Not organic enough? Did they ever wonder how the veggies they buy miraculously have no bugs in them?

God, if this is the future of Portland, we're screwed. Expect another century of Randy/Sam clones who love image over substance.

Pretentious twits living in their make believe world. This post screams for a Tensquat reply...

"I've tried Safeway a couple of times and it just doesn't work for us," said a Portland parent who requested anonymity.

Good Lord. They make it sound like the Bulging, Rusted Can Aisle at Winco.

A bunch of spoiled upper middle-class retirees and yuppies not liking to shop where the common folk shop is not news.

Don't like to shop at SAFEWAY, then stop buying that 12 pack of Pabst Blue Ribbons because you really do not relate with the proletariat by complaining that a mainstream grocer does not have "good organic" veggies and fruits.

Are you effing kidding me? Then again, the respondents may be the same trustafarians who spend close to $300 on ripped hemp clothing in order to empathize with a homeless person.

You want to empathize with the downtrodden and common folk? Stop whining, shop at SAFEWAY, don't buy organic, use plastic bags, and drink a real beer like Hamm's or Olympia.

I had blissfully made it thus far without realizing that NW Portland had it's own little rag wherein the privileged refugees from Brooklyn and LA can bitch about how their neighborhood isn't everything they thought they paid for.

Bitch about not having a grocery store. Once it arrives, bitch about having it.

As a native Oregonian, I have to say I despise the Pearl. Despise it. It is a ridiculous aquarium that is barely 10 years old. It isn't even close to being Oregon. It isn't even Portland.

I was in Stumptown today (my first mistake was going in there) and there was this old poet type wearing a beaten top hat. No one looks at him. No one bats an eye. We're supposed to pretend that this embarrassing pretension is somehow normal, or worse, a statement of some sort.

This town has jumped the shark my friends. It wasn't this bad even three years ago.

And Pearlites, I got some organic nuts for you right here.

[end rant]

“....but I am not going to feel inspired to cook or eat well..." Oh BARF.

The Pearl was and is nothing but a developer's wet dream. The Pearlites deserve a Safeway....a GATED Safeway-goes-Fresh & Easy to keep out the rif-raf. Maybe it will be the feature cover story on Portland Magazine.

For the snooty-sounded, 'manufactured dissent' in the article's selected quotes, I agree with all the PUH-LEEEEZE comments here -- take their discerned 'organics' and shove 'em.

I hardly believe there are people really talking like that, especially not 'on the record' to a reporter ... except maybe by entrapment, or interview-by-leading questions. Maybe there are, but hey, I'm not in their world and such prigginess as they and theirs soon won't be in our world -- their stalk is too spindly.

It's like the idiocies shown on-camera for Jay Leno's 'Jaywalking' bits. I wonder how many normal interviews had to be thrown out in order to get down to a half-dozen max doofus.

Don't like the prices?
Hop on the Streetcar and go to Wallmart.
Oops the streetcar doesn't go there.

Ok then transfer to MAX.
Oops no Wallmart near MAX - Will you settle for Gateway Winco?

Then hop in your hummer and drive to Wallmart.

Thanks
JK

"but I am not going to feel inspired to cook or eat well"

I read this and stopped reading. If you need your grocer to provide "inspiration" to not eat microwaveable crap every night, then you've got bigger problems than Safeway can fix for you.

Does the purchase of a condo in the Pearl come with a silver spoon to be fed bullsh*t with?

Yunno, I worked for Safeway for a solid year, 20 revolutions around the Sun back. It was, as they say, eye-opening. The crank-snorting assistant manager used to hover over me as I ate my microwaved sandwich on my break, reminding me again and again that it would be time to go back to work soon.

Work consisted of cleaning the toilets, bagging the groceries, stocking the shelves, and any other job they could foist off on me, because I was young and naive. The best was cleaning the dead rats out of the "rat runs" in the stock room; for this they provided me with a couple of Hefty bags, flimsy gloves, and some Windex.

