Safeway (Shop)

...was a lot younger, where Safeway was the only shop, sorry, the only building around.

This is mainly because our nearest store is not as close as Sainsbury’s, Asda and Tesco etc.

However it looks like the Safeway brand is set to soon disappear under the yellow and black of Morrisons after Tesco, the WalMart fuelled Asda and Sainsbury have all had their bids for the chain of about 500 stored disallowed by the Competition ...
...my opinion on the nearest Safeway store to us.

~The Store~

The store is located in St Helens, near Liverpool. Lets face it, if you live in St Helens I apologise, but the town centre is a grim place. Im not sure about the rest of St Helens but it definitely is in the town centre, where this Safeway is located.

Driving in to the store there is a barrier where you used to have to take a card for the cashier ... more

We have never been regular shoppers at Safeway’s, apart from the year we lived in a ghost town in Wales when I was a lot younger, where Safeway was the only shop, sorry, the only building around.

This is mainly because our nearest store is not as close as Sainsbury’s, Asda and Tesco etc.

However it looks like the Safeway brand is set to soon disappear under the yellow and black of Morrisons after Tesco, the WalMart fuelled Asda and Sainsbury have all had their bids for the chain of about 500 stored disallowed by the Competition Commission.

I don’t want Morrisons to get Safeway, as I basically do not like Morrisons, the way it is interiorly designed and laid out, it’s product quality and it’s general image is very dated. Even though I gave it 4 stars in my op, I have since changed my mind! Don’t get me wrong, it’s very popular, but just not my kind of shop.

Anyway, here is my opinion on the nearest Safeway store to us.

~The Store~

The store is located in St Helens, near Liverpool. Lets face it, if you live in St Helens I apologise, but the town centre is a grim place. Im not sure about the rest of St Helens but it definitely is in the town centre, where this Safeway is located.

Driving in to the store there is a barrier where you used to have to take a card for the cashier in store to stamp, to prove that you have parked in the car park to shop and not to just go in to the town centre to do some shopping. But over the last year this has been an on-off operation and most of the time they just leave the barrier up as they need all the customers they can get due to local competition.

The store from the outside is very old fashioned with some dated glass pyramid design above the entrance. Outside in the car park a lot of litter is blowing around especially outside the cash machines.

There are plenty of trollies parked outside, and you do not need a £1 coin for these which is good as in Sainsburys Morrisons and Asda you do need one. And who ever has one??

It is quite a big store. As big as an Asda store I think but a lot better in terms of space and lay-out.

~The layout~

This is better in this Safeway than in other stores I know such as Morrisons and Tesco. As with most stores you are greeted on entering with the Customer service desk, and the Cigarette and National Lottery counter.

After that is the fresh produce, and after they did away with the weigh-and-print-a-sticker-scales, the department is a lot easier to shop in.

At the rear of the store after the fruit and veg are the best fresh food counters I have seen in any store. There is a hot chicken counter, which, admittedly looks very juicy and temting, even though I hate chicken. Then there is the Deli which sells some very appetizing food, along with the pizza counter which sells pizzas loaded with toppings which have been made in the store.

The meat and fish counters are also very good, and extremely popular.

The first few aisles offer ready meals, meat fish and dairy products such as milk yoghurts and cheese. I suppose I would prefer these aisles to be at the end of the store as they may warm up by the time you have finished shopping. But then again, the bread aisle in the Tesco I work in is at the beginning of the store, so It can get crushed to bits by all the heavier stuff.

The middle of the store is concentrated on bread and cakes, and the bakery is located on the back wall.

The cleaning stuff and grocery products like beans and health and beauty is at the front.

At the end of the store is the homewares department. They also sell St. Helens rugby shirts here too.

At the front, Safeway have done away with the creche, and added a brand new home entertainment department which I love. More about products and prices later in the op!

~Cleanliness~

Lets face it, unless it has been re-fitted, a Safeway store will always be grubby. The floors are usually covered in black marks where people have stood on grapes and left dirt on the floor off their shoes etc.However, the Café is very clean, you might as well say spotless. Same goes for the toilets too. I have never seen a cleaner pushing a mop and bucket around the shop floor though, like you do in other stores.Im not saying the shop should be shut down, just it needs a bit of a spring clean.

I have been in other, newer Safeway store while on my travels around the country, and these seem to be spotlessly clean.

