Publix not no. 1 in Florida? Viral post showing Safeway as favorite ticks off fans

Twitter was all abuzz with naysayers Thursday after a purported demographer from Australia claimed in a retweet that Safeway was the most popular grocery chain in Florida - even more than Lakeland-based Publix.

In response to the claim, Publix fans voiced their anger on Twitter and beyond.

One tweet, perhaps summed it up best: "Publix not being most popular in Florida let’s you know this map was made by drunken monkeys"

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Fact is, there are no Safeway supermarket stores in Florida, according to the store locator on Safeway's website. Further, the green machine purchased what was left of the Safeway chain in Florida in 2018, a Supermarket News report said.

The tweet entitled “The Most Popular Grocery Stores Per State” and displaying a map of all the U.S. states and their most favorite grocery stores, left Publix entirely off the map. No states show Publix as a favorite.

The largest private employee-owned company in the United States, Publix operates 1,322 stores in seven Southeastern states with stores under construction in an eighth state, Kentucky.

The tweet was spread by Simon Kuestenmacher with the Twitter handle @simongerman600. Other than spreading false information, the one thing the tweet accomplished was to put Publix and Safeway at the top of a trending topic in Florida, according to the social media website.

Keustenmacher’s account profile says, “I love and share #maps and #data that explain how the #world works.” He also said in the post Oklahoma was his favorite state. That state on the map chose Albertsons at its favorite.

The absence of Publix on the map led multiple Twitter users to question the data. “Zero chance Safeway is the most popular grocery store in Florida.” said user Cornelius X. Carroll − @CXCarroll.

The favorite grocery store map that started all the viral traffic was published first by StatsPanda and that Twitter account also blew up with support for Publix and was inundated with posts correcting the errant statistics.

“Just a quick Google search tells me Safeway doesn't even have a presence in Florida, Publix on the other hand has 830 stores in Florida, Safeway has 912 stores in 18 states,” tweeted juliusagusta –  @juliusagusta. “Don't believe everything you read on the internet.”

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Other grocery sellers missing from the map, include Walmart, which sells the most groceries in Florida and most other states.

Meanwhile, Publix regularly is listed on respected top 10 lists published by Forbes magazine's Best Workplaces in Retail, ranking fifth out of the 20 best large retail workplaces.

In August, Newsweek’s 2023 America’s Best Customer Service listed Publix as first in the supermarket category for the sixth year in a row.

Paul Nutcher can be reached at pnutcher@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Publix not no. 1 in Florida? Viral tweet says Safeway is favorite