Secrets of the City

There’s SuperTarget for the suburban three-car family; Whole Foods for elite urbanistas; Byerly’s for wealthy gray-hairs; Lunds for urban singles; Rainbow and Cub for the minivan-and-lunchbox set; Kowalski’s for people who mix and match all of the above; and SuperValu for those unwashed enough to care about price.

My wife and I hit up all of those in a two-week period. Does that mean we’re just batshite crazy?

Oh, come on! Nothing about the Wedge????? No cutesy graphic of a typical Wedge shopper?

For the record, I drive a Golf, not a minivan, and I carry no lunchbag.

What does it say for me when we shop at Super Target for the bulk of our food, Rainbow over Cub because the environment and clientele in Cub angers me and grab the meat specials at the locally owned market because it’s local and classy? And we have only two cars, bathe and sometimes even stop at the nearby Supervalu.

I think it says that City Pages may as well write an article about how all Asians are good at math and all blacks are lazy.

we’re entrenched in the lunchbox & minivan set, and go tend to do Cub/Rainbow for staple items (cereal, dairy, dry & canned goods) & Byerly’s when we want better fresh produce, special recipe/entertaining items and whenever we need to make an emergency weeknight run (location). During the summer months we tend to replace most of our Byerly’s trips with the Farmers Market.

There are two kinds of people in this world, those who stereotype people and those who don’t.

If I were Terry Ryan, I’d like to be sure that the last 2/3 of last season for Morneau wasn’t a fluke before extending him. You could argue the same about Mauer if he weren’t playing at the most important everyday position on the field.

White people walk like this…
Black people walk like this.

I’m here all week, folks. No, wait — my warm, sunny vacation starts tomorrow!

Where do “liberals” shop, maz?

Exactly why the return rate for spam is any number greater than 0.000% I don’t know, but the distribution costs of spam are just low enough that bumping up just one of those digits is good enough to get your money back.

We’re forced to suffer through smarmy “Get a Mac” ads, awful CGI bees pitching Nasonex, and apparently there’s a lot of money to be made on drugs for the previously unknown Restless Legs Syndrome, so apparently advertisers ARE rewarded for being incredibly annoying.

You’re not a real liberal unless you shop at Whole Foods. But since Whole Foods is non-union, the hard-core socialists shop at the Wedge.

Wow. She managed to portray almost every food shopper in America as a superficial, vacuous, status-driven sheep. Cynicism is great as part of a healthy breakfast, but it can’t be the whole diet. Way too depressing.

I was pleased to learn, however, that the guy behind Whole Earth is an Objectivist.

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Today’s version of Maz sez:

Part 1) There are two kinds of people in this world, those who stereotype people and those who don’t.

Part 2) You’re not a real liberal unless you shop at Whole Foods. But since Whole Foods is non-union, the hard-core socialists shop at the Wedge.

We can safely conclude from these statements that maz is the kind of person who stereotypes people.

I’m pretty sure that Part 1 was actually a decent joke, not unlike this one.

There are two types of people in this world: Those who divide the world into two types of people, and those who don’t.

I live across the street from Whole Foods and barely ever go there unless I need to run and get something really quickly. I can’t stand the place. It’s too pricey and way too holier-than-thou.

What’s wrong with “neighborhood” grocers like Almsted’s or Bergan’s?

I think there are two kinds of people: those who watch American Idol and those who have something better to do.

not unlike this one.

That’s like my old tagline – “Cleverly arranging 1s and 0s since 1111010111″ heh

I’ll be damned if maz didn’t get it right, though…

Count coup!

Like most, I shop where I can get the best quality item at the best price, usually eliminating stores that put an emphasis on fancy carpets and trendy lighting. Funny how that always seems to happen. But, I did not know that Whole Foods was a non-union joint. I’ve never been in one before, but I definitely will now because I like to support non-union labor.

