Over the last several years, I have been the designated grocery shopper in the family. I go to Trader Joe's for much of my shopping, but I will go to Fry's or Safeway for items that I either don't want to pay the Trader Joe's premium or for items that they just don't have.
Although Fry's has the cheaper products, Safeway is a bit more convenient and Safeway is the only place that sells the Quesidillas that my son loves. He's sort of a picky eater, so I'd go out of my way to get these Quesidillas if I had to.
Everytime I go to Safeway at around 9:00, they shut down their checkout lanes for approximately 5 minutes to do some backend system magic. I'm not sure exactly what they are doing, but I do know that I'm already frustrated that I'm at the store at 9:00 at night after working all day, battling the traffic to get home for dinner, inhaling a quick dinner, helping with homework, putting down the kids, and finally realizing that I need to go out and get those damn quesidillas. The five minute wait is not appreciated.
This is why I ONLY go to Safeway in the evening if I absolutely need to go. One would think that Safeway would be able to find a way to keep the checkout lanes operational no matter the time of day. Did they ever think about:
- Doing their backend system magic at midnight?
- Developing a technology that would allow them do their backend system magic while they were checking out customers?
I'm guessing that I'm not the only customer that is frustrated by this inconvenenience. I wonder how many other customers decide that Fry's or Trader Joe's may be a better choice than Safeway around 9:00?
