Secrets of the City

Personal memo to Bauschy: anyone who writes such a breathless, run-on stream of thought blog post has no business complaining about the branding of brocoli.

“I have tried to explain to her that the fact that I can close my eyes and reach into the tomatoes and still pick one as perfect and firm as Beckham’s butt checks is SO WORTH IT and today, my snobbery was not only justified, but giftwraped in bags of brown salad that still had a good two days left on there Best If Used By Dates”

On the other hand, it’s better than anything Ayn Rand ever wrote.

Tomatoes in grocery stores are all strip-mined from someplace like Texas. They’re never any good.

Also on Jason’s videoblog:

He got assigned a story on the lack of rain and how these next two weeks are critical for rain and then it starts raining. He stretches this out for 2 minutes and 29 seconds without adding really any other information. It’s an exercise of buying time.

This reminds me of a story I saw this past weekend about a family that tipped a waitress $10k. It was at a pizza joint that the family frequented and they had the same waitress several times getting to know her a bit. Anyway, the waitress had been planning on going to college but couldn’t afford to. The family came into some money and decided to do good with it. So, $10k to the waitress so that she could attend college…

Jason, you know that $8k could’ve come in handy for the waitress…

I must be the target market for Broccoli-wokly. Other than it’s non-organicness, I love it. It’s pre-washed, pre-cut and has a funny name. What’s not to love?

On the other hand, it’s better than anything Ayn Rand ever wrote.

It’s already been well established that Bob hates freedom.

Can’t say I’ve read anything Ayn Rand has written (and probably won’t) but from what I’ve heard about her, she certainly possesed the charming smugness you see so often in conservatives. Buried underneath a dollar sign headstone for the purpose of pissing off people who don’t agree with you seems a bit Coulterish to me.

It’s not usually the tomatoes at Cub and Rainbow that piss me off (cuz they don’t usually taste any good unless you grow them yourself), it’s the withering red bell peppers and the fact that I have to dig through a thousand of them before I can find a decent one.

It’s already been well established that Bob hates freedom

That’s not true. However, it is well established that Bob hates brocoli.

You want good veggies you have to hike over to Kowalski’s.

Try the red peppers at Bob’s Produce Ranch in Fridley, aliecat, or Eisenberg’s in downtown St. Paul. Local-grown red peppers should be at the many farmers’ markets now, too. The new one by the Guthrie (Sat. mornings) is all organic, if you are into that sorta thing.

The Rat has been grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s the last couple weeks. That’s a fun place to go.

Maz is right, too. Kowalski’s almost always has better than average produce.

Justbob, I haven’t been to the new farmer’s market by the Guthrie and didn’t even know about it. Thanks for mentioning it. Is it open every Sat? Do you know the hours?

Today’s specials at Eisenberg’s. Aint this InterWeb thingy great?

I loved going to Kowalski’s when I lived in Steven’s, but it’s a little bit more of a hike now that I live in SLP. Oh, and I despise Trader Joe’s. Not because of the fact that it’s Trader Joe’s, just the clusterfuck that is their parking lot. And all the Lexuses…Lexi?

Aaron: at least by doing that videoblog entry, I got the corn/drought story killed. So it was for the best. I suppose I should start videoblogging about something other than mocking my story assignments, though.

And speaking of an exercise in buying time, WCCO is testing some moderated chat software for our CBS digital group. I’m hosting a chat at 12:30 p.m., if anyone wants to fire some questions at me. Go to wcco.com and click on the link at the top of the page (if I knew the direct link- I’d give it to you).

I don’t know what bothers you about what people drive, but, granted, Saturdays are busy there. Probably better to go on an off day.

Here you go.

For the lazy, Saturday 8-1, Thursday 4-8 PM

Aliecat, you can park in the Excelsior and Grand parking garage less than a block away when going to Trader Joe’s. That tiny parking lot is almost always a mess, but I think it’s well worth it for the good, cheap food and wine that TJs has in spades.

That Two-Buck Chuck is worth every penny of the two bucks, though.

at least by doing that videoblog entry, I got the corn/drought story killed.

