The Skanner's lead story this week (see www.theskanner.com/current/news/news01.htm) revealed Safeway at NE MLK at Ainsworth sold alcohol to minors working with Portland Police five times in a 15 month period in 1998-1999.
Gary Oxley, Safeway's Salem lobbyist, led a team of four other company employees to represent the 1400-store multinational corporation at the NE Coalition of Neighborhoods monthly meeting on Fe, 15th, with 38 residents and two city staffers present. Oxley led "The future of the store is in serious jeopardy", and hinted at linkage between the store's possible loss of its alcohol sales license and its closure.
One resident replied to such suggestions, heard several times, with "If you want our support to keep your license, don't threaten to leave if you lose your license; otherwise, don't let the door hit you in the .... on your way out." Edna Robinson, Black United Front representative, concurred "If you want to move, move; our store's been used as a dumping ground".
District Manager Mark Degregorio said three of the five checkers involved were long-time experienced employees, averaging 17 years of service. He confirmed some sales were deliberate, not accidental. He did not explain why, despite increased surveillance on the Jantzen Beach and Lloyd Center stores, those had one violation only.
Although grocers pioneered barcode use and Safeway uses barcode readers to scan customers' "Safeway Club" sales tracking discount cards, Safeway does not use those same barcode readers to read bar code on the back of the driver's license to confirm alcohol buyer ages. Lobbyist Oxley confirmed Safeway has not added that software, even though such software has been written (by an Oregon liquor store owner when his store failed an inspection) and the same bar code technology is used on both the Club Card and Oregon drivers' licenses. The Safeway process instead requires checkers to manually type in birthdates from the licenses, opening the proces sto three errors not possible with barcode reading: Accidental error in punching in the information, accidental error in reading the fine print on the license and deliberately punching in a wrong date.
Degregorio added although traffic is high, this store is least profitable in his district, although he had no answer when asked for the key retailing benchmark, profit/square foot. When NECN members suggested he had low profit because of long checkout lines, dirt, narrow aisles, bad lighting, poor appearance and other problems, he did not disagree. He made no commitment on a timetable to remodel the store, as those decisions are made in California, and also had no response when asked why Safeway was cited for 131 criminal incidents as per the 5/12 Willamette Week lead news story "...the Safeway at MLK and Ainsworth, which in 1998 was cited for 131 incidents, including armed robbery, aggravated assault with a knife and heroin possession." See www.wweek.com/html/leada051299.html
Sheila Holden of the NE Business Association recalled in previous discussions, Safeway intimated that the MLK/Ainsworth store would not be last to be remodeled. When asked why other stores in the district were put first, Bridget Flanagan, Safeway PR expert, noted the store only became profitable two to three years ago.
At the end, the NECN Board voted unanimously for representatives of King and other neighborhoods to meet with Safeway decision makers and determine whether to confirm Portland Police's recommendation to withdraw the alcohol license from Safeway. This reverses the earlier unilateral action of Board President Willie Brown in his Jan. 14th letter to Portland Mayor Vera Katz supporting Safeway and criticizing the actions of the Portland Police.
By John Bartley
Gary Oxley, Safeway's Salem lobbyist, led a team of four other company employees to represent the 1400-store multinational corporation at the NE Coalition of Neighborhoods monthly meeting on Fe, 15th, with 38 residents and two city staffers present. Oxley led "The future of the store is in serious jeopardy", and hinted at linkage between the store's possible loss of its alcohol sales license and its closure.
One resident replied to such suggestions, heard several times, with "If you want our support to keep your license, don't threaten to leave if you lose your license; otherwise, don't let the door hit you in the .... on your way out." Edna Robinson, Black United Front representative, concurred "If you want to move, move; our store's been used as a dumping ground".
District Manager Mark Degregorio said three of the five checkers involved were long-time experienced employees, averaging 17 years of service. He confirmed some sales were deliberate, not accidental. He did not explain why, despite increased surveillance on the Jantzen Beach and Lloyd Center stores, those had one violation only.
Although grocers pioneered barcode use and Safeway uses barcode readers to scan customers' "Safeway Club" sales tracking discount cards, Safeway does not use those same barcode readers to read bar code on the back of the driver's license to confirm alcohol buyer ages. Lobbyist Oxley confirmed Safeway has not added that software, even though such software has been written (by an Oregon liquor store owner when his store failed an inspection) and the same bar code technology is used on both the Club Card and Oregon drivers' licenses. The Safeway process instead requires checkers to manually type in birthdates from the licenses, opening the proces sto three errors not possible with barcode reading: Accidental error in punching in the information, accidental error in reading the fine print on the license and deliberately punching in a wrong date.
Degregorio added although traffic is high, this store is least profitable in his district, although he had no answer when asked for the key retailing benchmark, profit/square foot. When NECN members suggested he had low profit because of long checkout lines, dirt, narrow aisles, bad lighting, poor appearance and other problems, he did not disagree. He made no commitment on a timetable to remodel the store, as those decisions are made in California, and also had no response when asked why Safeway was cited for 131 criminal incidents as per the 5/12 Willamette Week lead news story "...the Safeway at MLK and Ainsworth, which in 1998 was cited for 131 incidents, including armed robbery, aggravated assault with a knife and heroin possession." See www.wweek.com/html/leada051299.html
Sheila Holden of the NE Business Association recalled in previous discussions, Safeway intimated that the MLK/Ainsworth store would not be last to be remodeled. When asked why other stores in the district were put first, Bridget Flanagan, Safeway PR expert, noted the store only became profitable two to three years ago.
At the end, the NECN Board voted unanimously for representatives of King and other neighborhoods to meet with Safeway decision makers and determine whether to confirm Portland Police's recommendation to withdraw the alcohol license from Safeway. This reverses the earlier unilateral action of Board President Willie Brown in his Jan. 14th letter to Portland Mayor Vera Katz supporting Safeway and criticizing the actions of the Portland Police.
By John Bartley
