Safeway Names Portland America's Most Natural City

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October 11, 2011

Portland (Oregon) Parks and Recreation Organization is the winner of Safeway's Most Natural City contest, earning a $20,000 cash prize and 25 picnic tables in celebration of Safeway's all natural store brand Open Nature.

In June, Safeway built a picnic table longer than a football field setting the Guinness Book of World Records as the largest picnic table at 305 feet. It then divided the table into 25 separate units and announced a social media-based contest -- the separate tables and $20,000 would be given to the city with the most votes on Facebook.

Portland won with 1,189 votes. Denver and Seattle came in second and third, respectively. In addition, one voter was randomly selected to win a year's supply of Open Nature foods.

Safeway launched the Open Nature line in January, beginning with the meat category and since then expanding it to bakery, dairy, deli, frozen and grocery. All products are 100 percent natural -- defined as raised without antibiotics, have no added hormones, are fed an all-vegetarian diet and contain no artificial preservatives or artificial ingredients. Safeway has supported the private label launch with a variety of community and social media-based promotions.

"As with our Open Nature all-natural product line, we looked to our customers to define which cities they considered the most natural," said Mike Minasi, president of marketing at Safeway. "We wanted to make a positive impact and give back to the parks and recreation organizations. We hope that our contest inspires others to give back to their communities in this time of reduced budgets."

"America's Most Natural City" contest launched on Aug. 30 and Facebook users were encouraged to vote for one of 15 pre-selected cities where Safeway has a significant presence in the community. Participating communities were Austin, Baltimore, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland, Ore., Sacramento, Calif., San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle, Tucson, Ariz., and Washington, D.C.

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