The Nut Bar, 10 Months Later

I have never spent a penny at the nut bar. But I’ve spent plenty of pennies in other places in the store.

I had the same thought last time I was in there. My question is, How long do you think those same nuts have been sitting in the case?

If I see no one behind the counter then I don’t wait.

I’d buy from the nut bar but as the others have stated, no one ever mans it. And what has happened to the chocolate peanut butter. It is no longer available.

Yeah, I used to always grab some of the fresh peanut butter samples when it was new, but now that area is like a no man’s land of stale looking nuts. Throw it out and make it an alcohol alcove (beer), re-work the wine aisles, and open up dairy.

Trying to dodge stacked cases of beer, the cheese stock boy, and other people is like an awkward game of mario kart. I usually just avoid that aisle all together.

I have bought nut bar products, but never when the booth has been staffed. It’s just like the bakery or the produce — everything at the nut bar is labelled with an expiration date, so if you’re familiar with the product then there’s no need to ask questions.

I’ve purchased from the nut bar occasionally. While it is often not manned, I’ve never had a problem getting service. I just find one of the associates on the floor and they send someone over quickly. Yes, this is a bit of a gimmick, and a good selection of pre-packaged nuts would be just as good. I say put in a Jamba Juice!

When the store first opened, I stopped by the nut bar frequently to get freshly ground peanut butter (as well as the chocolate/peanut butter mix). When they stopped offering the grind your own chocolate/peanut butter mix, I stopped going … if I wanted pre-ground peanut butter, there is anothe aisle that sells that. And I agree, there never seems to be anyone there anymore and it seems to just block those two already busy aisles.

I would much rather a scan as you shop kiosk so I could shop directly into my granny-cart. It’s the perfect location since it’s right by the checkout.

I bought nuts and the fresh peanut butter once. didn’t have any issues and it was all tasty but don’t eat that many nuts.

I second Alex’s point…the aisle with beer on one side and cheese/eggs/butter on the other is too narrow and the beer/wine stock ratio is too low. putting some cold beer up front, near the nuts, the sodas and the snacks makes a lot of sense to me as it would make many party shopping trips quicker.

Yeah I wasn’t really clear in my post re the “yogurt isle” complaint. The yogurt isle is the same egg/cheese/beer space. It is by far the most awkward/crowded/narrow space in the store. And somehow when I’m there they always have an employee working in that isle too.

Is it just me or did the overall service of this Safeway decline dramatically over the past year? It looks like half their isles are constantly being restocked. And even with the boxes upon boxes in each isle, I still can’t find half the things I like to buy.

Not to mention, why do you build a grocery store with 14 checkout lanes and never open more than 2???

Eliminating the nut area is fine by me and as a replacement I wish they would improve the overall dairy section, especially the milk. I’ve never seen such a small and limited milk section, and much of the time when I’m there it is hardly stocked.

We agree with you CurtW, in fact we wrote about the milk section late last year (http://pqliving.com/?p=2411).

Yeah, they could certainly stand to beef up their beer selection. As long as they keep the Jif stocked, the nut bar can go.

As someone with anaphylaxis who lives in the City V I yearn for the day when I no longer have to pass that death trap commonly refered to by you people as “The Nut Bar.”

Overall, I like this Safeway a lot. Nut bar has never been an attraction for me. The yogurt/cheese/beer aisle is by far the biggest problem in this store – even when there is no re-stocking going on, it is usually a challenge to get through the aisle, due mostly to the columns and also because of the beer stocked on the floor. They need to re-do that aisle entirely.

I’ve never had any problems with the service, until last week – around 8pm, the checkout lines were ridiculously long, only a few of them open. I”d been in the store previously when it was plenty busy, but had never had a problem with long lines.

