Terry K.

I've lived near and shopped Safeway (Fountain, CO; #1975) for close to 17 years. It was my regular food shopping market, until recently. Several times over the years, they've run out of hand baskets. And without exception, I'll mention it to a manager or floor staff employee. And without exception, the employee will say (paraphrasing), "We're not buying any more. Too many people walk out with them." Within a few weeks, a new supply is on the floor. Weak excuse. This Fountain branch can't be any different than any other supermarket, with the # of handbasket thefts. But... I've never known of any other supermarket not always having them available. And, I was informed that the Fountain branch leads Colorado Safeways' sales. And so it's fair to assume their profits are excellent. As one so familiar, I tried to not shop in the late afternoon, as it's *very* crowded.

Considering their profits, and the fact there's no way they're losing more than 1-3 handbaskets/day, at a wholesale cost that shouldn't be over $15 (possibly half that... cheap molded plastic with simple metal handle), as such, that overhead cost can make a blip of loss to their net profits. And it makes no sense to have rush hour shoppers forced to use a cart, increasing congestion with the added space the carts take up.

And I've noticed their prices have skyrocketed on lots of staple items. Hormel lunch meat (8 oz)...$8. $16/lb for (non-organic) regular deli lunch meat? $5.80 for a standard size Smart Balance Light Mayo? $10 for a single (8 oz, I believe) serving pre-cut fresh salmon filet from the meat section? The same size chunk, cooked, deliciously seasoned and with a big portion of steamed broccoli in a relatively nice dining environment with wait service at Applebee's is only $6 more ($16). Trader Joe's (north end of town) has fresh salmon for what looks like around half the cost. Walmart has the same Hormel deli lunch meat, twice the size (16 oz.) for...$4. That's exactly 1/4th of what Safeway charges.

Most people know that Walmart's prices will beat most of the traditional supermarkets (Albertsons, King Sooper, Safeway, etc.), but Safeway's prices have increased the gap recently to what's probably an average of well over 50% savings on consumers' most popular items. And Walmart makes the very simple investment to have anti-theft detectors connected to the handbaskets (w/entry detectors of course). No excuses, and no hassle to the customer.

I think maybe I should thank Safeway for upsetting me to the point where I've now switched to Walmart and Trader Joe's on the majority of my regular shopping items. I just bought TJ's deli lunch meat (looks like unprocessed, unground-up and reformed) breast meat, i. E., much better than Hormel's too-thin cut chicken meat-like deli meat for $4.79 for 7 oz. Higher quality for nearly a 1/3rd less cost. And... TJ's always has tons of handbaskets.

Safeway appears to have succumbed to the big corporation greed that too often comes with it. Fortunately, stores like Trader Joe's maintain an easily noticeably higher standard of quality, TASTE (their products are healthier and taste better than the typical "equivalent" sold by any typical big corp supermarket) and lower prices... makes it easy to switch.