Interestingly enough, I recently blogged about the difference in shoppers at the Quarry and the Lake Street Cub, which turned out a lot like this smarmy City Pages article. Frankly, I’m scared to see that I might be thinking like those folks, so I might unblog it tonight when I get home.

I’ve got a lot to catch up on, so g’day blotes.

… apparently there’s a lot of money to be made on drugs for the previously unknown Restless Legs Syndrome, so apparently advertisers ARE rewarded for being incredibly annoying.

The mention of RLS reminded me of this post on the excellent Schwitzer health news blog.

This socialist shops at Byerly’s.

I am frightened by the coincidence that I wore my ultrageeky shirt with that very “joke” upon it.

I shop at the closest store to my home which happens to be a Cub. I guess I need to find some sort of lunch pail and buy a minivan…

Max,

Byerly’s is a great store. I don’t think it’s that much more expensive than most of the non-warehouse places. I do wish they’d develop a line management system for their self-checkout that matches Cub’s. I tried to explain this to the manager of the Byerly’s in St. Louis Park, but he was clueless.

We always called RLS “jiggy leg” disease. My sister’s had it for centuries.

Perhaps I have RLS. I appear to have the symptoms… However, a quick stretch, and voila all better. Perhaps I should take some drug instead!

As for spam, the University of Minnesota established a spam blocking system a few years back. Since then, over 50% of the mail sent to University students, staff, faculty and alumni members is blocked for one reason or another. Granted some of the blocked mail is viruses, but that is a lot of blocked messages. The service blocks about 30 messages a day for me personally. It has been a great help!!!

Just so long as nobody here is suffering from Jake Leg.

If you want your very own binary t-shirt, here you go.

“The service blocks about 30 messages a day for me personally. It has been a great help!!!“
– - -
The downside is that when small numbers of people who would benefit from a product are diluted within society, traditional marketing can’t economically deliver needed information to them. Without “spam”, I would never have found out about Dr. Hanson’s Penis Enlargement Techniques, and my life would still be empty and meaningless.
.

I’ve found the spam filter in Gmail to be exceptionally effective.

if that grocery shopper story is any kind of indication of the “new” City Pages, the new editor has just given me another reason not to pick the thing up. I’d LOVE to read what the writer has to say about the typical United Noodles shopper. or ALDI’s
somewhere steve perry is laughing
I shop at several stores too and second acalhoun’s comments. maybe it means we’re schizophrenic

Was there a Strib story today about Keith Ellison helping change U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East? A more important long-term negotiation than Justin Morneau, it would seem.

Based on the conversations I’ve read on MnSpeak and now this City Pages article — it seems that the judging never stops! I’m judged on whether I live in the city or a suburb. What movie theater I visit. How hip I dress. And now, where I shop for groceries?

WTF??!!

Milton: Count coup!

What. The. Fuck?

Without “spam”, I would never have found out about Dr. Hanson’s

I see you’re a part of the problem. Did you not know you had a small penis before? Couldn’t you have pro-actively sought out treatments?

‘I was shocked by how burned they felt about the whole thing, how budget-conscious they had to be, how much they disliked buying and preparing food,’ says [UofMN Prof Ben] Senauer. I wonder if this guy has heard about the Lindberg baby.

I get all my best stock tips from the “spam” faxes at work.

Milton: Count coup!
What. The. Fuck?

It’s an injun thing. You wouldn’t get it.

“I see you’re a part of the problem. Did you not know you had a small penis before? Couldn’t you have pro-actively sought out treatments?“

Actually, I didn’t know for the longest time, because “small” is a relative term, and I mostly had hung out with writers, but I did become aware of it, and then, of course, I looked at traditional treatments, but until the e-mail came (”spam” to some), I had no clue about the wonderful work Hansen was doing with helium, corn starch, and small capacitors. It’s tough asking your doctor about things like that.
.

