Further Adventures in Groceryland
When I went to college in Pittsburgh, I lived for two years an apartment complex that was more-or-less centrally located in what I think counts as North Oakland (this was Fifth & Craig - can anyone specify the exact region of Oakland there?). Down the street from me, a couple blocks away, was a Giant Eagle grocery store, often referred to by my fellow undergraduates as "The Dirty Bird," and was labeled, in typical privileged undergraduate fashion, as being somewhat "ghetto." Since it was so close to me, I pretty often did my shopping there - if not huge dedicated shopping trips, then at least mid-week supplementary shopping excursions. I never really saw a problem with it. It was older and dirtier than the other Giant Eagle that CMUers frequented up in Squirrel Hill (a decidedly richer neighborhood (North Oakland being a region of dilapidation and elevated student renting rates)), sure, and had older-model shopping carts, but I was never comfortable referring to it as "ghetto" and certainly never called it "The Dirty Bird."
I bring this up because with my move from North Miami Beach to North Miami, I moved just far enough to switch grocery stores, from the Publix at about 145th Street to the Publix at about 128th Street. Now, these Publixes are not particularly far apart, but far enough that the distinction made between them is rather stark. My now-current Publix is the "ghetto" Publix. Though, it is not the worst Publix on record in my social circle - that distinction belongs to the Publix up in Hollywood (FL) where a friend of mine once saw a man eating raw bacon directly from the package in the freezer aisle. And, as graduate students, we of course are much more comfortable slyly calling my Publix the "ghetto" Publix, because when we speak, the quotes stay around certain words when we utter them. The Publix up the road is definitely for yuppies, part of a whole strip of yuppie-centric stores installed in advance of a new set of condo high-rises opening.
As a bicyclist and a former grocery store employee, I am used to shopping for food every few days - I tend to swing by Publix 3 or 4 days a week, generally only buying half-a-backpack-full of groceries at a time. Being in the "ghetto" Publix this often, I have the great pleasure of observing people who consider themselves to be above the location, though I'm never sure why they've wound up there when another 3 minutes up the highway they could go to a Publix the clientele of which would be much more comfortable for them. Class distinctions in Miami are always a remarkable thing; the differences between the haves and have-nots are quite wide, and the disdain effused by the haves that wind up in the "ghetto" Publix seems incredibly genuine. A couple of highlights:
1) I was in the pasta aisle on a weekday evening. A well-dressed young couple were picking out a jar of sauce. The woman remarked to the man, "This is great, it's like we're shopping where the poor people shop."
2) A couple days ago - Sunday in the early evening - I swung by the Publix to buy a bag of spinach. In front of the bagged salad case was an later-middle-aged woman and I presume her 2nd or 3rd husband. Blocking the way for other shoppers to get their lettuce and move on. The woman says, in more or less a continuous stream:
"I feel like I'm in a third world country when I shop here. All they have is this shithouse lettuce [picks up bag of lettuce and tosses it down in disgust]. All of this it's just shithouse lettuce. I don't know why we ever come here. This shithouse lettuce."
I'm not exactly sure what she meant by "shithouse lettuce" or how that relates to it being a third world country - bagged pre-washed salads seem rather decidely first world to me, but I did finally shove past her to grab me some (shithouse) spinach.
I really don't mind the new Publix. It suits me just fine. And, unlike the yuppie Publix, there's a bike rack right outside the door. Bonus!
I bring this up because with my move from North Miami Beach to North Miami, I moved just far enough to switch grocery stores, from the Publix at about 145th Street to the Publix at about 128th Street. Now, these Publixes are not particularly far apart, but far enough that the distinction made between them is rather stark. My now-current Publix is the "ghetto" Publix. Though, it is not the worst Publix on record in my social circle - that distinction belongs to the Publix up in Hollywood (FL) where a friend of mine once saw a man eating raw bacon directly from the package in the freezer aisle. And, as graduate students, we of course are much more comfortable slyly calling my Publix the "ghetto" Publix, because when we speak, the quotes stay around certain words when we utter them. The Publix up the road is definitely for yuppies, part of a whole strip of yuppie-centric stores installed in advance of a new set of condo high-rises opening.
As a bicyclist and a former grocery store employee, I am used to shopping for food every few days - I tend to swing by Publix 3 or 4 days a week, generally only buying half-a-backpack-full of groceries at a time. Being in the "ghetto" Publix this often, I have the great pleasure of observing people who consider themselves to be above the location, though I'm never sure why they've wound up there when another 3 minutes up the highway they could go to a Publix the clientele of which would be much more comfortable for them. Class distinctions in Miami are always a remarkable thing; the differences between the haves and have-nots are quite wide, and the disdain effused by the haves that wind up in the "ghetto" Publix seems incredibly genuine. A couple of highlights:
1) I was in the pasta aisle on a weekday evening. A well-dressed young couple were picking out a jar of sauce. The woman remarked to the man, "This is great, it's like we're shopping where the poor people shop."
2) A couple days ago - Sunday in the early evening - I swung by the Publix to buy a bag of spinach. In front of the bagged salad case was an later-middle-aged woman and I presume her 2nd or 3rd husband. Blocking the way for other shoppers to get their lettuce and move on. The woman says, in more or less a continuous stream:
"I feel like I'm in a third world country when I shop here. All they have is this shithouse lettuce [picks up bag of lettuce and tosses it down in disgust]. All of this it's just shithouse lettuce. I don't know why we ever come here. This shithouse lettuce."
