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Like the offering of sausages at a cookout, all good things must come to an end. This is the end, a wrap up of five blogs on the sausages of DC. Read them if you would like, ignore them if you don't; both are equally good options. This short little paper will sum them up, more or less, so it serves as a third option for those that would take it.

The sausages of DC were, in my opinion, a very fun thing to study. With that being said, I didn't do it very well but it is what it is. The story I originally set out to tell was on gentrification in DC. This story, however, has yet to be told through sausages by me in these blogs, nor I assume, through anyone else's. It should be told.

The stores I have visited seem to cater to the same sort of people. People that have a couple of extra bucks to toss around. To tell the story of gentrification I would have had to visit markets that I would not normally go to. In this respect, I failed. I didn't even try.

Gentrification is, of course, a widely acknowledged reality in DC. How could it not be? We have Union Market, The Wharf, and every new six-story luxury-condo complex as it's billboards. Though gentrification is not a black and white issue, the rise in demand for housing and it's consequent inflation of rent has hurt many who have called DC home for generations, especially the black community. To summarize Chef Kwame Onwuachi; Harlem had it's renaissance, DC never needed one (Onwuachi, Notes From a Young Black Chef).

Though some of the shops I visited were diverse in terms of age, gender, and race, I was never once a minority within the confines of its walls or the neighborhood that it was in. I explored the expensive DC and with that, saw only the expensive sausages.

I first traveled to Whole Foods. The majority of the foods, sausage included, are displayed in the lower, basement level of the Foggy Bottom Whole Foods. Coming down the escalators directly in front of the automatic glass entrance, and taking a left at the tangerines, I found myself in one end of the meat section. To my left, the butchers counter; to my right, a row of open-faced refrigerator units filled with various offerings of meat. On the concrete floor between them is an open-faced cooler, filled with ice, displaying even more meat. The whole ordeal is lit with stark white lighting which gives a cold but clean feel. A faint smell of fish perfumes the air (the butchers and fishmonger stations are side by side) but that is not necessarily a bad thing. Compared to the rest of the store, the space is relatively barren, almost clinical. With that being said, the 15’ by 25’ space is a practical, to the point kind of place.  

Sausages are found in the butcher's display, the central coolers, and the open-faced refrigerators. The butcher display has a large variety of “made right here” pork sausage in between the thick cut steaks and fresh-ish fish; Bratwurst, German, Andouille, Habanero Green Chili, Sweet Italian, Mild Italian (with and w/o casing), Maple Breakfast, Country Breakfast, Bulk breakfast-sage (w/o casing), and Spicy Italian (with and w/o casing). They also have; Chicken Bratwurst, Mild Italian Turkey, Hot Italian Turkey,  Sweet Italian Chicken, and Spicy Italian Chicken. All are displayed in an orderly manner; the links are aligned and the patties are pretty.

Next, I went to Trader Joe's. The sausage section at Trader Joe’s sucks. First of all, it’s mostly chicken sausage, which any lover of sausages knows to be inferior to their pork filled peers. It is also right next to the “fully cooked, uncured bacon.” Anthony Bourdain once said a cook doesn't deserve garlic unless they’re willing to peel it. With this rule in mind, I hope he would approve of my following statement: if you can't cook your own bacon, you don't deserve to eat it. Besides that, the section is quite small, but it seems to get the job done (again… only if you like chicken sausage).

After that disappointment, I shipped myself off to union market. They charged 12.99 for a pound of pork sausages. That about sums it up.

Finally, I made it to the holy land; Stachowski’s Market. The sausage selection was extensive. Some were found in the butcher's case, but a majority were found in a stand-up freezer off to the side, opposite of the cash register which sat in the middle of the floor. Much of the sausage behind the counter was priced at $10.99 per pound. To be fair, they looked worth it. Portuguese Linguica, Smoked Kielbasa, Hot Italian; these were all out to be bought.

The shop itself is little but filled with people, often in groups grabbing a little lunch to eat in or take out. Most were white, many I assume, live in Georgetown. There are two tables against the windows and a couple of shelves stocked with delicious, though unaffordable goodies. The magic happens behind the counter where the meat is cut and the sandwiches are prepared.

To my sincere surprise, I found myself going back to Whole Foods for my final observance. Whole Foods, as it turns out, does some pretty decent sausages at a pretty decent price. This did not change my opinion of the place though. I opened my first blog saying that the supermarket chain is a detriment to society. I stick by these words, and you should too.

References Cited:

           I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! Well, at least not at Trader Joe’s. On a gloomy Sunday afternoon I walked from the gray outdoors into the sunny and bright grocery store situated in one of the most high class neighborhoods in D.C.: West End. Around the corner there is a Soul Cycle studio, a squash room, and luxurious hotels like the Westin and Ritz-Carlton. When I think about Trader Joe’s, I think about their branding and advertising. Everything looks like it is handwritten, and they even have little sketches on some of their products! It is alive with color and makes grocery shopping a fun experience!

           I visited Trader Joe’s at around 5pm, and the store was buzzing with people picking up food around dinnertime. The people were mostly young and there was a good mix of men and women shopping. TJ’s seems like a grocery store more geared for the average person: prices are affordable because they buy directly from suppliers and sell their own brands to cut costs. However, if you are an ice cream lover, you need to keep looking for a place to pick up your favorite dessert!

