We just had the grand opening of our new Trader Joe's here in town yesterday and it was sumpin. You would think folks here had never been inside a grocery store before. People cheering. People doing "the wave." People hugging each other because they could get (almost) Two-Buck Chuck.
But mostly excitement involving a lot of recent Charlotte newbies who were used to shopping at TJ's where they formerly lived and now felt that Charlotte had joined at least the 1980's.
Don't get me wrong. I love Trader Joe's as much as the next ovo-lacto-organo-vegan health nut. None of which I am, btw. But I guess it says something for a town that is trying so hard to be a big fish...a city that is working so hard to be on the map, that when little things like a store opening "puts us on the map", you just have to sit back and enjoy the ride.
Oh, yeah. We're getting an IKEA next year.
Love the Pavlov's tasting team! Wonder if they start drooling when their alarm clocks ring too.
Newsvine certainly does well in the Google rankings - it's one of the things that makes it a great platform to write on :)
Yeah, don't give up the day job!
schnoo synchronicity:
First time I'd noticed the "Garden Harvest Chips" ad was on this article. Thought it was one of your graphics.
Do you have McDonald's yet?
Do you have electricity in your outhouses down there in Dixie yet? Thank the socialist FDR if you do...
BTW--Love that Afro. No one can say you aren't with it...
Greenpagan, I was thinking the same thing...I've thought it was sad to see it go out of fashion.
Schnoo, was always a fan of Sly and the Family Stone.
Sound is in your city too...
doncha...doncha ya wanna get higher....
Can't go wrong with George Clinton, but you will most definitely go wrong with Grand Funk Railroad.
Robby, schnoo:
"I'm Your Captain" is so bad it's camp. I do shudder at anything else that comes on the Classic Rock station.
schnoo:
She figured into the Paula Jones case somehow but I'm hazy the details. I think she was the only woman who backed up the charge that Clinton used state police a procurers during his time as Governor.
jfxgillis, I wish I were making this up but Grand Funk Railroad really does have a song named T.N.U.C.
You won't find me, knockin' at your door.
I've known forever, you don't love me no more.
If you don't want to lay there, with your mouth shut tight,
I'm gettin' myself together, yes, I'm leavin' tonightYou ain't gonna' find nobody, to treat you like I do.
I been down on my knees, you treat me like a fool.
Now, I know what you're tryin' to do, awww, it ain't gonna' happen.
'Cause I just done got hip to you, I'm gonna' walk out laughin'.
And if you're truly brave or masochistic or both, here's a YouTube video of the boys performing it live:
Robby:
I can't resist the temptation, so all associated health problems I suffer because of your link I will recover by way of litigation.
Better Red Sox game tonight, huh? And I can't believe they're pulling this "he watched it too long" crap on Big Papi. Of course he did, for pete's sake. It was down the right-field line in Fenway, which is one of the screwiest fair/foul calls in the Major Leagues.
Beware the extended drum solo!
Robby:
Too late!!! If only you'd attached that disclaimer earlier, you could have avoided liability.
And I have to sit through TEN MINUTES of that? You better settle because the jury is going to hammer you.
I could have posted Led Zeppelin's Moby Dick which is nothing but an extended drum solo. I've seen Spinal Tap live twice. Once at The Channel when This is Spinal Tap came out and a second time a few years later when they toured on their own to promote their self-produced and self-marketed masterpiece, Break Like the Wind, at Great Woods. They did a classic take on the extended drum solo where they dropped a video screen and all walked off stage except for the drummer of course and the video screen played vignettes of what they did while the drum solo was ongoing. One went for a fine dinner, another went for a spa treatment, etc. Then they all look at their watches and call for their drivers and run back on stage just in time to finish the song.
Robby:
Honestly, I couldn't take it. At about seven minutes I started scrolling the "related" menu and found a "Closer to Home" video from Shea in 1971 and played that instead.
Self-medication. I may not sue after all.
Was Tony Conigliario not a tragic figure worthy of an Aeschylus play? Did you know today is the 40th anniversary of the pitch that for all intents and purposes ended his career? He reached 100 homeruns faster than any baseball player in history. Dead at 45.
Robby:
Yea, as a matter of fact, I tried to seed Jeff Passan's gorgeous Yahoo column on the subject the other day but saw I'd been beaten to it. I hope schnoo doesn't mind a link through:
Jack Hamilton always said it was an accident and just before Tony Conigliaro died he said he believed him. Tony C. was the Billy Budd of baseball!
God Bless Captain Vere!
The joyous affection and subsequent aching sadness we felt for Tony C. is largely inexpressible.
As I said. Worst baseball day of my life, by far.
He never actually forgave him though! That's Boston for ya!
Damn, I'm going to have to think about moving south again... hehehe.
Two-buck Chuck's is not bad - even for three bucks.
I'm jealous. In Ashland, we have an Albertson's and a Safeway, neither of which has good bagels. :-(
Shhh...Don't ell amyone, but 2BC Chardonnay won top honors at the Calif State Fair's wine competition this year. Raised a few eyebrows (and reddened some faces) in the wine biz for sure.
