You aren't hallucinating, the quality of Safeway produce is and is increasingly shit. Last time I was in one, they had a pile of moldy ginger, and I have no idea how they managed it.
I spent a bit of time earlier trying to figure out who owned what in Seattle earlier. What I got out of it:
* QFC/Fred Meyer are owned by Kroger
* Safeway/Albertsons are owned by a capital management company (Cerberus)
* PCC, Red Apple, Town and Country, and Metro Market are local.
* UNFI owns SuperValu, which is the main distributor for Whole Foods / IGA / possibly some others in the 'local' list.
The depressing part of this: most of grocery stores in the area are owned by 3 companies. And they've all turned into a complete garbage race to the bottom "what's the minimum quality we can sell and still consider food".
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