It’s not judging! It ’s healthy discussion! Okay, that’s the English major in me talking…

This obession with grocery stores will only stop when the metro gets a Hy-Vee. Hy-Vee is a solidly middle class store free of pretensions and stereotypes. All we have in this area are stores which are either really, really uber-trendy (Lund’s/Byerly’s) or incredibly ghetto and overcrowded (Rainbow/Cub). There’s no happy medium. The gap between the classes is too wide.

Stereotyping is the human way, mon ami.

I don’t know, Christine. A Hy-Vee seems to be pretty much on-par with Cub to me. Cub doesn’t have the “ghetto” feel to me (and I hate using “ghetto” as an adjective).

I’m mostly a Byerly’s person. There’s one on the way home from work, they have a good variety of items, and I like their deli, meat, and produce departments.

I worked at a Cub for many years. All stores vary by location. My location, for instance had consistently good produce, others, not so much. The franchise owned Cub’s have good meat deals, but the corporate stores would rather toss the meat than discount it.

One thing I hate about the warehouse stores is the bright lights. After shopping at Kowalski’s for a while, which is the closest to me, the bright lights at the big box stores are really irritating.

and I mostly had hung out with writers

heh.

… sounds like someone hasn’t shopped at the Minnehaha Cub.

What I’ll never get is why my short-term former roommate drove from 26th & Bryant S to do his grocery shopping at The Quarry, all to avoid shopping the Uptown “ghetto Rainbow”. Uptown Rainbow *does* suck but it’s not the least bit ghetto. Most of their suckitude revolves around the fact that they work like Trader Joe’s with an unpredictable stock rotation, except with commodity items.

The Uptown Rainbow’s employees are also incredibly rude, never smile at you and generally treat you like a piece of crap making the already unpleasant task of getting groceries, fighting for a parking space and standing in line for over twenty minutes that much worse.

That’s what makes the Uptown Rainbow “ghetto”. I have encoutnered way more “ghetto” stores in other parts of the country, namely the Albertsons in Omaha on Saddle Creek Road, which I still went to because it didn’t suck or make you feel like a lonely member of the rat race.

I just miss the Hy-Vee and Targets of my hometown, you guys. In a small town, the grocery store and Target are the cornerstone of the community. You can go shopping and see everyone from the rich doctors and laywers in town to the poor people who work at the meat packing plant. There’s no class distinction and the high school kids they employ are always really friendly and helpful.

I never thought people could be caterogized by where they get their groceries untili I lived here, either. It’s depressing and it sucks.

I got a gift card for Rainbow for Christmas and I use it to buy all non-food items like laundrey detergent and sponges. I’m good with cleaning supplies for the next few years.

This has nothing to do with grocery stores, but I have a Good Question:

Why does WCCO repeat ‘Good Question’ segements from last year? Before airing last night’s segment, it was mentioned that Ben answered the good question about spam last spring!

Maybe Jason can offer some insight, if he is around. I think the ‘Good Question’ in interesting, but they don’t need to rerun segments that we’ve already seen just so it is in every 10:00 broadcast during the week.

Heh. I’d rather “toss the meat then discount it,” too.
By the way, the Wedge is not union labor either. It’s a co-op. And even though Byerly’s is union, I think their price mark-ups can’t be justified by that or by their product quality/variety, or by their carpeted aisles. They’re just too damn expensive. Who buys off-season white asparagus for $12 a pound???

I like SuperTarget b/c when my mom sends me to get groceries with her credit card, I get to sneak glorious goods from the regular side into my cart.

“In a small town, the grocery store and Target are the cornerstone of the community.“
– -
You had big small towns where you grew up.

Okay, my hometown has 60,000 people. Big small town. Cute!

I, too, was bewitched by Bylerly’s when I first moved here. I thought it was amazing!

Why does WCCO repeat ‘Good Question’ segements from last year? Before airing last night’s segment, it was mentioned that Ben answered the good question about spam last spring!

