Willow Glen Resident

News

Safeway on Almaden unable ot expand, will close its doors

By Mayra Flores De Marcotte

As one grocery store begins to move into Willow Glen at the former Albertson's site, another begins its move out.

The Safeway store No. 741 at 2306 Almaden Road is slated for closure.

"We will be leaving but are disappointed," said Sherry Reckler, Norcal Safeway Division manager of public affairs. "We have been in the neighborhood as a full- service union grocer for 40 years and cannot reach an agreement with the landlord. He didn't offer us the expansion opportunities we were looking for."

The Almaden Road Safeway is only 29,408 square feet in comparison to its larger and newer counterpart, Safeway store No. 1483 at 1530 Hamilton Ave., at 55,447 square feet.

"We feel that we can best serve our customers at our lifestyle store 1.8 miles away, at Hamilton and Meridian avenues. It's a larger, newer facility as opposed to a smaller and older location."

Safeway has been negotiating with the landlord for "a period of time," but no set closure date has been reached, Reckler said.

The Almaden Road Safeway was recently at the hub of complaints from residents for its lack of fresh products and poor maintenance.

A heated discussion on the conditions of this particular Safeway grew on a local e-list, and some residents decided to send some of the complaints to Safeway via e-mail.

One complaint directed to the Santa Clara County Health Department was answered promptly by county environmental specialist Lisa Lopez.

Although there were no citations issued that day, Lopez did find that there was some accumulation of discarded packaging and food debris, most of which was found behind displays and store shelving.

Safeway management was instructed to remove the excess debris, Lopez said.