How much? “…compared with the union stores, the aisles are pleasantly wide, the shopping carts all have functioning wheels, and the shelves have every kind of boxed macaroni and cheese a person could want.”
Had enough? It gets worse. Lots worse. “Most damningly, the store is well-staffed with friendly and helpful people who make the Safeway experience seem like shopping in a Russian customs line. The (I assume) lower pay lets Walmart hire more people. And however meager the wages may be, they were high enough that 23,000 people applied for 600 positions at the stores, meaning the people who got picked are probably pretty good at their jobs.”
Ow! As I understand it, Matt is kind of an Adams Morgan/U Street kind of guy, but that “Russian customs line” crack suggests to me that sometimes Matt makes it down to where I shop, at the famous/infamous “Soviet Safeway” at 17th and Corcoran. I can remember when the Double S was half the size it is now, when the meat department consisted of hamburger and canned ham, not the boned lamb and filet mignon they sell these days. But in all that time I’ve never gotten anything but courtesy from the Safeway folks, now getting squeezed by Whole Foods on the upside and Walmart on the down low. I’ve got nothing against Walmart, but you don’t have to put down Safeway to build up Wally.
Afterwords
Also nice! The new Giant at Eighth and O, which spills over into the restored O Street Market, built back in the nineteenth century!
