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A Safeway insider has tipped us off to a serious and highly volatile issue that has transpired in recent days among Safeway employees, their union, and Safeway management. Word on the street is that Safeway is encouraging checkers to ask customers to donate to one of four charities. OK, that's nothing unusual. We're all used to this type of annoyance. However, Safeway employees have checked with their union and confirmed that they are not, in fact, required to ask customers to donate. OK, this sounds normal to us, too. However, Safeway management caught wind of their employees consulting the union and have retaliated against employees who refuse to ask customers for donations. Said employees have been transferred to less than desirable Safeway locations with less than desirable hours. Employees with reasonable stature and seniority have been relocated with no warning and not even a chance to say goodbye to former coworkers or loyal customers.
What's up with that?
We're also wondering what the big deal is with these donations. If they're donations, and go to charities like March of Dimes and Easter Seals, what would it matter to Safeway if their checkers were asking for donations or not? Hmm.
Something stinks. We're not sure if it's their Rancher's Reserve or the way they treat their employees.
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Another reason to "Just say NO to Safeway"
I got gas from Ranchers Reserve Beef the last time I had it.
I think sfist is overly fixated on union issues. Important, interesting stuff, but this doesn's fit within the "ist" mandate, in my mind.
Yes, this is true. At my safeway, the district manager sent a memo (which I saw in the office as I was copying something) which stated that management had to observe employees asking for a donation (aren't groceries expensive enough), and management had their trusty employees state that it was part of the job description and that if we didn't ask it was a "job performance" issue. A sign stating such was posted by the timeclock. Each store has a target donation number to reach, and store managers get pressured--which makes this a human interest story, because increasingly employees are treated badly. Forget the union, which does little or nothing, except offer a buffer, but the union is never around when stuff like this comes down. And safeway is slippery in delivering this message to employees....
March of Dimes has been a target of protests because they continue to support and animal testing.
A number of organizations have asked them to stop, but alas they won't... Donate to someone else.
Guest 1, I think I know the reason you got gas from the beef. Your body was trying to expel a piece of dead animal muscle and lymph fat from your ass.
Maybe if you stop by a "ghetto graveyard" Safeway (like the one on 51st St. in Oakland) at 3am, you'll find the "Deep Throat" who might blow the lid off this whole conspiracy...
Anonymous #2, I would love to know what the "-ist mandate" is.
There's an "-ist" that I see, where the children are free... And you an me are free to be you and me.
This brings up something I've wondered about...
If I make a donation to a charity it is tax deductible. If I make a donation through an entity such as Safeway I still list it on my taxes as a contribution. Then Safeway turns around and takes the money and donates it and writes it off as a charitable contribution on their taxes. Double deductions?
When the place is jam-packed and the lines are long I don't think those people waiting behind me are feeling charitable when I hold things up to make a donation and fill out the little slip that goes along with it. The Safeway at the beach got around this by having someone stationed near the door soliciting donations - although she didn't look to comfortable doing it. I much prefer that way then being dinged when at the check out stand.
I think the ist mandate is to cover local news and events. Muni tips, nutty politics and policians, sports stories, business stories.
This Safeway story seems like a bit of a stretch to me. And I've noticed that sfist goes a little heavy on the union beat-- this story in particular is on the obscure side.
Editor-- what do you think? Am I off base on this mandate? Please do tell me if I cam.
We've had some unpleasant things to say about unions in the past. But according to Google, out of thousands of posts, SFist's only written about 100 about unions.
Guest #9 (and presumably #2 as well): Since I am an editor-at-large and long-time contributor for this site, I guess I was being a little facetious.
I think your take on the "mandate" is pretty close, but overly limiting. Our writers are encouraged to write about whatever interests them so long as San Francisco, and to an extend the greater Bay Area, factors largely into the backdrop or subject.
My bad for failing to mention that all this Safeway drama is going down in San Francisco proper.
And just an FYI, don't expect to find any fresh milk at the Diamond Heights Safeway. Their refrigerator system is busted.
First you have to navigate beyond those asking for a donation and/or a signature on a petition everytime you walk into and out of the damn store, and now you get hit up at the register as well.
Maybe I'm being silly, but I really dislike being hit up for money 3 times on each visit to a Safeway where I am already over spending due to their crazy mark-ups.
I go to Safeway less and less even though it is convenient, and find myself going to Trader Joe's more and more, even though it is a hassle to get there.
Interesting comment, #8, above, about these donations being tax-deductable.