I'm not exactly sure what she meant by "shithouse lettuce" or how that relates to it being a third world country - bagged pre-washed salads seem rather decidely first world to me, but I did finally shove past her to grab me some (shithouse) spinach.
I really don't mind the new Publix. It suits me just fine. And, unlike the yuppie Publix, there's a bike rack right outside the door. Bonus!
7 Comments:
i think 5th ave is the dividing line between north oakland and central oakland. at least, that's what i remember from the trash collection maps. how could you not call it the dirty bird?! you know... giant eagle means bird, the dingy atmosphere means dirty, thus the dirty bird. it's genius. "shithouse lettuce" means it was grown in an organic manure setting full of natural shit fertilizer. apparently that lady hates organic shit fertilizer lettuce. and oh yeah, what's a bike rike?
Hmm, I always thought the Craig St Giant Eagle was the Ghetto G’eagle and the East Liberty one was the Dirty Bird. Of course the worst GE was the one on the North Side where the fruit on display was rotting and my friend was told by a clerk that she would be checked out when the clerks were done with their conversation.
Re the North Miami Publix: I have noticed a similar disdainful attitude from my coworkers toward Winco (where I shop), a regional chain which is decidedly for the “discount” shopper. Many of my coworkers will not go there because it is full of Those People (Mexicans? White Trash? The Frugal?). It is apparently extra bad on the first of the month when Those People Get Their Checks. Frankly the place is a zoo every day of the month with all sorts of people blocking aisles and generally getting in my way so I think the checks-on-the-first phenomenon is all in their head.
Meanwhile, the store is great. It has red bell peppers for $0.58 each and sells beans, nuts, pasta, grains, and spices by the pound in the bulk food section (good for when you want a lot and when you want just a little). A big percentage of its fruits and vegetables are seasonal, local, and are actually ripe (because it’s cheaper that way but don’t think you are going to find strawberries in December). Its selection isn’t always as broad as the other chains (I think they have three tomato sauce brands that all offer minimal variations on marinara or meat sauce) but, then again, $0.58 red bell peppers.
But my coworkers pile on the scorn because where you shop is one of those social signifiers that let you declare to others who you are and Winco says “I am poor or cheap.” I think the disdain is magnified because of how small the difference is between the middle class and lower income people in this area. Shopping at Winco doesn’t feel middle class (which is what they want to believe they are) and they are already closer to that edge than they want to admit so they avoid the feeling and instead pay $20 to $50 more a week at the Safeway across the street. And then they talk down Winco so we all know they aren’t the type of person to shop there.
I am going to stop now though before I ramble on about my theory that many of us have gotten very used to social signifiers that we can’t actually afford and contracting back to what is actually reasonable is going to be very painful for people who perceive themselves several rungs up the ladder from their actual position.
Nick, a "bike rike" is just a "bike rack," but written to match my idiosyncratic North Miami dialect. So the woman just wanted lettuce that was grown in good old-fashioned dirt? What the hell does that have to do with 3rd World countries, still? Shit, I mean, shit is probably cleaner than even first world dirt, what with all the toxins and pollutants.
Kyle,
I think you're right about people trying to preserve some sense of middle-class-ness about themselves. It's interesting because, the middle class model is really the highest available grocery-shopping option, since rich people have servants to do their shopping for them.
Working for Trader Joe's obviously allowed me to witness quite a bit of that, since there were rarely, if ever, poor people shopping there, but similarly, a large amount of pride in the "this great food is so cheap!" clientele, like they were somehow in the know over their neighbors that shopped at Whole Foods ("Whole Paycheck! Har Har Har" (I've never actually been to a Whole Foods myself (I got all high and mighty back in college about the corporate gentrification of East Liberty and have been standing by my one-person boycott of Whole Foods ever since) so I can't really make the comparison).
The part that's remarkable to me, in my case here in North Miami, is that it's two instances of the same chain of stores, only 15 blocks from each other. So it's not like they're not shopping at a store other than Publix - all this food to both these stores is coming from the same warehouse.
Also, for the record, I always refused to say "G'eagle" as well. I swear that I've never heard a native Pittsburgher use that term (though "Dirty Bird" was pretty universal).
Hey, anyone familiar with upstate New York - are there any "ghetto" Wegman's?
A grocery store is a store established primarily for the retailing of food. A grocer, the owner of a grocery store, stocks different kinds of foods from assorted places and cultures, and sells them to customers. Large grocery stores that stock products other than food, such as clothing or household items, are called supermarkets.
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hesslei.....
new way to advertise
Uh-oh, the comment spammers are getting smarter.
What's interesting to me is that the social status that shoppers infer in themselves & others based on their supermarket choice is basically an economic good that they're purchasing along with their lettuce. And then status is one of those odd outside-the-model elements of an economy, since it's relative (meaning that changes in it are zero-sum across a society) and yet very important to the way people act. So as your economy gets more productive, some portion of it (say, the watch advertising sector) will be sunk into shifting around status, which doesn't make the society as a whole better off.
I don't really know a lot about this, but I totally kind of studied it in college once! In conclusion, I admit this wasn't really what you were talking about.
That is a shithouse way to advertise! Reading about your new way to advertise on the internet makes me feel like I'm in a third world country! It's all just shithouse advertisting!
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