Safeway Lifestyle signage problems

[Super S]

I have been noticing a pattern lately, of recently remodeled Safeway stores around Portland & Southwest Washington which have updated to the new signage outside. Nearly every location I have driven by at night has had part of at least one sign not working correctly..I have seen several S logos flickering or not working, the whole "SAFEWAY" letters flashing on and off like a strobe light, as well as random letters flashing on and off at what appear to be regular intervals...one I saw has the "F" and the "WAY" flashing together. What's worse, some of these signs remain in this state for a year or more. Has Safeway been having this problem elsewhere? It seems like they would be more selective about this, given they are going for a more "upscale" appearance.

[Alpha8472]

In my area, Safeway has recently been replacing the old signs with the new signs. I haven't seen the signs at night.

However, it is the local or regional sign maker that is responsible for a low quality product. The signs are installed during the day and maybe they were not tested in the dark. If you see a malfunctioning sign you should contact Safeway's Corporate Office and complain. Safeway should have a warranty where the sign maker is obligated to fix the defective sign.

The store manager might not notice that the sign is broken. The manager might get there when it is light and then leave the store without looking back at the sign.

[Super S]

In my area, Safeway has recently been replacing the old signs with the new signs. I haven't seen the signs at night.

However, it is the local or regional sign maker that is responsible for a low quality product. The signs are installed during the day and maybe they were not tested in the dark. If you see a malfunctioning sign you should contact Safeway's Corporate Office and complain. Safeway should have a warranty where the sign maker is obligated to fix the defective sign.

The store manager might not notice that the sign is broken. The manager might get there when it is light and then leave the store without looking back at the sign.

I sent off an email to Safeway which went unanswered. I am not a huge fan of how Safeway does business with their club cards etc. and rarely shop there at all. I would think, however, that SOMEBODY who works there would have noticed this, especially at the one location where the sign has had problems for well over a year.

[storewanderer]

Try posting a message about it over at the Safeway message board on Yahoo.

There was a Safeway gas station in Sparks, NV that has had problems for years with their digital gas sign not showing prices. At one point, they were printing large numbers on sheets of paper and taping them to the sign. Usually, the sign was shut off. For months, I posted on the Yahoo SWY Message Board about this Sparks Store not having its gas sign turned on.

Finally, one time a few months ago, I jokingly posted that SWY needs to give up on the digital price sign since they can't seem to get it to work and go back to the old style billboard sign that most other gas stations in the area have, all of which post prices on a regular basis unless the price slides are blown away due to wind. I'll be damned, but a couple weeks later I was driving by this SWY and what did I see but an old style billboard price sign installed at the gas station.

So, they fixed the sign problem, by installing a new sign, exactly as i (jokingly) suggested.

Another story: back in late December, I posted a message about the Reno Kietzke SWY having at least 1/3 of the lights burnt out and one of the two entry doors "broken" since summer. I went back into the store a couple days later to find the door fixed and the lights all turned on.

[Alpha8472]

Safeway only gets things done if they see a possible profit. A malfunctioning gas sign would possibly cause a loss in gas sales. They put in a new sign because they didn't want to lose any sales.

The lighted signs on a Safeway are probably a low priority for them. People know that the store is a Safeway. Even if the sign were barely on, people can tell that it is a supermarket. In fact, people's attention is attracted by flashing lights and other abnormal visual patterns. A malfunctioning sign actually draws more attention.

With regard to Safeway's Club cards, they certainly cause annoyance for everyone. If you don't have your card, you have to spend time to type in a phone number. The Gas Rewards program is totally useless to most people. I believe you had to spend $400 just to get a gas discount card. If you lost the card, you were basically out of luck. You have to spend the gas card only at ARCO. ARCO is not exactly the cheapest place and driving out of the way to save a few cents on gas is not really worth it. You could save more money by going to a cheaper gas station. If you don't spend $400 by a certain date, all of your rewards points expire. ARCO also has a cash only policy at most of their stations. Their stations have had many problems with card skimmers.

The original San Francisco Marina Safeway recently had its old sign replaced with a new Lifestyle Sign. It is too bad, since the original Marina was so very classic. Now that the old sign is gone, the store just does not look classic anymore. The store used to look just like it did in the movie Dirty Harry.