It’s part of their ongoing commitment to Project Energy. To save the environment, they are now recycling old news.

Just kidding, J.

It’s not like the meat is spoiled. It’s just nearing the sell-by date. It’s illegal to sell past the sell by date. All of the Jerry’s Cub stores do this (Knollwood, Edina, etc.) so they can at least get something for it. I think the corporate stores think that customers will just wait until it’s discounted. It’s disgusting how much perfectly good food they throw out.

I’d love to see an Aldi shopper graphic…

Forget Hy-Vee.

Let’s get a Bon Preu and a Tesco’s.

I was a kid when Byerly’s opened their store in St. Paul. I remember being fascinated by the stuff they carried in their gourmet section, like cans of fried baby bees and chocolate covered ants.

At the risk of submitting myself to maz’s shitty sense of humor, I think it’s fair to mention that somehow a writer in the City Pages was able to write an entire article about grocery stores without once mentioning co-ops, which are very popular here and which we have more of, per capita, than anywhere else (or so I hear). I am NOT trying to start a debate about co-ops vs. conventional stores, or snobby wedge shoppers, or organic vs. not-organic, I’m just mystified that you can write 4000 words comparing rainbow to cub and completely bypass the far more interesting comparison.

Been to the CUB in the Midway (St. Paul)? It is SO nice!

Been to the CUB in the Midway (St. Paul)? It is SO nice!

Yes, but the redone Midway Rainbow is even better. I’m not kidding, folks, it is the nicest, best organized Rainbow in town, with a lot more ethnic foods and a great seafood/meat department.

Stop in and see for yourself!

This obession with grocery stores will only stop when the metro gets a Hy-Vee. Hy-Vee is a solidly middle class store free of pretensions and stereotypes. All we have in this area are stores which are either really, really uber-trendy (Lund’s/Byerly’s) or incredibly ghetto and overcrowded (Rainbow/Cub). There’s no happy medium. The gap between the classes is too wide.

Amen, sister. Hy-Vee has something metro stores can’t seem to grasp: A meat counter. I mean a meat counter with real meat. Pork chops the size of your face; steaks meant for kings; sausages as big as your two legs. Meat grown and cut for people who eat meat because it puts hair and your chest and muscle on ye bones. A pot roast to feed the whole family and the inlaws. And that’s not even the biggest pot roast they have.

The meat counter at Rainbow? Pfft. Kowalski’s? Why don’t you tell me to just marry my sister while I’m at it? Not for this cattle rustler. I’ll take my steak grilled, over charcole and without the fancy salts and sauces. I eat meat for the meat, not for my self-esteem. My sister will find a man just fine.

I heard that, once upon a time, the Midway Rainbow was the busiest grocery store in the state. No idea if that’s still true.

I’m just mystified that you can write 4000 words comparing rainbow to cub and completely bypass the far more interesting comparison.

Exactly. I am fairly new to co-op shopping and am always curious about the “average” co-op shopper. I guess I won’t find out in the City Pages.

I heard that, once upon a time, the Midway Rainbow was the busiest grocery store in the state. No idea if that’s still true.

I kind of doubt it. I think the Cub down the street does more business. I have been in that Rainbow when it was dead at 5pm on a week day, but it is starting to pick up now that they remodeled the place. The SuperTarget that is about to open up will also likely negatively impact their business.

If you really want to get into name-dropping, then the real working-class everyman grocery store would have to be Red Owl. Personally, I prefer CA$H WISE to Hy-Vee. But I’m from the north side… of Owatonna.

Does anyone remember the free cookie card program at Bylery’s? I’m not sure if they still have that program, but it was fun to have growing up!

I wonder if I still have my card…

“Pork chops the size of your face;“

- – -

How do you know how big my face is?

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I love Red Owl. And Kroger.

Ditto on Red Owl. And Kroger.

