Let the record show that as much as I love our local mom-and-pop markets, I am also a fan of our local Safeway on Mission Street. The prices are reasonable and the selection is good, yet the store itself is relatively compact, which makes it faster and less tiresome to navigate than many other supermarkets around the City.
A major renovation a few years ago brought our store up-to-date with the Safeway chain’s “Lifestyle” store concept. (Remember when it used to look like this?) Yet amid all the transformation, I’m glad one thing hasn’t changed: Our Safeway still has those 1960s-era yin-yang logo mosaics embedded in the exterior walls, and they’re a wonderful detail.
And very Taoist: Despite all the change, the essence remains unchanged.
Photo: Telstar Logistics
Bernalwood 
My favorite part of that Safeway is the entire WALL of Jesus candles. Only in La Lengua.
How about when we had our own Safeway in Bernal, right on Cortland?
Smack-dab in-between Ellsworth and Gates next to the Cortland/Capri theatre:
nice
Wait, people actually like that Safeway? I’ve found the staff either rude, clueless, or both, and the parking lot is always littered with locked carts. As a bonus they keep the condoms behind the customer service desk, which is never staffed.
I walk to Good Life or make the drive to Diamond Heights when I need groceries.
But amen, GG, I did head straight to that Safeway on the one occasion that I needed to buy a Jesus candle.
But the lines at the checkout are always a mile long, no matter what hour you go!
I’ve bitched about the lines endlessly, but they do seem to have gotten better in the past year.
They are also carrying more local beer. Not enough, mind you, but it’s headed in the right direction.
That Mission Safeway is absolutely disgusting. I avoid it at all costs. The parking lot reminds me of 16th & Mission street.
Really? I don’t find it any better or worse than any other Safeway.
That safeway is a great place…
… to steal from.
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Yeah, the lines tend to be a problem, but I’m always happily surprised by how helpful (and fast!) the checkout people are, especially Christine. You want rude or clueless, check out any Key Food in Brooklyn… you won’t believe how good we have it out here.
(And I’m sure she’s not nice to me just b/c we have the same first name… almost sure.)
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I know this is an old article, but it’s kind of exciting to have a conversation about the Safeway with locals. The lines are always long at night, until about midnight I think. And the folks standing in those lines can be quite rude and unpleasant to the checkers. I’m nice to the checkers and they are nice back. If I was them I would be afraid of the mean customers. I think the Potrero Safeway is much nicer. But there is always parking here. I don’t drive though.
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I enjoy Safeway’s old logo as well. The new one looks like red quotation marks, when it’s placed on a light-colored background. It almost loses its meaning.
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