If both Safeway and the customers are taking double tax deductions, IRS is going to smell something fishy.
But what if Safeway holds on to the $$/donations for a year, and then donates it? That way the customer can claim it for themselves, and Safeway can claim it for themselves the following year, after they have reaped a year's worth of $$INTEREST$$, which one would assume, the store gets to keep. Not to mention the bonus that the manager might get? I'm just sayin'...
If Safeway wants to donate to some charities they certainly can WITH THEIR OWN MONEY. They shouldn't be PIMPING their employees to gather donations. And they shouldn't put the arm on their employees to give out of their own pockets either.
Maybe, just maybe, instead of playing the union/management game, they could just try to work it out? I don't give at the register (I give on my own) but playing the union card, or the retaliation card, is STUPID on this topic! Part of the reason safeway prices are so high is the union wages - and if we have to pay for union leaders to play this silly game, it will just make prices go up!
Well, I'm a regular sfist reader, and I'm very interested in this story. I don't know what the "ist" mandate is, but Gawker has pretty much cornered the market on relentless, shallow snarkiness -- I would just like to know what is going on in my town (including abuses of workers by large supermarket chains), and the lord knows SF Gate is not providing a very complete picture.
Let's see how the system works...first, you get panhandled by homless coming into the store, you get halted by paid petition-gatherers going into the store, you get asked by every clerk you encounter if you need help (which they are compelled to do by Safeway), and then, as you try to get through the checkstand, you undergo compulsory pahhandling by another Safeway employee on behalf of the company...and if the employee objects to sticking the Safeway styrofoam in your face, the employee gets disciplined. Hell, I'd be at the Union Hall before the sun came up. Ridiculous policy, unfairly applied.
By post #3, thanks. I'm an old-timer who could tell you a story or two. Clerks are in a unique position of power of sorts, because they get to actually communicate with the community, face-to-face. But increasingly their communication is dictated by management, who are always in the shadows, afraid of giving in to customers, discouraged perhaps of actually getting to know the community in which they work. How odd. What employees need if you shop the stores is support, indeed, esp. as the contract comes up this year. Most people shop by location, the corner store. It is better to make conscious decisions, of course. Maybe Safeway isn't right for you. Maybe you should let your voice be heard....
I come from a different perspective. As a long time employee of Safeway I see it this way. As an employee I get asked to do more and more. At the checkstand in particular I tell you about your card savings, your air miles, what is the latest sale promotion and a variety of other things. Now at the end of that I am required to ask you for a donation. MOST customers just want to get their groceries and get on with their lives, others who have had less than a prefect day will share that bad day with me for any number of reasons from not having what they wanted to lines too long because we need to talk too much. As your clerk, I feel my job should be to check you out and relay your concerns. Only too often the buck stops with me when customers want to vent,(take the next step: use the customer cards or tell management). As for the people who think Unions are the reason for the high prices, please visit or that notice of your neighborhood Safeway. Here in SF the one on 7th Ave. has been torn down and is being rebuilt, ALL the others re being remodled, that costs millions of dollars. Why should the people who work for this company be criticized for their unionism, it is one of the factors that made us choose this job over others and we help set the standard for other retailers. Most of us also have other jobs as well to make ends meet. Case in point, Whole Foods (non union) still high prices. We get it from both sides,I still LIKE WHAT I DO, could there be any outside criticism about what you do?
hey #16, do you really think MY 25 cent raise affects the prices of your groceries as much as the 11 million dollar bonus steve byrd got last year? one only has to read the business section to see how much safeway has spent on thier remodeling "lifestyle" program. as #20 said, it has cost millions of dollars. i believe i read over 100 million. THAT is more likely to be the culprit of high prices because you can see that thier profit is still doing fine even with that layout of cash. please don't blame the workers for high prices, our wages have no where near kept up with inflation. we have to shop and pay the same high prices too.
i hate to admit that if the union wasn't around, whole foods wouldn't be paying close to union wages. the union has to set the bar, even if that bar is set too low in my opinion, or all wages would be in a rush to the bottom.
by the way, our union dues collectively pay for our so-called "leaders" salaries. you pay nothing for our union playing "silly games", it in no way effects the price of groceries. i'm afraid my dues are the only thing that goes up to pay for my union leader playing silly games.
we are not paid to be solicitors, or to be a billboard ( by wearing silly ass buttons to promote some dumb-ass policy or "new" product). we do get paid to give service to the customers. all these strong armed tactics do is put the employee in fear of retaliation, which can't be good for the customers overall experience.