           The only word that comes to mind when I think about the ice cream selection is weak. Located next to yummy frozen treats and below peanut butter, the ice cream section had only six different options to choose from. Yes, they covered the basics like vanilla and chocolate, but say you wanted some cookies and cream or rocky road: you are out of luck! I was very surprised at how little effort seemed to be put into this selection and was discouraged as an ice cream lover.

           Trader Joe’s is known for its bright branding. However, this was not what I found in the desserts aisle and it was for that reason that I barely stumbled upon the ice cream section: nothing really caught my eye. This might also be due to the fact that the section itself is not labeled, so I had to search through the frozen food aisles for my ice cream. It makes me think that if I wasn’t searching ice cream out, I wouldn’t find any in the first place. I did enjoy the pictures that some containers displayed on the front showing gooey and melted ice cream. However, I felt like TJ’s could have done more to brighten up their marketing of ice cream.

           Although I am not the biggest fan of sorbet, I did think about how there was only one option in this category for Trader Joe’s shoppers. What if your sole purpose in visiting the grocery store was to pick up sorbet and this was all they had for you? What would you do? The same went for gelato. What if you want chocolate instead of pistachio? Would you have to go to Whole Foods and pay an extra few bucks for it? That doesn’t seem right.

           Speaking of pricing, the ice cream quarts ranged from $4-$6, which is neither expensive nor cheap considering the size of the container and how expensive it could have been if not for TJ’s supply chain. However, there was only one tub above a quart size, so once again, the grocery store seems to be marketing their products for single people instead of families.

           I also need to mention Trader Joe’s use of the open drawer freezers. They make perusing the frozen food aisle so much more accessible, and for that reason everything is either at eye level or below. You would think this would make the ice cream section more popular, but once again nobody paid it any attention. Just because it’s cold out doesn’t mean ice cream should be ignored! Or at least, that’s how I feel.

           All in all, an experience shopping at Trader Joe’s is always an enjoyable one. Want a big selection of ice cream, however? Just keep walking.

Marissa Kirshenbaum

Fieldwork Store 1: Whole Foods

You can see as soon as you walk into Whole Foods that this is not the type of store that will leave you impressed at their dessert selection. Everything about the grocery market screams fresh and organic, and most people do not associate these adjectives with ice cream. Some people love ice cream during a hot day in the summertime, usually paired with multi-colored candies and oozing chocolate. Whole Foods is not just a grocery store but a “market”. It’s a simulation of farmer’s stations where the food comes right from the ground to your plate and everything is as healthy as it can be.

I visited the Whole Foods on I Street NW at around 1:30pm on a Sunday, which could have influenced the type of people that I saw as well as the quantity of customers searching throughout the store. What I saw were mostly white upper-middle class women sporting big black coats that oftentimes adorned the “Canada Goose” logo wearing Air Pods, sporting expensive athleisure, and carrying reusable shopping bags. I assumed that everyone was picking up their weekly groceries as part of their Sunday errand activities. Whole Foods has an “upper-middle class” aura with its hardwood signage and dark floors with green letters that spell out “organic” plastered along every corner.

The ice cream in Whole Foods can be found along the back of the store on the bottom floor only a few feet walk from the escalator that leads customers back up to the cashier line. Freezers and refrigerated items outline the perimeter of the store so that frozen or cooled food can be spotted at any point from inside an aisle. Ice cream falls into its own designated section next to “Dessert” and “Breakfast”. 

The dessert section houses ice cream bars and fruit pops, while the ice cream section includes small and large containers of ice cream. This section was not visited very much, perhaps due to the cold weather. It does not appear as though you can find ice cream at any other place in the store.

Located in the ice cream section are different types of containers and ice cream treats such as dairy free, almond milk, Halo Top, Talenti gelato, Whole Foods brand gelato, fat free sorbet, Ben & Jerry’s, organic, and Breyer’s brand ice cream. Besides the Whole Foods brand gelato and the Breyer’s brand ice cream, everything else was packaged in a pint-size container. The other kinds were 1.75 quarts.

 In terms of pricing, the pints where on average $5-$6 depending on the type of ice cream and whether or not it is an organic or fat free brand. The Breyer’s 1.75 quarts went for $6. Brands like Halo Top are popular at Whole Foods and are advertised as “healthy” ice cream, with the whole pint containing somewhere from 200-360 calories. At Whole Foods, I could not find any “normal” ice cream brands besides Breyer’s, and I recognized that the pints were not economically efficient for more than one person in a household.

At Whole Foods, the ice cream is more expensive the smaller and more “add-ons” (i.e. dairy free, fat free, organic) there are. If you are an ice cream lover, Whole Foods may not be the best place to purchase your ice cream fix due to its high prices for small amounts of food. It would not be economically feasible. 

Whole Foods may not be the best option for parents shopping for groceries for their families, because due to the sizes the family would run out of ice cream quickly and have to keep purchasing ice cream at high prices. Therefore, the ice cream at Whole Foods is meant to be purchased by single people who are health conscious.