Safeway Inc. Spokane, WA - I have faithfully shopped at your Francis Street Safeway store for many years. The Francis Street store paved the way for me being a long time customer.

Safeway Inc. Spokane, WA - I have faithfully shopped at your Francis Street Safeway store for many years. The Francis Street store paved the way for me being a long time customer.

Safeway Inc. Spokane, WA

I have faithfully shopped at your Francis Street Safeway store for many years. The Francis Street store paved the way for me being a long time customer. Over the years I got to know the checkers and video store clerks by first name and was very pleased to shop there at any time. I would deliberately go out of my way in any part of town to use Safeway fuel in all of our vehicles and have always appreciated the three-cent discount I received with my Safeway Card. This Summer I moved to a new part of town and can no longer commute to my old Safeway Store. I am now located very close to a Tidyman’s Store but have been going out of my way all year to head to your Third Street Safeway in Downtown Spokane for my groceries, and traveling clear up to your Shadle location for fuel. I noticed the service at the third street location was not as friendly compared to what I was used to but I continued to shop there anyway. We are fairly frequent shoppers and visit the store at least 3 times a week. Part of my routine is to cash my check at the Customer Service Booth every Wednesday and do a majority of my shopping then. My bank is also on the North side of town and it is much more convenient to cash it at Safeway and shop at the same time.

The following is the part of the situation that has me so upset that I may never shop at your store again. I was at your Customer Service Booth and waited for about 5 minutes while 2 grocery checkers just looked at me occasionally without calling assistance or offering to help. It was about 3:30 PM and the store was fairly slow. There were 2 check stands open and there was never more than one person in line at a time while I was patiently waiting. Finally a nice young lady walked up and asked me if I had been helped and I told her I was still waiting. She then walked over to the Head Checker (His Name Is Jay) and let him know I needed assistance. He hollered from halfway across the store in a stern voice, “It’s going to be at least twenty minutes before I can help you and I can’t even guarantee that. At this time he had one person waiting in line to be helped. I felt that the store was not very busy at all and if he were to have given me 3 minutes of his time to assist me, the other checker would have only had 2 customers in her line waiting. Instead, he stood there and continued to serve one or two customers at a time in his lane and completely ignored me.

I finally left and have not been back for nearly a month. I paid about $6 for each check I cashed at your store and this was on a weekly basis. Because of one rude person you have put in charge, you no longer get that weekly cut out of my check but you also have lost a very loyal customer who did ALL of their shopping, fueling and video rentals at Safeway up until this point. I can’t begin to tally up the amount I normally spend on groceries at Safeway but with a household of 5 children you can assure it is not a small amount. Even more, I now purchase fuel for all 3 of our vehicles at regular gas station right across the street from this store, even though I am paying an average of 2-3 cents more now. I know this store is probably one of your least desirable locations but the bottom line is that not everyone who shops there is an undesirable person. For your staff to treat me with such a lack of respect has really given me a bitter feeling for Safeway.

I know Safeway is Union and that this letter will likely do no good, but I would hope that at the very least, Jay would be told that his actions are affecting the store in more ways than he may think. As I stated earlier, this is not a desirable location for any store so perhaps Jay feels he is surrounded by people inferior to himself. Perhaps he should be transferred to a more prestigious store so that he may be surrounded by more "suitable" clientele. Shopping is not a high point of people’s day and the last thing they need is to be treated poorly at a place where they spend a large portion of their salaries. Thank you for hearing me. Jesse.

Safeway Inc.

W. 1617 Third Ave

Spokane, WA 99224

Spokane Home Guide

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