From Our Print Edition

Tiffini Theisen

The art installation’s SKUs with a skew drew solid traffic and wide smiles. But we can’t say the ‘food’ was delicious!

Sure, there’s inflation. But frozen foods at $60 per SKU? Meat and fish at $80 each? And you can’t even eat any of it? 

Welcome to Tampa Fresh Foods, a whimsical art installation/store that was open earlier this year near downtown Tampa, Fla. It replicated a 4,000-square-foot 1950s grocery store stocked with thousands of familiar SKUs — all with their own skew. 

Goya Sofrito Congelado — a tomato base for cooking — was a neighbor of Häagen-Dazs Pralines & Cream and Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food.

SOFT & SQUEEZABLE

And what skew might that be? Well, British artist Lucy Sparrow and her assistants stocked shelves and cases with items made of soft, squeezable felt. On good days, the locally famous store drew more traffic than some retailers offering the real thing. 

On a Friday afternoon, the second day of its monthlong run (Jan. 20-Feb. 20), the adorable faux supermarket was filled with shoppers of all ages. Although some parents admonished children, “Don’t touch!” touching was not only allowed but encouraged, as each of the 50,000 items was for sale. 

Visitors grabbed small baskets as they entered, and when finished they went to three checkout lanes with felt-covered, old-fashioned cash registers to ring up purchases (although the actual commerce happened on more modern tablet devices).

Near the storefront windows, the tops of Cuban bread loaves peeked out of a wicker basket. Multicolored sprinkles adorned frosted doughnuts. A young boy palmed a plump rainbow cookie. 

The center-store had five aisles of packaged and bottled goods. A liquor aisle included pillow-like takes on popular libations like Bacardi rum and Jose Cuervo tequila. There was even a personal-care section complete with condoms, pregnancy tests, tampons and pads. 

Perishables along the perimeter — including meat, fish, cheese, eggs and produce — all were sewn with darling little eyes and smiles (except the onions, which were crying).  

Artist Lucy Sparrow’s felt rendition of the Publix Singles sliced cheese product is posed in a dairy case at an actual Publix in St. Petersburg, Fla., alongside the real thing.  Photos by Tiffini Theisen

The cheese case featured puffy versions of Galbani ricotta cheese, BelGioioso sharp provolone, Chavrie goat cheese, and similar varieties. But stuffed in among them were dairy offerings including Imperiale butter, Daisy sour cream, Dannon vanilla yogurt, Kraft Cool Whip and Knudsen cultured buttermilk.

The meat section showcased plump chicken breasts, huggable pork chops and smiley strips of bacon. In the seafood corner, snuggly scallops, salmon and snails chilled atop small cubes of fake ice. 

A “freezer” case (also felt-covered) jumbled some categories together willy-nilly. A Tombstone frozen pepperoni pizza sat next to a packet of It’s-It Vanilla Ice Cream Sandwiches. 

Goya Sofrito Congelado — a tomato base for cooking — was a neighbor of Häagen-Dazs Pralines & Cream and Ben & Jerry’s Phish Food ice creams and Tofutti vanilla frozen dessert. Right below them were Goya yuca cassava and Foster Farms corn dogs. On the shelf above them were Lean Cuisine’s Comfort Baked Chicken and Michelina’s Pop’n Chicken patty fritters entrees, topped by Great Value Breaded Fish Sticks and another variety of corn dogs, this time Bar-S brand. 

The detail with which Sparrow replicated the items’ packaging was mesmerizing. A rectangular yellow box of Popsicle brand Rainbow pops, for instance, included not only tiny multicolored strips of fabric to mimic the rainbow design element, but even thin stripes and dots of white to add the glow of lighting

A shopper looks at selections made of felt in the “meat” case at the Tampa Fresh Foods immersive art installation.

reflecting off the bright pops. 

Sparrow did take a few liberties with the look of some of the packaging, and a few appeared to be based on discontinued designs. Her rendition of Publix Singles sliced cheese product, for instance, depicted the slices layered into a cheeseburger, an illustration that no longer appears on the product’s label. 

ENDLESS CUTENESS

Regardless, not only did this immersive installation make visitors hungry, the array of seemingly endless cuteness was dizzying. 

The Vinik Family Foundation, Tampa, Fla., and the Art Production Fund, Brooklyn, N.Y., presented the exhibit, Sparrow’s largest show to date. More info is on her website,