#saltflakes

I must say, I’m impressed.

On a cloudy Sunday morning, I took a walk to Georgetown’s “Social Safeway,” located on Wisconsin Ave. The supermarket (and it really is “super” sized) is located in a modern building on the second floor. When I first walked up to the automatic doors, I noticed a mural to my left (left picture). It was pleasant enough to look at and seemed to give the impression that the market supported local foods and community growth. Could this be true of a national grocery chain? Not so sure. 

As I made my way to the main floor, the first thing I noticed was the smell. It was the exact same mix of scents—sort of a plastic and lemon smell—that my hometown’s Safeway has. The store even looked the same, as it was crowded with colorful signs, balloons, and stacks of various candies and drinks (right picture). Although the store wasn’t busy, I saw several young families as I weaved my way through.

The salt was located at the far end of the store in an aisle that contained spices, oil, canned fruit, baking items, and plastic/paper goods. There wasn’t much of a “theme” in the aisle, other than a random mix of random things. The giant spice section was located at the very back of the wide aisle, just across from the plastic plates, utensils, and cups.

I was a bit overwhelmed by the massive selection. I spent about five minutes looking at the entire spice display but, to be honest, I couldn’t figure out the organization of it. Some of the seasonings were alphabetical, while others were organized by brand. I spotted a large section of salt on the bottom shelf. These salts were “family size” options that were fairly inexpensive and could probably last for years. The bottom shelf was well-organized, faced properly, and even had a large, box option. To my surprise, I found several sodium-free salts as well.

The shelf directly above the salt was dedicated to garlic products (including garlic salt!), and the shelf above the garlic was dedicated to pepper. I found it odd that salt and pepper were separated by the garlic section, since salt-and-pepper are often a package deal. However, other parts of the display that were organized by brand arranged the salt and pepper side-by-side.

I continued to scan the seasonings and found random pockets of salt throughout. The more specific—and, of course, more expensive—salt varieties were located on shelves around eye-level. I found salt flakes, imported Mediterranean Sea salt, pink salt, and salt mixes. These more expensive varieties were packaged in glass jars with grinders or pleasant-looking boxes.

All in all, I was surprised by the huge variety of salt at Safeway since this grocer is not a specialty store. By my count, there were around two dozen salts to choose from! I’d definitely say this trip was a success.

Well done, Safeway. Well done.

-Lauren Petersil