Before Union dues, I was paid $3.35 per hour.

All in all, when I look back, it makes perfect sense that the vast majority of my co-workers were either kids like me, total degenerates, senior citizens, or retarded people. The checkers were the most normal of the bunch, but they were rather elitist and clannish. The rest of us were more or less totally unemployable.

Having said all that, I still shop there sometimes. Like the other commenter noted, it is rather proletarian. My favorite is the discounted meat bin...50 percent off your favorite cuts when they begin to go bad. That bin used to be chock full...ha ha ha, not any more...these days it's cleaned out as quickly as they stock it up.

Can't get any more "proletarian" than buying half-rotten meat.

Ever been to the Safeway at MLK and Ainsworth at night ? Sometimes the line is 15 to 20 people long. No Joke. I've often thought that would make a great 10 O' Clock News expose...show the contrast between an amply staffed Safeway in an affluent part of town and then cut to my neighbors and I standing in lines 15 deep to purchase our discount meat.

Please stop with the feigned outrage.

For the record, Safeway is way overpriced for a 'conventional' grocery store. New Seasons did a price comparison of the 50 most common purchases and we came up slightly cheaper than Safeway. A store with their buying power and comparatively-small labor budget, there's no excuse...

We all rely on the Portland Beavers Attend-ometer.

Wouldn't it be great if someday there's a:

Safeway 'n The Pearl Shop-ometer
official patronage:
actual patrons:
2009 average:

Westside Express Service (WES) Ride-ometer
official ridership:
actually on board:
2009 average:

SoWa Job-ometer
official employment: 10,000
actually working:
2009 average:

Hilarious. They don't care "about what happens on their doorstep." Classist BS for "I don't like having to walk past homeless people selling 'Street Roots' on my way in."

It does seem more expensive than my 'burbs Safeway, but the produce is a heck of a lot better than I can get near home. And it's the cheapest sandwich around.

"I was in Stumptown today (my first mistake was going in there) and there was this old poet type wearing a beaten top hat. No one looks at him. No one bats an eye. We're supposed to pretend that this embarrassing pretension is somehow normal, or worse, a statement of some sort.

This town has jumped the shark my friends. It wasn't this bad even three years ago."

I love old people...This post made me smile

I don't live in the Pearl, but I've noticed the same issues with the local Safeway. I always thought Safeway was positioning itself as a discount store which explains the weird store hours, paucity of organic produce, HABA isle locked behind bars, and awful fluorescent lighting. I can see where the gentrification comments above are coming from.

But their prices are more expensive than anywhere else in the city. A number of products I checked like organic beans and Morningstar Farms products are priced significantly higher than anywhere else including "Whole Pocketbook" and New Seasons, which are supposedly more upscale. I don't know who Safeway is trying to attract.

And yet:

Where do you
buy most of your
groceries?

Safeway 11
Whole Foods 9
Fred Meyer 5
Little Green Grocer 5
Trader Joe’s 4

Cabbie: I haven't been there in a couple years, but it used to be the same way at the Safeway on SW Jefferson: 9 PM on Friday night there would be two cashiers and 40 people trying to check out with their last minute wine and cheese.

As for the Pearl Safeway, judging by the laments of those interviewed, they could probably make everyone happy if they left everything the same and just changed the name to "Li'l Local Supermarket." Just thinking about it makes me want to eat right and think happy thoughts.

I'm sure the new Safeway has made at least one class of people happy: the street people who collect cans and bottles in the NW and now don't have to schlepp them all the way down to Freddies.

re. the NW Examiner . . . it's an excellent paper and relatively fearless in bringing local chicanery to light, holding politicians and neighborhood associations accountable and creating a forum for the neighborhood that is extremely inclusive of all income and activity levels. This article is a sort of a lark. It's also independent and locally managed, in large part by its editor who lives in the neighborhood and is a reasonable, involved and accessible man.