You mean the annual, obligatory corn/drought story, don’t you?

I loved going to Kowalski’s when I lived in Steven’s, but it’s a little bit more of a hike now that I live in SLP.

Byerly’s has pretty good produce, and there’s one of those in SLP just off 100.

Yeah, I know all about where to park, it’s just always insane to try and use that back road or to make a left on to 36th Street. I end up sitting there for a good 10 minutes…

As for Lexuses, I’ve been almost hit (as a pedestrian) by about 6 of them in the past 2 years. I think it’s a conspiracy…

Exactly, Maz. We do it every year. Hard to do this year, when the USDA report shows the corn is higher and more mature than the 5-year average. Some station will do it anyway, I’m sure.

When I drove Highway 212 to Montevideo on Friday afternoon, the maturity of this year’s corn crop was pretty obvious. There were some signs of stress in some fields (brown, withered leaves near base of stalk), and some of the corn growers I spoke with at the racetrack complained of the lack of rain in their fields.

I haven’t been down that route in many years, so even I was surprised by all the E85 stations along the way, especially in Renville County. Every little town I passed through had at least one E85 outlet. Cool.

Wish I would have stopped in Olivia for some local sweet corn, but I was running late.

Rhyno: No doubt the waitress could have used the 8k. Sadly, I also needed the 8k. Anyone ever really entertain the idea of giving an insane tip? What’s the biggest tip anyone here has given?

The 10k real tip was for a waitress at Pizza Hut in Indiana.

aliecat, if your shopping at the Knollwood Cub, no wonder your pissed. That place is a dump, and they can’t seem to bother to stock anything that’s on sale.

Generally speaking, all franchise owned Cubs are crap, your better off hiking up to the Crystal corporate store.

I’m told that I gave quite a large tip to my mohel, but I can’t remember how big as it was nearly 37 years ago and I was just 8 days old.

Anyone ever really entertain the idea of giving an insane tip?

You mean sober?

I gave $20 to my waitress at Origami for my first ever sushi meal because our food was comped (my roommate’s hubby was a sushi chef there). My friend also gave $20. Doesn’t seem like a lot, but as a poor just-grad, pulling in $10.50 an hour, that’s a lot of scratch.

When you’re 8, that particular tip seems as inaccurately large as it does when you’re 28.

Jim, don’t get me started on the Knollwood Cub. I’ve taken to shopping at SuperTarget lately.

The Midway Cub has greatly cleaned up its act. With the SuperTarget opening at the end of the month, and the Rainbow up the street getting fixed up. Their produce section is run pretty well — their meat department on the other hand…

there’s a guy at the Nicollet Mall farmers’ market that grows hydroponic tomatoes that are available very early in the season. they are very good — I’ve been meaning to ask him if he sells them somewhere else the rest of the year when the market isn’t open.

trader joe’s drives me nuts: all the produce is packaged on a cellophane plate and wrapped in plastic.

I gave a $20 tip when I was just out of college too. We were at a restaurant where the waiter recognized me from the news… talked to me about it… left the table, then came back and profusely apologized to my wife. He said he was sorry for ignoring her, and then proceeded to ask her about her job. I thought that was cool.

I’m trying to remember the last time I got really good service…

I once gave a $25 tip for a $75 meal. The food was fantastic and the service impeccable. However, I must not look like a good tipper because I often get lousy service. Some friends and I went out for breakfast once, it was busy. It took 15 minutes just to get someone to take our order, and it took 45 minutes to get our food. My pancakes were stone cold as if they had been sitting around for 45 minutes. I left a nickel tip. Frankly, it was more than was deserved.

You mean sober?

Great point…I know I have tipped way more than I should have in some instances. Unfortunately, I can’t account for the tip…just recall how much I took out from the ATM the night before.

Alie, don’t you just steal the fresh produce from your neighbor’s garden?

