Monday, July 7, 2008

"Ingredients for life"

Safeway, the name in itself doesn't really imply what this store actually offers or provides. It sounds like a medical facility of some sort. But as I make my biweekly journey to this haven for my survival I've noticed quite a few things. The literal translation of diasporas is the "the scattering of seeds" (Pg. 82). This can define Safeway in a literal sense as well. With the wide variety of items they sell at these stores there's really no need to go to a specialty store that caters to any one culture. They sell everything from soy sauce to cottage cheese. And you even notice the people that shop there, everyone of every race, gender, and belief (ok maybe not those who eat kosher). This is a place where almost every culture can be catered, not authentically, but close.

You can often judge a persons lifestyle from what people have in their cart. A woman buying fresh vegetables and raw meat will always be healthier than a woman loading up on frozen “tv dinners”. And is it because of the convenience or rather the laziness of one person to take the time and actually make a healthy meal?

In the recent years (I think) they’ve just added a section that sells cooked food. I see a man dressed in traditional Japanese garb chopping up sushi. And right next to him there’s a woman serving Chinese fast food, as well as sandwiches and fried chicken. This bringing together of the “culture-influenced” foods is almost a "diasporic consciousness" in itself; the longing for return that created this demand for diversified food.

The dispersal of people into designated lines is also interesting. There are self-checkout and “15 items or less” lanes. Why don’t they just replace all the cashiers with self-checkout stations? Granted it’s easier for people to steal things it probably would make up for the wages they would have to pay hourly. And the others search for that numbered beacon of light that indicates an open real life cashier. And once you're done you realize you will have to do this all over again next week.

3 comments:

Colleen said...

Very fun and interesting! I have a kind of aversion to those self-checkout lines, maybe because they never seen to work right. But maybe it's just tradition. It's interesting to see how so many cultures adopt the culture and traditions of the grocery store as soon as they walk in the door, and then they leave, and never consider how amazing that really is.

Christopher Schaberg said...

This is a great sentence: "This bringing together of the “culture-influenced” foods is almost a "diasporic consciousness" in itself; the longing for return that created this demand for diversified food." You've used the *Keywords* text quite well in this example.

I would like to see an in-depth analysis of the self-checkout lines; they are an interesting new feature of consumer landscapes. Soon, I expect, "cashiers" will be an antiquated term.

Danielle Young said...

Grocery stores have now become a way in which multiethnic food is being distributed but instead they merely represent our “safe” idea of what that culture’s food is. Even though at Safeway has delis, Chinese food stands, and so on they are presenting an American idea of what that particular culture’s food is. So in a sense Safeway really is a “safe-way” because it sells the items the public knows and believes to be safe. The foods we know that we like are the American versions of types of food we believe we are getting. Because we know that the food is truly American we consider it safe, again another reason why we go back and by the same food repeatedly. The woman with the cart full of fresh fruit and raw meat is likely to come back in a week or so with the same cart of items. Safeway provides food items that we come to know and love, which is why the story is considered a “safe-way” to go. People like the things they know explaining why we continue to go after the same ideas, things, objects, and items because we know them. Safeway represents the “idealized” grocery store simply because it offers the food we have come to know and love providing a “safe” environment and products that we trust.