It's pretty good too. (a steal at 2 bucks, wow)
I love TJ's. It started in my hometown, Pasadena. Used to go there when it was Pronto Market,
THE Trader Joe went to our church.
I feel everyone's pain at not having a TJ's in their area.
After shopping at TJ's for, ahem.. Thirty years or so, We moved to Seattle. Where they didn't have one close by, it was torture not having one down the block.
Back in Calif now, many TJ's, all is well :)
schnoo,
you live in Charlotte?
when little things like a store opening "puts us on the map",
thanks for your answer...:-)
TJ's is great for Organics! the food is half the price you would see in any super market... making it only a few cents more than the non-organic foods in the super markets.
I want trader joes here soooo bad. We wrote them messages, even started a facebook group for it. I don't think they like Champaign, IL... (or as we like to call it... chambana)
Toad alley Duuude :)
Hate to burst your bubble, there, schnoo, but the Carolinas already had a Trader Joes. Just, y'know, not the bustling metropolis of Charlotte. Cary opened its Trader Joes last year.
I know, I know, if it ain't in Charlotte it don't count, but there you have it.
Yeah - and the rumors about another one opening in Chapel Hill soon (at the site of the old Earth Fare supermarket), are making me hanker for some of that "two-buck chuck," although at the Cary store it's more like three-buck chuck...
Hey, as the crow flies, it is... sort of. Of course if you have to drive... how droll.
WTF?!? You mean they don't? Bastids! That's how I'd been planning to get there! (Chapel Hill traffic is... well... SLOW).
What a great idea, Schnoo! Perhaps we can get Halliburton to build a (no bid contract) Chunnel between Chapel Hill and Carrboro... and pay for it with another tax cut for the rich! Hmmm... better yet, I'd like 'em to build me a transporter, instead. I don't want to have to queue up for no stinkin' chunnel.
If it makes you feel any more sophisticated in Charlotte, the first Trader Joe's opened here on 14th Street like a year ago, my memory could be closer to two, anyway I walked by and saw lines like a concert or preregistered buyers for the Wii and iPhone. Here folks line up for tons of stuff, anyway it was a shock to see it was a Trader Joe's, us too!
Schnoo--we got the TJs here in Raleigh about a year ago, and being the crazy folks, we went the first weekend. Nothing on the shelves.
That was to be our Ikea... (-; Oh well, we'll make due with our...ah....we do have Sheetz...that's always good...
We don't have any Sheetz where I live. I'd gladly trade you a Trader Joe's and Whole Foods Market for a Sheetz.
I won't even reply to that one, schnoo! (-;
Sorry, but no trade Robby. I had Sheetz up North, and they finally begin to make it to Raleigh. We have about 6 right in Wake County, with another coming in Zebulon. We have the Whole Foods and TJs. Wouldn't mind an Eat-N-Park though.
What's Sheetz?
Sheetz is a 'convienience restaurant' that offers not fast food, but good food, fast. And no, I don't work for them. They have cheap gas, but then also made-to-order food like sandwiches, wraps, salads, etc. A glorified 7-11 if you will. The food is really good. Check out their website:
http://www.sheetz.com
They started around Altoona, PA, and have slowly moved south, now to NC.
Hey, eE: I had a friend in PA that I had told I'd meet at an Eat-N-Park... they spent an hour searching that road for Eaton Park. Oh well... ;-)
I don't get the fascination with Trader Joes. They get a lot of stuff from Asian countries with absolutely no food safety standards whereas Sheetz has things like barbecued chicken and hot dogs!
Do you know what is in hot dogs????
Sheetz are the only hot dogs I eat. Mmmmm....
It's still fast food, but it's all made to order yummee goodness.
Robby,
Never heard of Sheetz...the convenience stores here that seem to carry healthy stuff are called WaWa. Schnoo, I've never been to a Trader Joe's. Not even sure where to find one. I love the Whole Foods market, but I can get cheaper vegetables at the local supermarket or farm stand.
Funny story: was in a Walmart the other day (a family member buys her vitamins there) and Clorox bleach was more than at my local supermarket. I've never purchased anything from Walmart.
Some things at Wal-Mart are more expensive. It's kind of weird.
Schnoo,
I remember Wegmann's in upstate NY in the late 80s...just the ordinary garden variety supermarket...nothing to write home about...now the one nearest us is like trying to shop at Stu Leonards in CT...shoppers to travel at their own risk...or take out shopping cart insurance...the shoppers are/were crazy.
Actually, I recall shopping at Stu Leonards back in the 1980s...the traffic flow was sort of like a conveyor belt...one way in and one way out...heaven forfend you missed something. There was no turning back or going against flow of shopping carts. I think Stu Leonards finally went belly up...mooOOooo.
Does anybody see inconsistency in buying ready-made meals (packaged in India), while placing all those far-flung purchases in cloth bags to conserve petroleum used to make plastic bags? I shop at Trader Joes in Columbus, O, but it always makes me feel just a tad fraudish.
Dude, I live 90 miles south of you in Columbia SC where a store opening the magnitude of a Trader Joes would get a two-page story in The State newspaper.
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