A friend of mine got a $100 tip from a drunk guy at a Robert Cray concert…

Doug, did you complain before leaving your nickel tip? Obviously the tip is an indicator of the quality of service, but as a former waitperson, a person needs to hear why they only made a nickel, or else you may have only succeeded in creating an angry waitperson and crappier service.

Trader Joe’s sucks for produce. I go there for cheap wine and the private label frozen goods (yummy). The Knollwood Cub is the pit of despair. Byerly’s and Kowalski’s is where it’s at. Who doesn’t love a carpeted grocery store?

Knock it off.

I gave a cabbie a $37 tip on a $13 ride…too drunk to realize that when I said “keep the change” I was handing him a $50 and not a $20. The biggest lesson learned? When you get an unexpected cash gratuity @ work, don’t tell your wife…cause she’ll want some, and when you blow it she’ll be pissed.

I received a 40 dollar tip, back when I was cooking, for my clam chowder of all things. It was like the scene in Ratatoulie when the waiter comes in and tells the cook that the customer wants to speak to them. I freaked out until they talked to me and slipped me the money. Afterward, I took the other cooks out for drinks.

I don’t know if this counts, probably not, but once after church a man I had never met handed me an envelope and said “This is for you” and walked away.

I opened the envelope and found a $20 bill. He wrote on the back of the envelope suggestions for the $20 such as…save it, donate it, have some fun, enjoy a steak dinner. It was such a nice and unexpected thing to happen.

Who doesn’t love a carpeted grocery store?

Me. I don’t love it. I love the urban shopping haven that is Hark’s in my neighborhood. They have everything I need crammed into three feet by three feet and there’s always a gang of neighborhood kids in there knocking over shit and chewing bubble gum. It rules. They even have 3-2 beer if I get desperate. They have fresh bananas! They have Polka Dot Milk! I’m never leaving my neighborhood again.

Yes Josie, she was well aware of our dissatisfaction … when she bothered to pay attention to us.

Well damn, all these stories are making me feel guilty. I should have just let that woman in Canada keep her $8008.00 tip.

I once gave $20 for a $1.63 bill… It was a similar thing to Jason, except she missed a key. It was supposed to be $16.35 or something…

The lesson there: If you’re paying by credit card, leave your tips in cash.

What if she doesn’t want to give it back? Does AMEX send a crack team of mercenary mounties to collect?

One time I got a 200 dollar tip, but I ended up sleeping with the guy so maybe it doesn’t count.

Who doesn’t love a carpeted grocery store?

Me. Those grocery stores are for people with low self-esteem. Shopping in a trendy, decorated groceria makes them feel good about themselves and provides them with the necessary egomaniacal separation from the rest of us.

I don’t care about the carpeting either way, but the lighting is a big thing for me. I really really hate the bright lights at Cub and Rainbow.

The real tip was $8.00. 20%.

So the person wrote out the 20 percent. Why? — in order to show how generous a tipper he or she was?

That’s strange enough.

Paul: the woman noticed her error– and voided the sale, handing me all the receipts. ((Not to send this veering off topic, but I love that you’re trying to live Twitter your child’s birth! My wife’s due in September: she’d kill me.))

I don’t like the tile in the produce section at Byerly’s, too jangly on my nerves, but the carpet is nice.

Christine, I loved that Hark’s, too. They had cheap ciggies.

Those grocery stores are for people with low self-esteem.

Additionally, it creeps me out when the baggers offer to carry my groceries out to my car for me. Then I have to make small talk and that’s the last thing I want to do when I go to get groceries.

I loves me some Trader Joe’s. I cannot help it. I have been wary of buying produce there, just because of all the extra packaging. However, I broke down and bought some white-flesh peaches a couple of weeks ago. Dear, sweet Jebus. They were so freakin’ delicious.

Parking/traffic is rarely a problem for me, as I stop on my way home from the gym at night. It’s usually about a half hour or 20 minutes before they’re closing, so it’s pretty empty. This also helps me to not spend as much money.

I once gave a really big tip to a cab driver. But it was an accident. He misheard whatever it was I said to give me back, and apparently kept that much.