~Ranges~

Savers

Savers is Safeways brand of goods for the budget conscious. It is similar to the Value and Economy ranges at Tesco’s and Sainsbury. Its products are dressed in a grim dark green and red, this may be a bit gordy, but it makes the products to spot on the shelves. Prices are usually, or just above, half the price of the Safeway standard own brand equivalent. So far, I have been surprisingly impressed with products I have bought from this range, like Orange juice and white bread.

The Best

This is a range of deliciously tasting, but not so deliciously priced, food items. It is meant to be their extra special brand. The prices are considerably higher than the Safeway standard brand, but it is definitely worth every penny in taste. Its similar to Tesco Finest* and Sainsbury Taste the Difference.

The range covers fod only, including pizza, ready meals, meats, cooked meats, dairy products like yoghurts, cheese and a small range of frozen desserts.

Products I have had from the The Best range are yoghurts, Ice cream, ham and chocolate. I have absolutely devoured the lot with no problems and would definitely recommend you buy the odd item from this range. You have to reward yourself sometimes! The best is silver and black coloured on the label, so its easily identified. Very posh!

Eat smart

These include sandwiches, ready meals, yoghurts, frozen foods and other food items and is Safeway’s Healthy Eating.

I cannot comment on any of these apart from the sandwiches which, actually were quite nice.

~What else, apart from food, do they sell?~

Safeway sell items for the home such as kitchen utensils, towels and other bathroom items, home furnishings. Also, as mentioned they sell shirts for the local rugby team..

At the front where the creche used to be is a home entertainment store where they sell cd’s, dvd’s, and videos, as well as TV’s VCR’s and Hi Fi’s all at incredibly low prices. My sister bought a Hi Fi from Comet for £129 and then saw it in Safeway the month after for £79. She was gob smacked!

~Offers~

Safeway have some amazing offers, and as I gather, they have made themselves somewhat famous for them. But you have do get there quick or they will run out quite fast! A few months ago, I saw King Size bed covers for just £6.99, yes, £699! Lol.

Kitchen rolls are another favourite as well as bleach, I regularly see these on offer. You may want to check out the health and beauty section of the store too as they have bogof’s on things like expensive shampoos and conditioners quite often.

There are a lot more offers on at Safeway than Asda or Tesco.

~Availability~

Unless its on a product on offer, availability here is great compared with other places. I can regularly get everything on my list. If it was a bad day though, you might get 18 0r 19 out of a list of 20, but then again, that’s not bad.

There may be gaps on the shelves, but if you ask, they normally have it hiding in the back somewhere.

~Staff~

Staff are generally helpful. I expect them to be as working in a store myself, you are pressurised in to giving good customer service in order to not get in to trouble and keep in the good books of your section manager! There are plenty of staff about in Safeway and are recognisable in their bright green and red uniforms.

Checkout operators are cheery and chatty, and apart from the odd one, they are happy to help with packing and so on.

~Prices~

Safeways prices may actually be slightly highet than the likes of Sainsbury’s and Tesco, but I believe that this is reflected in their quality of food, other products and services. What you save on the money side, you loose in the value for money side.

And anyway, Safeway operate what is called a high-low pricing strategy. The prices are generally slightly higher than others, but you save on things you would normally buy, that are heavily slashed in price, usually below ½.

Other stores put on offers on products you wouldn’t normally consider buying, therefore it is not a bargain!

~Overall~

Safeway really are, as they say, ‘The friendliest store in town’, availability of stock is excellent, the shops are airy and wide-aisled, and the staff friendly. What more do you want from a supermarket? You want it to clean your house I hear you say?

Lightening the Load

www.safeway.co.uk

Safeway stores Ltd
Hayes
Middlesex
UK

Thanks for the read! M x

~~THIS STORE HAS NOW CLOSED DOWN SINCE I WROTE THE REVIEW. IT WAS GOING TO BE A MORRISONS, BUT THERE IS ALREADY ONE THERE. IT WAS SOLD TO TESCO, AND IS NOW A TESCO SUPERSTORE. I DON'T SHOP THERE, I ALREADY WORK AT A TESCO STORE NEARER TO ME. GONE, BUT NOT FORGOTTEN, SAFEWAY-LIGHTENING THE LOAD~~

 

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