A look at what's going on in Trinidad, on H Street, and in the larger area north of Capitol Hill.
Saturday, March 27, 2010
Brentwood Giant Grand Opening Today
The Giant store at the Brentwood Shopping Center apparently got a facelift.
12 comments:
Anonymous
said...
The new Giant is great, clean, friendly and has self check outs. Now maybe the Safeway in the Starburst will do the same or close. That place is a hell hole. -Russ
inked is right, amazing how poor hiring and training practices can kill a business. they could remodel that safeway out of gingerbread and solid gold, and it would still suck.
I can't understand the complaints about the Safeway above the Starburst. In terms of looks, cleanliness, *and* stock, it's much much nicer than the one down 14th Street SE near Potomac Avenue Metro.
The only complaint I have with the Starburst Safeway is the waiting time to check out. It takes about two times as long as it should. But if you look and see who is waiting in the lines you can save yourself some time there. Other that that it is a Safeway, it stocks what the people who shop there buy. I would say the staff does a pretty good job and is friendly.
After several years of going to the Starbust Safeway, I gave up on the frustrations and go to the SE Safeway (much better customer service) or the Harris Teeter (much better stock).
What was wrong with the Starburst Safeway? (1) checkout people VERY slow, very inattentive (never remembered coupons until too late), surly; (2) a customer base lacking in social skills (maybe 1 in 10 knew how to park their cart in a way that others could pass); (3) much less variety of items than the SE Safeway; (4) no carts available 1/2 the time I went there; (5) an 80% chance of being accosted by drunk guys trying to get you to pay them to help you take your bags to the car; (6) checkout lines rivalling mid-80s Poland; (7) no recycling bin for returning used shopping bags.
Recent visits, though rare, have proved that it hasn't gotten much better.
Yeah, the customer service is horrible. 1. they never have enough lines open. Occasionally I get a very nice check out person. I think this is mostly an understaffing issue. You work anyone too hard and they will be surly (I've worked retail). When the hell can we get self serve lines?
2. They always have carts when I'm there, but I used to go to the Stop N'Shop in New Haven that I swear had like 10 carts.
3. In 8.5 years of shopping there, I have never been accosted by a drunk guy who wanted to carry my groceries. Maybe he just thinks you're cute.
4. No recycling bin. Yeah, other stores have them, why can't we?
stopped into the giant. they did a pretty good job pulling it all together. even restriped the parking lot, planted new shrubbery and fixed up the traffic islands in the parking lot. hopefully they won't be driven over by trucks within a week...
What are they going to do about all the loitering in front of the store and parking lot? I don't go there any more because of all the creepy stares I get from the mexicans standing around.
Safeway is a Safeway is a Safeway. The reason I dont shop there is because the last time i was at the starburst safeway a woman started screaming at me because I would not use her food stamps to by my groceries and give her cash. This was at the check out and when I asked the cashier for help she told me to buy them that i was getting a good deal. I had to call security over myself and still no one saw the problem in this illegal activity.
12 comments:
The new Giant is great, clean, friendly and has self check outs. Now maybe the Safeway in the Starburst will do the same or close. That place is a hell hole.
-Russ
Russ,
that Safeway underwent a similar "facelift" a couple of years back. They just never improved staffing or stocking practices.
inked is right, amazing how poor hiring and training practices can kill a business. they could remodel that safeway out of gingerbread and solid gold, and it would still suck.
I can't understand the complaints about the Safeway above the Starburst. In terms of looks, cleanliness, *and* stock, it's much much nicer than the one down 14th Street SE near Potomac Avenue Metro.
The only complaint I have with the Starburst Safeway is the waiting time to check out. It takes about two times as long as it should. But if you look and see who is waiting in the lines you can save yourself some time there. Other that that it is a Safeway, it stocks what the people who shop there buy.
I would say the staff does a pretty good job and is friendly.
After several years of going to the Starbust Safeway, I gave up on the frustrations and go to the SE Safeway (much better customer service) or the Harris Teeter (much better stock).
What was wrong with the Starburst Safeway? (1) checkout people VERY slow, very inattentive (never remembered coupons until too late), surly; (2) a customer base lacking in social skills (maybe 1 in 10 knew how to park their cart in a way that others could pass); (3) much less variety of items than the SE Safeway; (4) no carts available 1/2 the time I went there; (5) an 80% chance of being accosted by drunk guys trying to get you to pay them to help you take your bags to the car; (6) checkout lines rivalling mid-80s Poland; (7) no recycling bin for returning used shopping bags.
Recent visits, though rare, have proved that it hasn't gotten much better.
Safeway:
Yeah, the customer service is horrible.
1. they never have enough lines open. Occasionally I get a very nice check out person. I think this is mostly an understaffing issue. You work anyone too hard and they will be surly (I've worked retail).
When the hell can we get self serve lines?
2. They always have carts when I'm there, but I used to go to the Stop N'Shop in New Haven that I swear had like 10 carts.
3. In 8.5 years of shopping there, I have never been accosted by a drunk guy who wanted to carry my groceries. Maybe he just thinks you're cute.
4. No recycling bin. Yeah, other stores have them, why can't we?
stopped into the giant. they did a pretty good job pulling it all together. even restriped the parking lot, planted new shrubbery and fixed up the traffic islands in the parking lot. hopefully they won't be driven over by trucks within a week...
What are they going to do about all the loitering in front of the store and parking lot? I don't go there any more because of all the creepy stares I get from the mexicans standing around.
Safeway is a Safeway is a Safeway. The reason I dont shop there is because the last time i was at the starburst safeway a woman started screaming at me because I would not use her food stamps to by my groceries and give her cash. This was at the check out and when I asked the cashier for help she told me to buy them that i was getting a good deal. I had to call security over myself and still no one saw the problem in this illegal activity.
Some random guy once tried to sell me stamps in the starburst safeway.
You can always buy a bootleg movie that came out the day bfore right outside the brentwood giant
the fire lane out front seems to be long term parking for the ever so privileged. i've never gone when there hasn't been multiple cars parked there.
i've havent been to the facelifted giant yet, but they've had self check out for a long time.
and for all its problems, i blame management, not the individual cashiers. poor training, poor management is not their fault.
trader joes, for some reason, has lighting fast baggers and cashiers at every single store. every grocer could learn a lesson from them.
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