“I should have just let that woman in Canada keep her $8008.00 tip.”

Probably just as well that you didn’t – that’s how rumors about someone’s eccentricity begins.

“Oh well, you know he has an entourage now?”

“No!”

“Uh huh. And, when he dies, he’s left instructions to be mummified and placed inside a tomb in the shape of a giant cat!”

Who doesn’t love a carpeted grocery store?

Not I. It just seems like a playground for a gajillion more germs. It’s probably no different than linoleum, but it just looks grody.

The first time I ate in my kid’s restaurant, he picked up the tab. Well, since I never got a tab, I never went into the normal mental process of figuring the tip, and so I totally forgot to tip the waitress.

I only realized what I hadn’t done after I got home. So I apologized to him about it later and asked if she had said anything, and he said “yeah, she said ‘your old man stiffed me.’ So I took care of it.”

Now I’m persona nongrata at Punch.

The Rat: What are you talking about? I’m “the person.”

Carpeted grocery stores are great until about a week after someone drops a carton of milk.

Oh, Why did you write out 20%?

I much prefer the unpretentious small town grocery stores where everybody has to shop at because there are no other places to shop in town. There are no class distinctions at a small town store. Take Market Place in Bemiji for example. They have the best cake donuts that I’ve had since Catholic grade school church basement cake donuts that the church ladies used to make.

I didn’t write out 20% on the receipt.. I just put it as info on the flickr page, context to go with the anecdote about the tip. I’m an OK tipper (20% is ok in Canada right?), but not giving an $8008 tip.

Sorry, Jason. I was confused.

Carpeted grocery stores are great until about a week after someone drops a carton of milk.

YES! My point exactly! Or yogurt or meat or fish or a grape that someone unintentionally rolled their cart wheels over.

Unless the carpet is professionally steam-cleaned every single night, there’s no way I’m buying food from a carpeted grocery store.

And I’m not usually freaky about germs. I purposefully avoid anti-bacterial soap when possible and have used Purell maybe twice, ever.

Okay – that was way too much to write about something so freaking insignificant.

love,
grandma

Apropos of nothing. Is is customary for a person to tip a man or woman who is the known owner of an establishment?

Christine, that’s why I do the drive up…man, do I miss the drive up. Pushing a cart in 3 inches of slush to your car is a nightmare.

Maz: That’s hilarious. I always try to tip the price of the meal or drinks if I ever get anything comped.

Rat: I have that effect on people. No worries.

“I’m The Person” Brags Big-Spending DeRusha

See how easy it is for these things to get started?

Still on Byerly’s: I like to go there for their Kosher meat selection and it’s the only commercial bakery that I know of that carries Challa (not the frozen dough, tho) for when I make french toast. That’s pretty much all I ever buy there…oh, and they’ve got a pretty decent pre-made salad selection.

I don’t think so, unless they’ve provided some sort of service to you directly.

Very funny teucer. You’ll be the downfall of me, won’t you? And how did you know how I wanted to be buried? Damn entourage giving up all my secrets.

Wow, maybe CJ’s job isn’t as hard I as thought, so long as you don’t actually have to go anywhere or talk to anyone. Just like on the Internet!

Largest tip was to an old friend in NYC. Ran into her on the street and she invited me to W (where she worked as a bartender) to grab ‘a few’ drinks while I waited for another friend to get done with work. Turned out he didn’t get done with work until 2AM and she just kept sliding me Sapphire Tonics all night. Well, 10-12, $15 drinks later she informed me that I should probably leave as the bouncers were giving me ‘the look’ and also that I owed her nothing for the drinks. I laid down a hundred for her as a tip feeling guilty. She refused the tip, but I had full intentions of giving it.

Doesn’t count as much, but playing blackjack at Mystic a few years ago, I had a $10,000 run and over the course of about an hour tipped out close to $1500. Of course I walked out with nothing in my pocket and wished that I had slipped the chips in my pocket instead of the tip ring.

Not me, but a friend was at an Indiana restaurant and saw David Letterman with a group of friends. The waitress was a friend of my friend and told him later that the bill was $600 and that Dave tipped 100 percent. Classy.

