Vons store 2614-2, located at Durango and Warm Springs in Las Vegas, has four self checkouts. Yet at 10:00 this evening they were all closed and the line for the ONE checkout that was open was 8 people deep. When I politely asked "E", the supervisor, if it was possible to open another checkout she screamed at me and told me she was the only person so I needed to "Deal with it!" (Her words, not mine.)
Upon checking out, the supervising clerk asked me if I had found everything I was looking for. I told her I would have appreciated being able to find a fast checkout experience. She became very short with me and told me that it wasn't her fault because she did not write the schedule! Her rude response was completely uncalled for.
The other 24 hour grocery store in the area leaves the self checkouts open all night. That way they are able to provide an efficient and courteous checkout experience to their customers regardless of when they shop. My experience at this particular Vons shows providing customers with an efficient and courteous checkout experience is not a high priority to the Safeway corporation.
Hopefully this information serves one of two purposes. Either it causes your corporation to reexamine the customer experience provided in your stores. Or it will cause large amounts of Facebook and Yelp! users to realize that maybe Albertson's or the Kroger subsidiaries are better choices when one expects customer service out of their grocery shopping experience.