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Pride among Castro Safeway's aisles

Kim Severson, San Francisco Chronicle
Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, June 26, 2002
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Gretchen Lee loves walking to her neighborhood Safeway in the Castro.

The walking part alone is novel for a woman who grew up in Evansville, Indiana. Like suburban kids everywhere, her family always drove to get groceries.

But it's more than shopping close to home that makes her trips to Safeway so appealing. Lee edits Curve, the nation's best-selling lesbian magazine. And when she walks the aisles of the Castro Safeway, she sees her community.

In fact, on any given day, you couldn't swing an artisan asiago loaf without hitting a member of the gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender community. The Safeway at Church and Market streets, near the heart of San Francisco's gayest neighborhood, might well be the nation's gayest Safeway -- something the company's spokesman wouldn't confirm but almost anyone who shops there would agree with.

It's even got a 1950s vintage sign with an elongated S that has much more panache than the newer, squat S logos on most Safeways.

"It's certainly safe to say it's the gayest Safeway in America," says Tom Musbach, news director of PlanetOut Partners, Inc., which operates the nation's two largest gay-oriented Web sites.

"I've not heard it called the gay Safeway, but it seems natural to call it that," says Lee. Her only quibble is that the store doesn't carry her magazine or any of the other leading gay and lesbian publications -- nor does it have a big enough organic produce section.

Supermarkets generally reflect the neighborhoods they serve. Head to Albertsons on Fruitvale, and you'll find a miniature version of a Mexican mercado. At the Safeway a little farther east on Fruitvale, a shopper could stock up on prepackaged soups and peach cobbler mix from Sylvia's soul food restaurant in Harlem.

Sometimes, a grocery store is defined by more than its food or the ethnicity or sexual orientation of the shoppers. Take the Marina Safeway, for example. In 1976, "Tales of the City" author Armistead Maupin made it famous in his Chronicle column as a place to pick up straight singles on Wednesday -- called "Social Safeway" nights.

The Castro Safeway has a little bit of a cruise-y reputation, too -- especially around midnight, some shoppers say. But that has recently given away to a more diverse and family oriented atmosphere, driven in part by an influx of families in the Castro -- call it a "gayby boom."

So what do urban gays and lesbians shop for? One clue might be in the remodel, which assistant manager Reyes Picasso says was driven in large part by the clientele. They wanted a more sophisticated wine department, a sushi bar, a broader selection of organic and natural foods and a fancier specialty produce section.

And then there's all the low-fat offerings.

"Gay male culture can be very much oriented to fitness and good-looking bodies, so I notice certain things that cater to that taste, like no-fat angel food cake in individual servings," Lee says. "When I saw those I thought, 'those are marketed to gay boys.' "

She also noted the new, larger health food section is appealing to large segments of the gay population, as is the expanded organic and non-dairy selections.

So is that all gay food? Well, no one knows, exactly.

Safeway spokesman David Bowlby points out that the Danville store has a sushi bar, too -- not that there aren't gays and lesbians shopping at that Safeway.

American Demographics magazine recently reported that the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender population wields $340 billion in annual spending power. However, consumer research into the market is thin. Still, the magazine says, some marketing experts contend that sexual orientation influences consumer behavior -- just as significantly as a person's age, gender and ethnicity.

The gay community doesn't necessarily have more money to spend than the straight community, but the way they spend it is different, says Bob Witeck of Witeck-Combs, a national marketing and public relations firm that collaborates with Harris Interactive to study the habits of both gay and straight consumers.

Gay and lesbian shoppers are trendsetters and "early adapters," a term researchers use to describe people likely to be the first to try new products and use new technology. By almost a third, gay people are more likely to jump into current trends, he says.

"They want bargains just like anybody, buy they'll spend on something they like. If there is a rare form of goat cheese, they'll spend whatever," he says.

On a campier level, Witeck says gay people have a certain aesthetic that sets them apart. He lives in Washington D.C., where a new Whole Foods opened in what he called "the gay ghetto."

"It is extremely popular because the food is displayed with spotlights and presentation and flair -- that's how I want to see my food," he says. "Gay people want our food as pretty as it is tasty. I want to see tomatoes that are in a chorus line."

Maybe some gays and lesbians do, but most shop for groceries just like anyone else. Bob Hancock, a 38-year-old software consultant, goes to the Castro Safeway not to commune with his gay brothers but, well, to get groceries.

"As long as I can go in and find what I want, it really doesn't matter if it's gay or not," he says.

And as far as the Safeway's reputation as a good spot to find a date?

"I have yet to meet someone, male or female, who found their significant other at that Safeway," he says. "I think people are basically just trying to get through the line."