Re: carpet. Grocery stores do have carpet cleaning machines on hand.

Has anyone else noticed how The Quarry Rainbow pushes plastic bags over paper. I asked the cashier last time why they all ask “Is plastic okay?” She said her manager tells them to say it but she didn’t know why. Anyways, I find it mildly annoying.

“Doug, did you complain before leaving your nickel tip? Obviously the tip is an indicator of the quality of service, but as a former waitperson, a person needs to hear why they only made a nickel, or else you may have only succeeded in creating an angry waitperson and crappier service.“

I’ve done the nickel tip myself, (albeit not often at all), and I have to disagree with you.

If I’ve left a nickel tip, I’ve received service so atrocious that, first, there’s no way I’d go back, leaving me indifferent to the whole “help them improve” theme. Second, to get a nickel tip, the service was so awfully bad, there’s no possible way any server could not know why they got a nickel. (And no, I don’t blame wait-types for food issues.) And, finally, if I created a crappier waitperson by making them angry and bitter that I failed to recognize and reward their inner, hidden – well-hidden – value, maybe I goaded them into exploring other potentially more rewarding and suitable career choices, like, say, night watchperson, or mattress inspector, and their lives took a huge turn for the better.

Plastic bags are cheaper to produce– and in the scheme of things, if they’re recycled (which they are recyclable), they are more environmentally friendly. It takes less energy to produce plastic bags, I’ve been told.

Maz, your kid owns Punch? Are we supposed to tip there? I only go to the one by Calhoun, and I’ve always had to walk up to get my food.

Target will be rolling out a program to collect plastic bags for recycling this fall in all stores. It’s already in place in some states that require it.

I should have just let that woman in Canada keep her $8008.00 tip.

Yeah man, it’s canadian dollars! That’s only like … (checks exchange rate) oh fuck, canadian currency jokes don’t work anymore! It’s 96 canadian cents on the dollar now!

):

also if anyone is going to get sanctimonious about grocery bags, get cloth reusable ones or stfu.

Biggest pet peeve, the drop and run.

The wait person slips the bill onto the table and doesn’t return for 45 minutes.

My favorite tipping of story of recent memory happened a couple of weekends ago. My band was playing a show, and a friend of ours hooked us (all 7 members) up with gin and tonics. When it was time for Round #2, he decided to try a different approach. He slid $40 in the bartender’s breast pocket and arranged for PITCHERS of gin and tonic to be delivered to the band throughout the evening.

I’m not sure what the final tab came out to be, but the element of pre-tipping (i.e. bribing) was spectacular.

Douglas- at the very least, you could have said something to the manager and got a portion of your meal comped, or something. Unless the manager was a douche, too.

Trader Joe’s sucks for produce. I go there for cheap wine and the private label frozen goods (yummy).

Me, too.

I don’t particularly like the carpet or the dark lighting at Kowalski’s and Byerly’s. Lunds is a nice happy medium. But it all depends on what I’m shopping for. For staples, I’m perfectly fine with even the worst Cub or Rainbow. If I need something a little fancier or want to hit the deli case, I’ll go to Lunds or Kowalski’s. I also like the Archer Farms stuff at SuperTarget and ST is not so bad for the basics as well. I’ll do ST if I’m just shopping for stuff for one meal or something, and if I know I need to pick some non-foodstuff items up and only want to make one trip.

But I don’t do much grocery shopping or cooking, so I most often end up at the deli case at Lunds or at TJ’s.

Byerly’s has tile in the dairy department. And in the produce and meat and deli section. It’s the aisles with (mostly) dry goods that are carpet. The cashiers are always incredibly friendly, and they know how to pack a grocery bag, something Super Target cashiers are sorely lacking training in (you don’t put EVERY SINGLE CAN in ONE bag, people!). Kowalski’s employees are also suspiciously happy. Maybe they’re putting crack in the coffeepot.

i slipped a security guard $40 to let me and a buddy into a chicago bears game at soldiers field. it was sweet, i felt like al capone.

