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allaboutfoodgwu · 6 years ago

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Safeway Spices

This week, I decided to go to a grocery store I’d never been to before. As I was walking around Georgetown one Saturday afternoon, I came across Safeway. Located on 1855 Wisconsin Avenue NW, and known as the “social Safeway,” I was excited to shop, but also to socialize… I guess?

Finding the spices proved to be a more difficult task than expected. After ten minutes of unsuccessful searching, I finally found the spice section. It was hidden at the back of the store, nestled between the snack/chip/candy aisle and the cereal/coffee/juice aisle. The spices themselves were next to the cups/plates section and cooking oil section, which isn’t very intuitive, and probably why it took so long for me to find!

Aside from the amount of time it took me to find the spices, I was impressed with the selection (top two photos). It’s almost as big as the spices section in Whole Foods, which surprised me. They divided the spices area into two sections, which are organized by brand. The far-left ‘red’ section contains spices from McCormick and Signature Kitchens, and the one to the right contains Organic brands, such as Simply Organic, Morton & Bassett, and more McCormick.

Both sections of the spice aisle had a lot of variety in both the organic and non-organic category. This included both common spices such as cumin, onion powder, coriander, cilantro, pepper, chili flakes, and non-common spices such as Chinese five spice, Cajun, marjoram leaves, and poppy seeds.

What I found the most interesting, however, was a small set of spices organized by function or purpose (photo above). Under the ‘seasoning blends’ section were BBQ spices and rubs; under the ‘grilling’ section were herbs and poultry seasonings, and under the ‘garlic and onion’ were onion and pepper, Cajun, and vegetable seasonings. Giving customers options and ideas of how to use certain spice blends when cooking at home is a good strategy to increase product sales.

One last thing I noticed around Safeway and not just in the spices section was the sheer number of yellow “Club Price!” sale stickers they have at every aisle, corner, and row. While it’s nice to know how much money you’re saving with a Safeway card, it can be distracting when shopping, especially for smaller items like spices where the sale sticker sometimes blocks the price tag.

This trip to Safeway was definitely worth it in terms of spice selection, and if you’re looking for spice variety around D.C. and aren’t near a Whole Foods, Safeway will not disappoint you!

#spices #Safeway #SocialSafeway #gwu #anthropology #culturalanthropology #food #Georgetown #dc #culture #spicy #finallysomecajun #somanyspices #BBQrub #opticalresearch #organic #ANTH4008 #allaboutfood #CassieDestremau

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allaboutfoodgwu · 6 years ago

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Whole Foods Spices!

For this project, I decided to take a closer look at a category of product that most everyone uses for cooking: spices. While I won’t discuss the ambiguity of this category in relation to its definition and content in this post, it is something that I had to keep in mind while I was gathering observational data, which I will come back to in my culminating post.

Having shopped at Whole Foods for nearly four years, I already knew where the spices were: down the stairs to the left, between the non-alcoholic drinks and dairy aisles. I also knew that the spice aisle was separated into two: a larger section, and a smaller one.

However, someone who has never stepped foot in Whole Foods would probably struggle and spend a few frustrated minutes wandering around the store looking for the spices section, which made me think about the oddity of its location- why next to the cereal? And why have two different spice sections separated by apple sauce, out of all things?

At first glance, I see that the spice section is neatly organized and laid out, but also overwhelming.

The spices are arranged by color, brand, and, as I will emphasize throughout this post- perceived importance- which leads to some spices getting all the attention, and some not. The left portion of the large section of spices mostly contains Whole Foods brands (365), and the majority of them are labelled as organic. In the middle of this section are the apparently ‘popular’ spices like cumin, saffron, garlic and onion powder, rosemary, nutmeg, oregano, and black pepper. Unlike some of the other ‘less popular’ spices that I will discuss later, these are plentiful. They have multiple spaces and rows individually dedicated to them (why, oh why does garlic powder need six individual rows on the same shelf?), which is most likely a strategy to get consumers to buy them as they are placed directly in front of their line of sight.

On the right side of the larger spice section is a mix of Whole Foods products (Simply Organic), and Frontier Co-Op products. The Co-Op products in the middle section are a little bit more exotic than any of the spices mentioned in the left section. These include adobo seasoning, ground sage, mustard seeds, cayenne, chili powder, and bay leaves.

By contrast, the top and bottom shelves aren’t nearly as glamorous or well put-together as the middle sections. Unless you’re very tall, the top shelf products are difficult to see, and are thus reserved for non-365 products even though they are also organic Whole Foods spices, which makes me wonder what the difference is. The top shelf is also home to the perhaps ‘less popular’ spices such as curry powder and cinnamon sticks.

The bottom shelf was one of the most fascinating because I couldn’t figure out a pattern or way to explain its arrangement, so I simply classified it as miscellaneous. It included large quantities of salt and pepper, as well as an array of strange items like lava salt, extracts (vanilla, almond, lemon), Old Bay seasoning, and Rowdy Ritty Rub spice (huh?) that I didn’t think belonged to or would associate with the spice category.

In contrast to the more popular or common spices found at the center of the shelves, the more ‘ethnic’ spices were out of reach; isolated in small in corners, making them difficult to spot. Spices like Balti curry, berbere, and chimichurri were dispersed and scattered around the edges, forcing the shopper to search for them. The garam masala and curry powders were also isolated and placed at the very top right corner, almost out of visual reach. Unlike their popular counterparts, the ‘ethnic’ spices don’t have rows upon rows dedicated to them, which makes it difficult for shoppers to spot and subsequently purchase them. I also noticed that in this aisle, Whole Foods sells the same products, but from different countries or regions (Turkish bay leaves versus local or American bay leaves), and that the non-imported products are more expensive.

While I don’t have as many observations from the smaller section of the spice aisle, a few more elements are worth mentioning. In addition to being displayed and packaged in smaller quantities (with an emphasis on being organic, of course!), all of the spices were angled down in a way that prevented shoppers from knowing what they were unless they directly picked them up or bent down, which blocked the aisle pathway. This arrangement doesn’t seem very practical.

Furthermore, the fate of the bottom spices in this section mirrored the fate of the miscellaneous items in the larger section. The ‘rejects’ in this section proved to be even stranger than the lava salt, vanilla/almond/lemon extracts, or old bay seasoning. These items-- I am reluctant to call them spices-- included spearmint, poivre noir-- which just means black pepper in French and is probably why it wasn’t able to secure a spot in the popular spice section-- onion granulates, and juniper berries.

The combination of awkward orientation coupled with the amount of reject spices makes me think that this section is used to get people to buy the bigger and more expensive spices in the larger section.

Finally, I have two concluding observations from this grocery store adventure. The first is that ginger, onion powder, garlic powder, and rosemary are all strategically placed in the middle part of the spice section, are bountiful, and difficult to miss, which makes me think that this is a tactic to encourage customers to buy packaged herbs instead of fresh ones.

My final observation came at the end, when I wandered into the international aisle to see if there were items that for whatever reason hadn’t made the cut to the spice section, and to my surprise, I found one: Korean chili flakes. This led to confusion, anger, and disbelief on my part. Are Korean chili flakes not good enough to be in the section that is dedicated to flavor depth and spiciness? Are they in the international aisle because they cannot be consumed or bought independently of Korean food? Whatever the reason, it seems a bit ethnocentric to me, and as I continue to gather data in other grocery stores, I will see whether or not it is a recurring pattern.

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