Red Owl! Oh yea, cruisin’ down the isle in the bottom of the cart trying to sneak things in when my mom wasn’t looking. Good times.

How would I, the Wynn Dixie (and occasionally Safeway) patron, be stereotyped? NASCAR deadbeat-dad? I hope so.

I’ve seen a few posts with this sentiment, but are those of us that simply shop where ever is closest (be it coop, rainbow or lunds) truly that few and far between? The day the Lund’s opened and was within walking distance I was grateful I didn’t have to drive for groceries anymore.

Seriously, were my actions motivated by trying to make some shallow statement rather than by my sloth, I fear I might come off as (more of) a jerk.

Sorry for double post — trying to podcast with Houston Chronicle on E85 and check MNspeak…

Sorry for double post — trying to podcast with Houston Chronicle on E85 and check MNspeak…

As a former Austinite who grew up with Hy-Vee and eventually Cash Wise and even a short-lived Rainbow (pre-Roundy’s days) I feel a sense of belonging here just with the numerous mentions of Hy-Vee. Those stores are above anything Cub could ever put out in the Twin Cities. They bag the groceries, put the bags in the back seat of the old auto and they have a honest-to-God deli that people eat at. The prices are on-par with Cub and there aren’t pallets of notebooks or pans sitting in the middle of the aisles.

Only when **discussing** grocery stores is MNspeak restored to its glory.

Why is that I wonder?

They should totally bulldooze the Uptown Rainbow and put a shiny new Hy-Vee in it’s place! The neighborhood would change overnight! Crime would disappear! Class wars would cease! People would wait for you to back out of your parking stall instead of just buzzing by!! It would be amazing! Utopia even! Imagine eating a wholesome meal at the deli for under $5.00, seeing your high school gym teacher and your ex-best friend from grade school’s mom all in one place!! The joy!

I shop at a co-op because it’s the closest place to buy groceries. What better reason is there?

You have to love the double-posted apology about the double post.

The only problem with the Uptown Rainbow is that they’re trying to cram as much stuff into there as a normal Rainbow, and it’s about half the size. That, and the fact that when Roundy’s took over they did terrible sponge painting over every surface.

Imagine… seeing your high school gym teacher and your ex-best friend from grade school’s mom all in one place!!

And I do see all of those people at Roundy’s (or at least their urban equivalents), and it’s also full of hotties.

I like SuperTarget b/c when my mom sends me to get groceries with her credit card, I get to sneak glorious goods from the regular side into my cart.

This works well on husbands too.

If you really want to get into name-dropping, then the real working-class everyman grocery store would have to be Red Owl.

Damn straight. How about Fairway? Any Fairway loyalists? They have a meat counter that rivals Hy-Vee.

(signing)
Hy-Vee. Shop Hy-Vee
Where there’s a helpful smile
In every aisle
Hy-Vee!

Ah, memories!

Kevin, You should go to a butcher shop to get your meat. I bet they would satisfy your meat standards.

Hinky Dinky — anyone? Anyone? I thought not! (Hy-Vee drove them mostly out of business ages ago…) However, they had an excellent meat department. (On par with Fairway which was mentioned earlier.)

Hy-Vee was started by a high school friend of my dad’s.

Oh man, now I have the Hy-Vee jingle in my head.

The article I’m waiting to see written is how Target has convinced American womanhood that they need to go to Target every damn day.

The pattern is usually you make your big Target trip right after payday. And lord knows, why go to Target at all, because they sell TP at the grocery store. And a household does actually need to make trips to the grocery store. But go to Target we must, and get the Target sundries. Then its a day later, and didnt realize we were out of paper towels, or forgot toothpaste. So its back to Target. And just toothpaste and paper towels don’t cost all that much, spending $7 doesnt justify the trip. So wifey can spend a little more without hurting the budget she thinks. Pick out another $35 – $45 worth of wifely swag essentially, to justify a trip. Turn a $7 expense into a $50 expense. And do it every couple days.