I need friends like yours, nateek.

Jason,

Not only do I have the green light to twitter, I also will be setting up a live video stream from the delivery room.

Now all I need is Flak Radio to do a podcast, and Ed Kohler doing play by play commentary. Although, I don’t think my wife will let Ed into the delivery room.

Trader Joe’s sucks for produce. I go there for cheap wine and the private label frozen goods (yummy).

Some of their produce isn’t the best, and the packaging can be annoying, but I do like the little guacamole or chilli packs where they give you the exact amount of produce you need to make a specific dish. They will even give you an extra small onion since you don’t need a giant one so there isn’t a bunch of waste left over to turn to mush in my fridge when I forget it’s in there.

And I also love the frozen goods. The frozen rice is so awesome and cooks up in like 2 minutes. It’s a best friend of the lazy cook!

jason –
I need this friend too. About once a year…

Hark’s “Winner–Lowest Price” sign is amusingly misleading. It is an advertisement for generic cigarettes, not the result of a competition. But they are always very nice there.

A guy at Duc Loi, which is certainly the best-kept Vietnamese store on Nicollet, asked me if my wife were Asian when I was looking at the bags of rice near the entrance. When I said that she is, he took me into a room further back where there were different bags of rice. These are the really good ones, he said, clapping me on the back. She’ll love these!

So insist on those should you go, I guess.

TJ’s inconsistent for produce. Kowalski’s and Whole Foods are my favorites. You’ll notice produce departments’ looking more and more like Whole Foods’ all the time–Kowalski’s expanded theirs again, and of course there’s the Rainbow “Fresh Market” in the Quarry.

“I’m not sure what the final tab came out to be, but the element of pre-tipping (i.e. bribing) was spectacular.“

That’s my default model if I’m in a bar. With the first drink, I always tip close to 100% of the drink cost. Guarantees great service right from the start, all night. (Yeah, the following tips are smaller, but still closer to 50% than 20%. More expensive, but it’s been worthwhile.)

TJ’s has some great frozen goodies to microwave for lunch at work. And the private label simmer sauces and such are magical.

“Unless the carpet is professionally steam-cleaned every single night, there’s no way I’m buying food from a carpeted grocery store.“

It’s a special food-service rated carpet, all synthetic and very open-celled, and when you buy it, you also buy the specialized carpet cleaning machine that basically hoses it down and sucks it out and steam-sterilizes it. And, yeah, they do it every night, and sometimes even during the day when some lawyer’s 4-year-old son drops the gallon of milk off the back of the cart while dad’s looking at steaks and it explodes out over a fifteen-by-fifteen area and also over about ten pairs of nice shoes, some of whose owners are obviously WAY too tense to be shopping in the first place.

Maz, your kid owns Punch?

He’s the GM at the one in Highland, where it’s sit-down with waitresses, etc. The one Meryl Streep allegedly loved so much when she was in town. I guess some of them are more Chipolte-like the way you order and get your food, etc., but not Highland.

Oh, and I guess Punch is putting in a new restaurant on Grand Ave (near Avon) for you yuppies so inclined.

the best place to shop is the wedge, where you get organic foods, find out about the latest protest, and pick up hair-styling ideas all in the same trip!

I wish I owned a home so I could shop at Simon Delivers…ah…delivery…

I like the paper bags with the handles at Cub and Rainbow, although I have to double bag. I have to walk to and from the bus stop, since I have no car and I’ve had bags rip on me. When it’s raining I’ll put a plastic bag on the outside, so the paper ones won’t get wet. I like to bag my own groceries; I’ve been doing this so long I mastered the art of packing groceries. One thing I like about plastic bags is they are good for storing up the solid clumps in my cat’s scoopable litterbox. Then I can just toss it with the rest of my trash. Her solid waste gets flushed down the toilet

Not me, but a friend was at an Indiana restaurant and saw David Letterman with a group of friends. The waitress was a friend of my friend and told him later that the bill was $600 and that Dave tipped 100 percent. Classy.

