright blue lipstick, and recently green for Halloween, luscious red for New Year's Day. Look out for her, she's quite a sight. Her hair much resembles a Looney Tunes character after being electrocuted. Yeah, it's the hair! She's neither friendly nor rude, she's just there. Another reviewer speaks of a cashier that changed the price for $4.99 vine-ripened tomatoes because the price was simply too outrageous. I've been witness to something similar. I don't care about all that, I just want in on this elite Safeway Club of deep discounts on premium tomatoes! Eh, maybe not, they're probably almost rotten! Anyway, I give this Safeway two stars only because some of their promotions are decent and the comedy value is beyond priceless. Major points deducted for wasting produce on a daily basis! I'd give Safeway three stars because they offer validated parking for $5+ of buying, but that creeps into "A-OK" territory according to Yelp, and that doesn't describe this store at all. Alas, no half-star ratings available. And if the people in Pleasanton are reading, why can't this store manager get the number of cash lanes open during busy times of day? read more

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Beautiful store....awesome location.....Horrible customer service from every department. Find me one employee of this store who isn't ghetto, lazy, short tempered, nonchalant or ooz with ignorance. This is my neighborhood store. Can't began to speak about the horrendous experience I have received from every department at this location. On opening day a couple of years back, I spoke with one of the store managers and express my gratitude for the warm welcome from the employees. He assure me that this will be the norm from every employee of that store. How wrong was he. It went down quickly, starting with him. Safeway needs to hire me to train and manage that store. I can guarantee those employees will be up to par or I will get some limited-English speaking employees in there real quick. Their English may be limited, but they will get the job done with a smile. C'mon black people......do your job and keep a smile on your face and for God sake, thank me when I shop there. Don't throw my receipt at me and move on to the next customer. Remember how enthused you were during the interview hiring process? WTF happened between then and now? Proper grammar is "You're Welcome" not "You Weh-cum". love shopping at WHOLE FOODS on P Street NW!!! read more

Clean, moody lighting, nice wine selection for a grocery store with an aesthetically appealing design. I quite like this Safeway, the third grocery store within walking distance of my house, and another nice getaway from the Infamous 'Hood Giant. The aisles are good and wide, it's pretty well stocked, and the staff was pretty friendly (one of the butcher guys saw me wandering around wide-eyed [as it was my first trip there] and could be bothered to ask if I needed help finding something. That was nice.) I found everything I needed except raisins. Where the hell do they keep those? That said, the gentrification of this store makes me itch. Like, do you really need homemade peanut butter? Or frozen portabella burgers? For real? And I'll call it the Best Grocery Store to Cause an Existential Crisis, as well. In the abundantly stocked produce section, I stared out the huge windows at abandon buildings and an old homeless woman sitting on a bench, wondering what would come of them. If that weren't good enough, I witnessed a scruffy man wantonly shoplift until I gave him a "The President is a Black, this behavior is no longer acceptable if it ever was before, I know these are hard times, but seriously" look. He promptly went to the self-checkout and emptied his pocket. Good Lord. read more

I think the requirements to be hired here (having a pulse and being able to see a person standing in front of you) should be improved. Positives - The location - They finally stopped that ridiculous practice of having to check everyones receipt before leaving. I ignored them all the time. Negatives - It is guaranteed there will never be any carts or baskets. They never replace the broken ones. - Produce section is underwhelming at best. - Staff is just awful - in every department - The place can be dirty to downright filthy - Almost everything is overpriced - There are always problems of restocking their inventory - The self-checkouts are always broken. Usually only half of them or less work. - When you walk by the meat and seafood departments there is always a fowl smell. - I always leave this place angry so I only go when it absolutely necessary. read more