Not everyone is respecting Safeway's seniors-only hours

A shopper leaves the Safeway in the Fairmont Shopping Center in Pacifica during seniors-only hours Thursday, March 19, 2020. A shopper leaves the Safeway in the Fairmont Shopping Center in Pacifica during seniors-only hours Thursday, March 19, 2020. Photo: Mike Moffitt/SFGATE Photo: Mike Moffitt/SFGATE Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Not everyone is respecting Safeway's seniors-only hours 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

On the first day of seniors-only hours in the Safeway at Fairmont Shopping Center in Pacifica, about one-third of the customers weren’t seniors.

“They probably don’t know about the new hours,” a cashier said. She was not wearing gloves, nor a mask, and she was never more than 3 feet away from a shopper at any time.

Safeway is reserving the hours of 7 to 9 a.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays for seniors, pregnant women or those with compromised immune systems during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The cashier said there was supposed to be “a guy” at the supermarket’s front entrance, reminding people of the new hours. But no such bouncer could be seen.

Safeway appeared to be treating the new rule like the honor system rather than refusing to serve those who broke it.

We called Safeway’s media relations line for comment but could not reach an actual human. Nor could we leave a message — the mailbox was full.

“We are sensitive to the fact that everyone wants to make sure they have the items they need, and we also know that everyone wants their neighbors to stay safe and healthy, too,” Vivek Sankaran, Albertsons president and CEO, said a statement this week (Albertsons owns Safeway). “We are asking our customers to respect these special hours for those who are most at risk in our communities.”

Many shoppers could not get all the items they needed at the Fairmont Safeway on Thursday morning. Not a carton of eggs was to be found, the orange juice cooler had maybe one or two containers, butter stocks had melted away and there were still barren shelves in parts of the produce section.

Naturally the toilet paper aisle was picked clean.

“They all go there first when they come in. They run there,” a cashier told a customer.

Still, parts of the store had recovered somewhat since Tuesday. You could get milk in half-gallon containers again. The canned food aisle, which had been cleaned out of almost everything but sardines and cranberry sauce, was making a strong comeback in the bean and soup departments.

Checkout waits had also improved a bit, but some customers were cheating in the 15-or-fewer express lane, pretending to have underestimated the number of items (30-plus, in one case) in their cart in order to save a few minutes.

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Mike Moffitt is an SFGATE Digital Reporter. Email: moffitt@sfgate.com. Twitter: @Mike_at_SFGate