Fresh Deli

The prepared foods side of the deli has the typical Lifestyle offerings (sandwiches, Chinese food, and chicken), along with a sushi counter, something Safeway has added to quite a few stores in recent years. It also has something you'd be hard pressed to find in a Seattle-area store -- an employee! 😉 It's been years since I've bought stuff from Safeway delis on a regular basis, and that's mostly due to the lack of staffing (typically at best they will have one employee running the entire deli, both the cold and prepared foods sides), along with prices (particularly on deli meats) that have gone through the roof. 

The decor is pretty nice over here, but other than that this isn't a particularly presentable scene -- that floor looks terrible, and the patchy ceiling gives the impression that no one cares about this store, despite the cool local-themed decor.

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  1. Anonymous in HoustonMay 6, 2024 at 9:53 PM

    If you don't look too closely, the lines on the tile scar almost makes this terrible floor look like the older Lifestyle fake wood planks! Obviously, if you look closer, you quickly realize that is no Lifestyle fake wood! While I typically associate terrible tile scarring with grocers like HEB and Kroger, I've seen some Safeways in photos, especially ones which are probably run by the Denver/Colorado division, which look as bad as the worst Kroger tile scar out there. I don't think Oregon Safeways use concrete floors as often as some other Safeway divisions. That's certainly a good thing given what we're seeing here, but it is sad that this store's floor looks so rough! Mismatching ceiling tiles at Safeway is certainly a more common problem.

    When I visited the Safeways and that Albertsons in Portland, the delis were quite busy with customers. The Gresham Safeway on NE Division St. had an especially busy deli, but maybe I was there at the right time around dinnertime. I figured that the high prices of fast food in Oregon maybe drove people to supermarket delis more (Fred Meyer's delis were also pretty busy, though maybe less so than Safeway). That Gresham Safeway in particular was just busy all around. It seemed like everyone was buying whole cartfuls of stuff which is something you don't see so much around here.

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    1. Northwest RetailMay 7, 2024 at 7:40 PM

      Ha! Maybe they're scars from the woodgrain flooring this store used to have, though it typically didn't extend that far from the deli cases.

      I've seen Safeway's delis around here get pretty busy too, but that doesn't stop them from understaffing them, just like lines halfway through the store don't stop them from only having one checkout open! I'm hardly ever there around peak deli time, however.

      On a side note, check this out! No one's quite sure what it is yet, but it's pretty cool!

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