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Safeway re-installs self checkout

Posted: January 26th, 2019, 12:04 am
by storewanderer
About 3 years ago the Safeway in Sparks, NV took its self checkouts out. I assume some kind of Albertsons decision, but this was the only store in NorCal that I saw remove them... maybe there were others.

I was in the store last night and they are returning the self checkouts now. Right back where they were before they took them out. They also expanded the Starbucks kiosk (completely new larger kiosk was installed). The Smiths remodel down the road must really be hurting them to see that they have made these changes. This is very positive.

Still no lighting "modification" or other change to the store and execution in fresh areas in this store... continues to have some good days but still quite a few bad days.

I wonder if this will happen on a wider scale with some of the other divisions that so aggressively removed self checkouts from dozens of stores like SoCal and Portland. Frankly, it needs to. This has put them at a real competitive disadvantage having poor front end service. Today's consumer is no longer used to being forced to wait in line. Too many stores have numerous self checkouts that make the waiting in line thing "optional."

Re: Safeway re-installs self checkout

Posted: February 4th, 2019, 11:21 am
by Alpha8472
I believe that the Starbucks kiosk is owned by Starbucks, but staffed by Safeway employees. Starbucks probably was pushing for a larger kiosk to improve sales and preparation times. I have seen several Safeway stores in my area upgrade to a larger kiosk to handle more volume.

Re: Safeway re-installs self checkout

Posted: February 4th, 2019, 1:41 pm
by BreakingThrough
The Starbucks inside my local Vons (Southern Calif.) was recently remodeled to a bigger kiosk. The biggest upgrade coming from the new kiosk: an oven, so they can sell the whole line of Starbucks hot foods. It took one month for them to do what seems like a simple job. The cashiers say they lost many regulars in the process, but overall business is up due to the pastry offering.

The past two Fridays, the Starbucks has been running what I consider to be an obscene deal: ANY grande beverage (incl. fancy Frappucinos) + ANY pastry for $5. Upgrade to a venti for $1 more. That's an insane deal.

Re: Safeway re-installs self checkout

Posted: February 5th, 2019, 7:05 pm
by storewanderer
This is the first "larger kiosk" I've seen in NorCal Division. And they have some pretty high volume Starbucks with the smaller kiosks still (may be space issues in some stores).

Starbucks price increases may be having an impact on traffic. Also they typically throw a lot of pastries once afternoon hits, so running this $5 combo is basically a way to discount the pastries and throw fewer of them away. Safeway also has higher Starbucks prices than the freestanding locations on regular items, so that may be helping to subsidize the discounting they are doing.