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I noticed something when I was at the store yesterday to pick up one item. I thought about picking up a 20 fl oz Mountain Dew as well, which Safeway is selling for $3.49. What?!
If you buy a 2 liter bottle, a larger size of Mountain Drew at Safeway, it's $3.29, or .20 cheaper. How is that possible?
If you buy a 20 fl oz Mountain Dew at 7-Eleven, typically the most expensive way to buy anything, it's $2.69
Safeway is price gouging.
You could shop at 7-Eleven and save money 
I've said this before, don't buy beverages of any kind at Safeway.
I went to Lucky's to check out their pricing. There's this odd phenomenon where they sometimes come close to matching Safeway's pricing.
Collusion?
A 20 fl oz Mountain Dew is $3.29 there, but if you buy 2, you get them for $2.25 each, which is probably close to the REAL pricing for the product.
At least their 2 litter is more expensive at $3.99 (which seems high!), but is $2.50 if you buy 2.
What's with the multiple/combo buys?!
It amazes me 7-Eleven is STILL cheaper if you simply buy a single bottle.
By the way, the Lucky's checker reminded me that you need to use the mobile app to achieve additional savings. Shades of Safeway.
Basically you have to jump through hoops for savings.
I'm going to need to perform a Target run to see what they're charging. I'm beginning to wonder if I need to shop there more often.
I'm also wondering if prices are creeping up in groceries in general.
I went to 7-Eleven this morning and was able to buy two 16 oz bottles of Mountain Dew for $2.25 each.
On top that, I managed another $1.50 off with my rewards
I'm greatly disappointed with Safeway.
I'm becoming less enthusiastic about shopping there these days. I keep waiting for them to adjust their pricing, but it hasn't happened. Although there are some items I can only find at Safeway, I'm beginning to consider performing the bulk of my shopping at Lucky's. I'm already buying some items there anyway, and some items at Target. Safeway has just been convenient.
Food Maxx is farther away from me, but it's may be somewhat similiar in offerings/pricing as Lucky's, as they're all owned by Save Mart. Occassionally I'll see Save Mart or Food Maxx signage at Lucky's.
All the Raley's I've ever known are gone, and even their offshoot of Nob Hill, which was nearby-- disappeared a few years ago. The one thing I used to like about Raley's is they never changed their store layout. Ever. It always remained the same. Safeway changes everything around every 1-2 years 
in an attempt to get you to buy different items. It's actually annoying.
In my area it's basically Safeway, Safeway, Safeway, or Lucky's. If I go about 20 minutes away, then I have Target. Technically Costco is 20 minutes away too, but their sizing is overkill for my needs.
We do have Trader Joe's and Whole Foods, but those are mostly niche. And of course there's Walgreens and CVS, but they tend to charge more for everything.
I do miss Andronico's in Walnut Creek. Niche but nice 
There is an abundance of stores near me.
There's a #Raleys w/in walking distance of my house & less than 5 mins by car.
The new #Costco, 2 #Safeway stores & a #Foodmax are all just 5-10 mins away by car.
#Luckys is the farthest away at about 15 mins away from my house.
There are also 2 #Walgreens & 3 CVS stores within 5-10 mins of my house.
#Safeway still has the best website -- better than #Raleys, #Luckys & #Foodmax.
Really easy to shop Safeway's weekly ad & to clip sale items. Not so the others.
I also shop occasionally at #Winco but I don't find shopping there convenient. Mostly go there for there self-serve spices & staples section, which includes beans, nuts, salt, flour & pasta
Safeway has their act together on technology.
Lucky's is playing catch-up. Their mobile apps-- sucks. I've found a number of issues, which I've informed them about. They're all fixable.
Raley's is a smaller regional player.
I do clip the digital coupons for Safeway. Lucky's is now forcing you to do the same.
It's all BS though. Safeway's app KNOWS what you regularly buy and even tells you so, when you manually clip each week. It even seems to purposely bury the items you buy so you have to scroll forever to find them. If it it knows, why do you have to clip every time? It's because they really don't want you to go through all the trouble and want you pay top dollar Their digital coupons basically start over each Wednesday. In theory you could simply clip everything, every week.
Winco is far away from me. I have shopped there. I don't like their produce. Their meat seems to be under-refrigeratorated. I can tell you scary stories. Their mix bins are their only good feature.
I have no issue with tracking either and I realize any loyalty program is tracking you.
I meant on the app, there's a special section for clipping digital coupons. The app knows what you regularly buy and tags them as 'items you buy' but then seemingly hides them from week to week, causing you to doom scroll to find them and clip again. It would be nice, since they know what you buy, to either group those items together, or even automatically clip them for you. But they don't really want you to exploit the deals.
Just as an example, say I buy bananas every week. It tags bananas as 'Items you buy'. One week, it may be near the top of your digital coupon list, a week later, it may be in the middle of the same deal list, and sometimes its near the bottom. The list of coupons from week to week can be extensive, and I can see people giving up before they're able to clip the item they normally buy, to achieve savings.
As far as I can tell, the digital coupons reset every Wednesday.
I haven't noticed this because the only thing I buy regularly at Safeway is a bag of $5 fried chicken.
Otherwise, I just clip digital coupons off of the weekly ad when I see something on sale that I might want to buy.
Got a few such things on my coupon list now.
I was in the app earlier today, doom-scrolling my way through the coupons this week. I never did hit bottom, only because I got tired of scrolling. Hah-- chicken was the top of the sales this week. I tagged a bunch of items just in case. Usually I do hit bottom though. It just takes persistence. As I may not shop there my next trip, this all might be for naught. But whatever. The things you do to save something.