Burgermeister wrote:

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J-Mansell wrote:

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fdarn wrote:

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lets keep in mind that most of us are speaking of safeway locations in the united states while sunday is speaking of a location in canada.  It has come to my attention some time ago that opportunies for meat cutter's in canada are MUCH better than here in the states. In fact I have been considering pulling up stakes and moving to canada for that reason alone.    I never worked for safeway but I did work for one of their sister stores and I knew quite a few people who worked for safeway and their meat dept. was always short handed.    they hired very little help and expected the few people they had to do a rediculous amount of work. I have seen this while visiting a safe way location and I felt so sorry for the meat manager. they poor guy was just overwhelmed.   But lets keep in mind that was in Virginia.  I would suggest that Sunday try to find some people who work with a canadian safeway and get a better opinion because I really believe things are better there for meat cutters.

-- Edited by fdarn on Sunday 5th of August 2012 06:22:43 PM

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  Safeway is a great place to work, yes they do have their audits and sweep logs and safety observations which all sound stupid to keep up on but are they not a good thing to have in place?  As for the person on the saw with a metal cutting glove on, as you are aware that the fingers can be loose at the ends can you imagine if that chainmail glove got even brushed by that bone in blade! I have worked for other chains and used their policies and I can tell you , Its tough to keep up with but if you are a hard worker and have a good work ethic, it is an awesome place to work, all divisions.  As a meatcutter myself I understand all the bitching about policies and procedures but I do my fair share of bitching. but hey its a good job, you get to be rewarded with customer compliments and know you contribute to your department success at the end of the day. P.S. I wish they paid us what they are paying you! :)     

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Safeway is not a good place to work as a meat cutter. Ask anyone in Northern California who's doing it right now. Of course it's better than being unemployed. If it's good or not depends on how you look at it. I'm looking at it compared to where I work now. I happen to work in a very nice place. I also look at it compared to how Safeway used to be (25 years ago). You can always look at the bright side of things if you want. No matter what the situation, there will always be someone el;se who's worse off. If you want to get real though, Safeway isn't very good.

I've been cutting meat since 1978 and even without that, common sense would tell anyone that using a steel chain mesh glove can be dangerous on the saw. I was cutting one short loin. ONE. It's not like I was the saw man in a high production shop going as fast as I can cutting 10 cases of pork loins while two people tray up the chops and wiped them. I know what I'm doing and I haven't had my first saw cut yet. I say yet because I know it can always happen. I don't want to jinx myself. If/when it happens, I bet it wont be because of a mesh glove. I don't even use the mesh glove in my 40 hour job. I don't need a hall monitor who wasn't even born when I started cutting to tell me about saw safety. However, she needs me (to exist) to justify her stupid job. She could have been more useful in a check stand. When I have to wear one, I happen to wear my chain mesh glove very tight. I have a cloth glove first, then the chain glove and then a X-large latex glove that holds everything tight. I bring a few dozen of my own. I don't have a loose glove dangling around. I left the glove on because it's a pain to take it of and on off and on off and on off and on. You know what else is dangerous? Sleeping in a bed is dangerous. Don't you know that more people die in beds than anywhere else? But I'll take my chance. I'm still gonna sleep in a bed and I'll still wear that glove while cutting one item at Safeway.

Safeway's safety rules ARE stupid. What about locking the cardboard bailer so that no one will get hurt? Just another thing to make your job very frustrating.

Regarding your point about being "rewarded with customer compliments": I say BS. I got two complaints at the Safeway I worked at on July 22. One was because Safeway was out of an ad item. The other was a customer who was mad that he had to wait for his petite top sirloin to be cut while I finished with the 3 people ahead of him in the full service case. (BTW, I previously started a thread about stores with service cases who don't hire enough people to run them) He went up front and complained. Safeway didn't hire enough people to satisfy the customers. I'm positive they could have used at least 16 more hours of labor that day. The wall deli was run down, the counter had holes everywhere.

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 Burgerfiestier, I like your edge man lol! Workin with you'd be a trip! Don't hold back man tell us how you REALLY feel!

Sunday wrote:

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......... I get what you mean by clocking in and clocking out. I guess the union comes in and performs audits on the time cards. If there are extra minutes on your time card over the 8 hours that you have worked and not claimed the store has to pay you for all those minutes............

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When I first started at Pathmark in 1981 we still had time cards to punch.  Of course one of the secuirty cameras was trained on it to catch people punching other people in or out.  By the mid-80s though the system was all electronic and you just punched in your employee ID and the code (start, stop, break, lunch, etc.) No real concern about the union auditing record but there was a labor board that audited the records and the employer had to give them access. Anyone punching in our out more than 7 minutes from shift had to get or lose a 1/4 hour's time.

Of course before that when I worked for an independent chain, they had an admin that puched cards for EVERYONE in the 11 store chain, ensuring that no one got overtime no matter what the card that THEY punched said.

Sunday wrote:

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time to look into moving to Canada and working for Safeway. Alberta is bringing in people from mexico and other locations to work in hospitality and medical positions... why not let Americans move up here to work... its worth checking out

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 they are probably afraid us  american's will take over canada just like we got taken over.

Fdarn,

  I do worry about that. Made my decision based on so many people telling me I don't need 4WD in Michigan like I defintely do in PA.  Michigan is much flatter than PA. I need 4wd  just to get up my driveway in PA. I am going to have to plan my trips home more carefully coordinating with the weather reports.

fdarn wrote:

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jimhenry2000 wrote:

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Yes it does vary by where you are. I pay $5.99 for a 6 pack of paper towels in Michigan.  My Michigan home is small at 3 BR 2BA but quite nice and cost me $165k new a year and a half ago on a half acre lot. My PA home is nicer, twice that size, on 5 acres and cost me $500k new in 2006. 

I just traded my Dodge pickup for a Toyota prius 3 months ago and love it. I get 60 mpg around town and still get 45 mpg on the highway averaging 75 mph.  It used to cost me $290 for gas to go home to PA and back, Now it costs me just $80!

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 Jim I agree with you on the gas milage.  but come winter you might miss that pick up if its a 4 wheel drive.

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Sunday wrote:

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....... As for the rate of pay you have to remember that we are taxed to death up here and everything is much more expensive than down in the states. For instance the 6 pack of paper towels cost me $6.99 on sale today. ..........

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At Safeway in San Jose Ca today, I checked a few 6 pack paper towel prices. There are so many different sizes of paper towel rolls. Saying a 6 pack is $6.99 doesn't tell a lot. The cheapest I found (without looking at all of them) was the Safeway store brand. It's $6.99 and I think it claimed their 6 really equals 12 (or was it 10 ?)

The $6.99 Safeway 6 pack had the most square feet of all the 6 packs I checked. It had 403 square feet @ 1.5 cents per sheet.

Bounty was $10.99 for 305 sq ft @ 2.9 cents per sheet

Bright Green (from recycled paper) was 279.3 sq feet @ 2.2 cents per sheet.

I didn't compare 8 packs or singles.

The cheapest paper towels are often crappy and not a wise buy. Some leave lint when you use them to wash windows or mirrors. Some are too thin.

I like the ones that are cut in half sheet size. Sometimes you don't need a full sheet.

It's been my experience that almost all store brand grocery store items are not nearly as good as the well known national brand, and I stay away from them no matter what the price is.

I ran across this old post from a Safeway worker, thought ya'll might like to see what some of the others are going through. NOTICE THE DATES, things may be better now

thats what they told a girl in the bakery manegment program and after 2 yrs going from store to store she quit and went to  Roundys owners store here in chicago