While I like the Safeway as a whole, I think a few small fixes could make it great. I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks that the beer/eggs/yogurt aisle is pure mayhem and that things are understocked. The only time I ever wanted to use the nut bar, nobody was there. I couldn’t grind my own, because there was no employee to watch me. Why can’t they respect us and let us bag our own nuts? I still go to Whole Foods just for the loose nuts and grains section, which is incredibly helpful when you just want a small amount of some select products and don’t want to wait on someone to do it for you. A beer pod of some sort up front could help things out greatly.

While this Safeway is still much better than other stores inside the city that bar is set extremely low. Produce selection and freshness is not great, prepared foods one step above a school cafeteria, and have seen check out lines extending down the aisles with just a few lanes open. Overall grade a very low C. The nut bar is a frill that doesn’t help the overall problems with the store.

The nut bar has always proven an obstacle for me as I beeline to the junk food and sodas behind it. I also agree that it could have more of the essentials (beer/wine) in its place so as to avoid narrow aisle on the far end where they reside now.

However my biggest gripe is at checkout. I do self-checkout and now they always have at least one that is inoperable (a different one every time I shop) and the line is always extending into that pasta aisle. They really do need to queue that line somewhere else that’s not in the aisle, or just improve the efficiency of those machines. Sometimes, the attendant that manages the self-checkout is doing much more than the average checkout employee, with always having to fix this and reset that.

As far as service performance, agreed with all the above postings. But, we are not unlike the employees there when we think about the other alternate Safeways (Southwest Safeway, and formerly Senior/Sycophant Safeway for me) we choose to avoid like the plague. Despite its shortcomings, this one is still Sexy to me.

Yes — for us self-baggers it would be awesome if they did not have to reset the self-checkout every three items. I did $200 worth of groceries and was very delayed by this process — all the while, the self-checkout line kept growing and growing.

I would rate the bakery as great. The Safeway has been really responsive to my requests to stock certain items. The organic selection is very small and the produce is not as high quality or diverse as I would like. The natural, hormone free and/or organic meat and chicken selection is also too small and more expensive than Whole Foods.

I’d like to see more products for foodies that cook — high end and high quality ingredients. Perhaps a gourmet area to replace the nut bar.

MVT: I disagree with you on a number of points. The produce section is excessively diverse, I believe. Rambutan (among other exotic fruits), numerous dried chile varieties, an island of organic produce. The diversity, if not the quality, is higher than the average store for sure. I will also opine that large extremely large grocery orders and the self-checkout line do not mix.

The nut bar is clearly a failure, but perhaps it could be converted to a self-serve format and offer grains and dried fruit in order to be a better use of space, while not requiring a complete overhaul.

I like nuts

kcr — the selection may be diverse — but the “island of organic produce” is extremely small and is often picked over with less than fresh options. It doesn’t really matter if there is a diverse assortment of produce if the quality of that produce is lacking

I’ve purchased once from the nut bar. Just ask for help and someone will come over. I agree the yogurt aisle needs to be fixed, so narrow and always packed. What amazes me is how the store went from really nice to ghetto so fast. They rarely have employees working (go on a Sunday – when the store should be fully manned), the produce is a step above bad, the seafood is iffy at best (seafood shouldn’t smell like fish and this section reaks). Unfortunately for me the honeymoon has worn off and i’m back to HT in VA.

The nut bar is run by the produce department. Shoppers can sample anything from the Nut Bar they want. If something is not up to par, they bring in a fresh bag from storage.

This Safeway is not the answer to Whole Foods and it doesn’t live up to the urban lifestyle tag but I for one am sure glad it’s there

Its a Safeway… game over

I was shopping on a week night last week and there was someone manning/restocking the nut bar. But there was not a pine nut in sight. They only had the over-priced 1/2c packs in the baking isle.

This is nuts!

I’ve never bought bulk nuts from the store, but the back of the bar has a refrigerated cooler for home made peanut butters, cashew butters and almond butters. Very good and not too pricey.

KCR — I was talking about the organic selection since that is what I buy.