Target is evil, not a good corporate citizen, a prime cause of cosnpicuous consumption, and generally bad for America.

What’s good for Target is good for Minneapolis.

Let’s not forget that we’re about 10 weeks and counting until patio season. Imagine the patios on The Mall if there weren’t stylish nublie post-college Targetrons in every other seat. It would be insufferable.

Tomorrow, I’ll be in Florida and shopping at Publix. My favorite grocery chain of all time, though, is Tops.

Oh get off your sanctimonious high horse!

You know you love Target and can’t get through a full work week without going in there five times!

Someday, I’m going to say, “Smile, God loves you!” to one of those Marc Jacobs clad Targetrons because they’re oftentimes found to be looking too serious and thinking too much about money as I pass them in the skyway on my way back from Au Bon Pain.

If Target’s wrong, I don’t want to be right.

Best grocery store in the world is Hornbacher’s, in Fargo-Moorhead. Good prices, a honest-to-God butcher, fresh rosettes at Christmas, drive-up service, and free donut holes and coffee all day long.

What the hell kind of name is “Hy-Vee?” I mean, Byerly’s? Don Byerly; Lunds? the Lund family, Target? Mark Dayton’s ass, but Hy-Vee?? Where did that come from?

Wikipedia:

“The company was founded by Charles Hyde and David Vredenburg, who opened a general store in Beaconsfield, Iowa, in 1930….The Hy-Vee name, a contraction of Hyde and Vredenburg, was adopted in 1952 as the winning entry of an employee contest.”

Gawd, Maz, do you have to be a jackass about everything?

Shut up Kevin. If I want any shit out of you I’ll squeeze your head.

c’mon y’all…we need to stop this Repub on Repub violence.

Hornbacher’s in Fargo, especially the Northport one, has been thrugh some real big changes. Shortly after SuperValu bought them, they redid it into a Cub Food type grocery store. Sometime in the last 6-7 years, they redid it again, and it now has a more Byerly’s/Lund’s feel and look to it.

Growing up, my family split it’s grocery shopping between Hornbacher’s, Red Owl, and Piggly Wiggly.

I love/hate the Quarry Rainbow. The remodel they did after Roundy’s bought it is pretty impressive. Feels like walking into the Byerly’s at 36th Ave and Hwy 100. The deli and meat counters are quite good. But it’s always so damn crowded, and the checkout lines take forever to get through.

And I absolutely hate the Rainbow in Columbia Heights on Central. It’s the complete opposite of the Quarry Rainbow. The times I’ve stopped there, the produce is in horrible shape, on the verge of rotting.

I’m in California teaching High School kids about TV at a convention, so sorry for the slow repsonse! Why do we repeat Good Question? That’s a good question. 60 Minutes repeats some of its stories during the summer. So, it does happen in the news world.

Ben Tracy goes on vacation occasionally, and we promise viewers that we’ll have Good Question every night. Instead of having someone else do Good Question, management has decided to repeat some of Ben’s really good questions. If people don’t like seeing repeats– they should e-mail the bosses.

Here’s the Houston Chronicle podcast I did yesterday will trying to MNspeak.

“while trying to MNspeak,” rather.

Sorry. No coffee yet.

And also they call it Hy-Vee because it rules.

I’m in California teaching High School kids about TV

by the time I was in high school I knew way too much about TV already…I’ve spent the last 20 years trying to forget it.

Lunds for urban singles

DAMN YOU CITY PAGES!

ps- you haven’t shopped until you’ve shopped at price chopper, especially at 3am.

One of the Hornbacher sons was a producer on The Sopranos.

I’ve spent the last 12 years of my life trying to forget 3am trips to the Price Chopper. That axe scares me.

Does Raihala not like this place?

“Another Chuck from North Dakota poses as a Whole Foods shopper for this engaging story; MNSpeakers clutch their pearls in response.”