City Life
Safeway Love
By Steve Burgess published Dec 1, 2008
I like organic farmers' markets, too; I just want my Froot Loops.
It seems an age since they knocked down the cramped old supermarket at the corner of Robson and Denman. Ever since, I’ve been walking past the emerging colossus that will replace it—a hole in the ground, then a wood-and-concrete warren, then a steel skeleton giving no hint of its eventual aspect. This development is destined to become my neighbourhood purveyor of frozen tortillas and fine breakfast cereals. Will it be a breakthrough in Safeway architecture? Will it throw down on the high-end grocery marketers that have flourished in recent years? Or will it play to its base, offering gleaming shelves stocked with Safeway-brand puffed rice and freezers full of Snow Star ice cream?
Maybe they don’t make Snow Star anymore. Mom always bought it, back in Manitoba. And therein lies my secret shame. Because of my Prairie roots or just a pitiful lack of 100-Mile culture, I enjoy big grocery stores. Supermarketing is a functional errand, sure. One must eat, and wipe counters, and have pillowy-soft bathroom tissue. But I visit supermarkets way too often for it to be merely a tedious task. I really like them.
Years ago I worked in Estevan, Saskatchewan. The weekly social highlight? Thursday evening, when the Safeway stayed open late. Not surprising in Estevan, perhaps, where Bard on the Beach would be missing both ingredients promised by the name. But the sad truth is that my horizons haven’t broadened much. In my world, tickets for Shakespeare’s Hamlet still rank below bargains on Schneiders ham.
I ask you who trudge off to farmers’ markets on drizzly Saturday mornings: are they really better than a well-stocked Safeway? Familiarity blinds us to its marvels. Do you honestly need to take three buses across town to score some humanely harvested arugula? I understand that if you’re a follower of the 100-Mile Diet, Safeway is evil. But free-traders, rejoice: the people of Vietnam have filled your Safeway freezer with farmed shrimp. You can shop locally for Mexican quesadillas and French cheese and Portuguese olive oil. Every Safeway is a compact international trade show. Plus they have Froot Loops.
Share
All Rights Reserved © 2009