Does Safeway hide sale products willfully so you can't get a deal and resort to buying a costlier alternative

Question

Whenever I am at Safeway, it seems there is always at least one thing I had in mind to buy that seems to be intentionally hidden or obscured so that its price advantage cannot be reaped. Case in point: when I moved into my current house I also went to a nearby Safeway to buy some kitchen utensils like a can opener. But naturally the $4 can openers were gone for several weeks, but what should that matter, Safeway also had deluxe "chef's grade" can openers for $18! Any time there is a cheaper brand and a coveted well known brand of and given food, it seems they always keep the cheaper option brand an aisle down and around the corner from the section it would belong in, where the prestige priced brand is displayed. This phenomenon also hold up with non-food items too, last week when I ran out of shampoo, Safeway had 2 whole shelves covered in tags showing Suave brand shampoo was on sale, but where the Suave should be were primo salon brands of shampoo costing 4X the price of my kind.

Answer 1

Anytime you cant find the cheaper brand go and ask for a substitute. If Safeway does not have it in stock, they will substitute whatever is out of stock with a more expensive brand, that is their policy, or if they don't have it and you don't want another brand they will give you a raincheck to get it for the ad price when they get the product in.

Answer 2

personally, I have found Fred Meyer and QFC better than Safeway.

I use Fred Meyer for household staples and housewares in addition to meat and my local QFC has an excellent selection of organic produce in addition to other things