I have both a Coles and a Safeway nearby. With inspiration from Andrew’s post the other week, this is why I shop at Safeway:

• Safeway is a few minutes less of a walk, which isn’t a lot, but counts when you’re staggering home with two green bagsful of shopping.
• My local Coles has computer monitors scattered around the aisles showing Channel 10 News headlines, and playing the Channel 10 News theme music over and over and over again. Whereas Safeway has annoying Muzak, but at least it changes every few minutes.
• I’m more used to the Safeway layout and in-house product range, having regularly shopped at Safeway when I lived at my previous homes at Carnegie, Glen Huntly, Hawthorn (the weekly shop to Safeway in Camberwell involved two people, a wire shopping jeep, and the 75 tram) and Hampton.
• I’ve been in Coles too many times when there have been long queues and few checkouts open. Not that it never happens at Safeway, but it seems to be less frequent.
• Safeway’s affiliated petrol stations are more convenient for me than Coles’s. And though 4 cents per litre is only about $2 saved each time I fill up, which is only about fortnightly, I still find this a good enough reason to use them.