Trudie C.
Yelp
Every Portland, Oregon Safeway I have been to, and Albertson's also, has the most incompetent and insolent deli staff of any grocery deli I have visted in the entire country. The store on NE Broadway between 10th & 11th is no different. The company seems to hire a lot of people who suffer from developmental disabilities and anger management issues, in order to get the kickback on their wages from the federal government. I am all for everyone being able to work if they want to and earn a wage, and I also have no problem with the government reimbursing the company for those wages. However, the people should be properly trained. I have had cheese sliced paper thin, even tho I told the person what to set the slicer on. This woman proceeded to become angry and tell me it couldn't be changed. Many of the staff will also wad up sliced Havarti, which is expensive, and mash it all together in a ball. Today, I saw a new man there. I smiled with high hopes as he ignored me. He walked to the hot bar and served the people who came up after me instead of serving me. As he served them, more people lined up for the hot bar. He looked at me a few times. A guy came from the back to tell me that the other guy would wait on me. By the time he got to the fourth person who was there after me, he yelled down at me to say the line formed at the hot bar. By that time there were 5 more people waiting. I walked away. I used to work at a deli, and when you come out from the back or look up from a task, you turn your head and scan the entire length of the cases, the hot bar, the cold side, all of it. It seems the workers at this Safeway have not been instructed on how to turn their heads from side to side. If it is protocol to have people wanting sliced cheese to go to the opposite end of the deli to wait, there should be a sign to that effect. This happens a lot at this location, and it is always the people with DD doing it. One day, the short middle aged woman who works there was so bad I had to wait in line to complain about her to the store manager. It was ridiculous. He said there is a big turn over and I would be seeing new faces. I explained how I have seen this woman's coworkers, the nice hard working young men who seem to come and go from there, holler for her to help only to have her refuse and go bend over and clean a spill with a paper towel that is in the back while 8 people were waiting at the cases. The woman in front of me had similar tales about this horrible deli employee, and all of us told him he should fire her. She is still there. She has no idea how to provide customer service, and anyone who manages to get hired there who is any good is gone within a few weeks. Safeway has a problem, they don't properly train their deli staff. Every Safeway in Portland I have went to, Hawthorne, Sandy, the Albertson's on Cully, the NE Broadway location, has extremely rude and inept deli staff who never seem to get fired. All the other workers come and go but the bottom of the barrel somehow keep their job. When have use of my car, I drive out east to Winco rather than deal with the complete farce that is the Broadway Safeway.