I can attest to both Albertson’s and Safeway.
Our area had an Albertson’s, for years, that was awful. Terrible smell at entrance and near the meat dept.
Finally, thankfully, years later it was replaced/bought out by Randall’s. Great store, higher prices, but worth it for the selection and customer service. Randall’s was then bought out by Safeway. Same high standards were kept, and we had the great addition of Lucerne dairy products, and lately, Open Nature organic products. Life was good.
Now, with this Albertson’s merger (groan), I’ve already noticed less variety/selection and less of the O/Open Nature products :( We shall see how it ends up, but we are disappointed at the thought of having to go back to an Albertson’s level, after being *spoiled* by Randall’s.
We had a really nice new Albertsons near here, a decent one not to far, and a really nasty one the other direction. The nicest one was the first to close. After being empty several years, it is now a Ranch 99 Asian supermarket. The other one closed when Albertsons sold off most of its stores. After being vacant several years, it’s now a Walmart grocery. And the dirty, crummy one that they couldn’t get rid of stayed open. It looked pretty backwards to me, but it probably had to do with the leases.
It’s generally Walmart, Aldi and Kroger (in that order) for me now, with an occaisional foray to Fiesta Mart for fresh produce. I haven’t been in a Tom Thumb/Randalls/Safeway in years.