Yesterday, UFCW 401 was on site at some Safeway locations in Alberta handing out misleading, incorrect and distracting information to our valued customers. UFCW 401 asked customers to tell employees they “stand with them in their efforts to save Safeway”.

Safeway would like to tell employees and store managers that we stand with you to win our customers back. We’re investing in marketing, community development and merchandising efforts to help improve our stores and our brand. We’re committed to improving our business so we can all have a stronger tomorrow. And most importantly, we’re proud of our store employees who work so hard to serve our customers in our stores each day.

We are sorry that our employees and customers had to deal with this distraction from UFCW 401 at our stores. Our grocery stores are integral to the communities they serve. It’s unfortunate that this activity by UFCW 401 is distracting us from our goal.

Customer distractions like this will only turn our customers away at a time when our store teams are working so hard to win back our customers. We have been transparent with UFCW 401 about the challenges we’ve been facing as a company. It’s no secret that our Safeway stores have been struggling. We know that employees are working hard to turn things around and we truly appreciate everyone’s hard work and effort.