Op-Ed on Coeur d'Aline Albertsons

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storewanderer
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Op-Ed on Coeur d'Aline Albertsons

Post by storewanderer »

Wow, sounds just like a Safeway... surprised to hear it still has self checkout.




http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/hbo/2017 ... s-decline/


"Yesterday the line was 12 deep with one checker and another one managing self checkout. This was at 5 pm."
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Re: Op-Ed on Coeur d'Aline Albertsons

Post by storewanderer »

They responded to the op-ed in the newspaper.

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/hbo/2017 ... criticism/
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Re: Op-Ed on Coeur d'Aline Albertsons

Post by klkla »

Very professional response. Instead of making excuses they outlined how they were going to correct the problem.

Whether they actually follow through and correct the problem is yet to be seen.
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Re: Op-Ed on Coeur d'Aline Albertsons

Post by storewanderer »

I think Boise is on the right page as far as how things should be and how the stores should be operated...

It is the Safeway Divisions that are failing to execute properly and continue with their previous poor standards. This Albertsons, being operated by Safeway Seattle Division, is unfortunately a victim of that. Hopefully they will follow through. Somehow Boise needs to get its own people out into the Safeway Divisions to give them a better sense of urgency at addressing issues.

The old Albertsons, under Larry Johnston, one of the few good things they did was implement very strict standards for customer service call center processes. When you called the call center, which was in Boise and manned by actual Albertsons employees, first off, it was open real late hours, until like 11 PM or something. And when you called and had an issue, the call center put you on hold, then called the store to speak to the people at the store and attempt to address the problem. I recall one situation where the store refused to honor the posted price on a sale sign on something/scan guarantee for some rather odd reason, something about meat items priced as tagged. I called the 1-800 number from the parking lot and they put me on hold for a few minutes then told me they just called the store and spoke to them and told me to go back in and speak to the supervisor on duty and they would provide one package free and any additional packages at the posted price. I went back in and the issue was resolved immediately. Now that the new Albertsons operates customer service using the Safeway call center, first off, it is open limited hours. Second, when you call and file a complaint, the service is terrible and nothing is resolved, a call back may or may not happen, and the people at the call center do not seem to clearly even understand company policies (I had one tell me scan guarantee was "up to the store manager" and another try to tell me when I called about not getting 4x fuel points on a gift card purchase for a Shell gift card, when the ad clearly said "ALL GIFT CARDS" that the promotion was only on Safeway gift cards (which actually per the policy earn zero fuel points...).
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Re: Op-Ed on Coeur d'Aline Albertsons

Post by pseudo3d »

storewanderer wrote:I think Boise is on the right page as far as how things should be and how the stores should be operated...

It is the Safeway Divisions that are failing to execute properly and continue with their previous poor standards. This Albertsons, being operated by Safeway Seattle Division, is unfortunately a victim of that. Hopefully they will follow through. Somehow Boise needs to get its own people out into the Safeway Divisions to give them a better sense of urgency at addressing issues.

The old Albertsons, under Larry Johnston, one of the few good things they did was implement very strict standards for customer service call center processes. When you called the call center, which was in Boise and manned by actual Albertsons employees, first off, it was open real late hours, until like 11 PM or something. And when you called and had an issue, the call center put you on hold, then called the store to speak to the people at the store and attempt to address the problem. I recall one situation where the store refused to honor the posted price on a sale sign on something/scan guarantee for some rather odd reason, something about meat items priced as tagged. I called the 1-800 number from the parking lot and they put me on hold for a few minutes then told me they just called the store and spoke to them and told me to go back in and speak to the supervisor on duty and they would provide one package free and any additional packages at the posted price. I went back in and the issue was resolved immediately. Now that the new Albertsons operates customer service using the Safeway call center, first off, it is open limited hours. Second, when you call and file a complaint, the service is terrible and nothing is resolved, a call back may or may not happen, and the people at the call center do not seem to clearly even understand company policies (I had one tell me scan guarantee was "up to the store manager" and another try to tell me when I called about not getting 4x fuel points on a gift card purchase for a Shell gift card, when the ad clearly said "ALL GIFT CARDS" that the promotion was only on Safeway gift cards (which actually per the policy earn zero fuel points...).
The Deer Valley Corporate Center, where the call center and other functions are, like accounting, are holdovers from Safeway, and it seems fairly obvious why the call center employees are clueless on the Albertsons stores. I don't know how much purging Albertsons has done there (toward the end of the pre-Albertsons Safeway, the Phoenix division was moved into the campus, but now that Albertsons Southwest has taken over, that may no longer be the case). They need to add a second call center in the process, closer to the East Coast. Remember, under Safeway, they had no stores in the East Coast save for the Eastern division (which lost stores after Genuardi's), Dominick's (which closed in 2015), and the dying Texas division, but under Albertsons, they have Eastern, Shaw's/Star Market, ACME, the larger South division, and Jewel-Osco.
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