I just can’t believe the story Standish Diner told about Letterman. Oh, sure, I believe he left a $600 tip, I just can’t buy the part of the story about him having a “group of friends.”

Jim, don’t get me started on the Knollwood Cub. I’ve taken to shopping at SuperTarget lately.

Knollwood Cub…yes very disappointing. I have vowed to avoid that store as much as possible…even though it’s my closest and “quickest” option. Even its dirty and half-old-Sears-store-or whatever exterior is depressing.

And how about Knollwood in general? With a parking lot designed to let you in, but not let you out? A weird obelisk of a sign that screams of the 80s? Could it be the area’s most depressing mall?

my Grandpa used to tell me this story. He said it happened to him, but it maybe one of those urban legends:

according to the story, he and a group of his friends were at a restraunt drinking, eating, and having a grand old time. By the time the evening was over, they had a huge tab that they couldn’t afford. They looked around at each other, rubbing their hands and trying to figure out what to do.

Then, this guy in the corner called the waiter over, scribbled something on a piece of paper. Then the waiter told the group who couldn’t pay their bill that they didn’t need to worry about it.

who was the man in the corner? picasso. He scribbled a drawing that was worth more than their tab.

I heard Picasso was a jerk who would have been unlikely to commit such a kind act.

Actually, Picasso did that sort of thing all the time, because he was a relentless self-promoter and he knew stories like that would spread. His standing as a world-class jerk is well documented, especially in his treatment of women.

Later in life Picasso was famous for paying by check knowing that the check with his signature would never be cashed, which does lead some creedence to the story above.

In the mid nineties I was working out at Gulches of Fun, a go-cart, arcade, mini-golf place out in the Black Hills. One night our manager told us we were closed to the public for a private party. It was for Kevin Costner and his buddies, they were great, drinking/sharing beer with us as they smashed go carts and ran all over the place like kids. At the end of the night the 10 employees were each tipped out $50. Not too shabby.

Douglas- at the very least, you could have said something to the manager and got a portion of your meal comped, or something. Unless the manager was a douche, too.

We would have, but we had already spent about an hour more than we intended in the restaurant. –Never going back is a given.

Also regarding the carpet: Even if there are more germs, they’re not going to magically leap up into your cart of food. So unless you’re dropping your produce on the floor (and neglecting to wash it later), I don’t see what the worry is.

Then again, I tend to be rather laissez-faire about the whole antibacterial germaphobia thing. It’s not that I disregard the principles of cross-contamination and food safety, but I also recognize that I have a functional immune system.

Yay–it’s been a while since the last grocery store thread. Remember, people, it is summer, which means overly-cold grocery stores, which means obviously erect nipples in public. It annoys me but if I don’t SEE people stare at my chest, I don’t mind.

Cub and Rainbow: dusty, bad lighting
Byerly’s: so decadent taking the drive-through to pick up your groceries
Trader Joes: I’m totally with you, aliecat. Appalling parking.
Wedge: Good selection for sure, but best to avoid when the place is busy.

Wasn’t there a Wedge thread that started from someone’s perceived poor treatment there? I forget exactly what the beef was.

Knollwood: that parking lot bites. But the place has a wig store and a swimming lesson store.

Nice photo of Targetrons in their natural environment, from MPR.

so where do you do your shopping again, jane?

also the wedge thread was by some jilted lover trying to hit on a worker and getting cockblocked by another worker

Nice photo of Targetrons in their natural environment, from MPR.

no no, the targetrons are the hot corporate workers downtown, not the floor staff at the stores.

“the targetrons are the hot corporate workers downtown, not the floor staff at the stores.“

Are you sure this really is all about “hate to be them, the poor drones”, and not actually about “damn, new buyers START at $68,000.00?!”

What, are you allergic to red and tan, wayne?

whenever i go to the wedge, i feel like an intruder in some club i’m not cool enough for

Outstandding Targetron viewing can be had from Brit’s balcony on 10th St. at 5pm.

They exit the HQ in droves.

Just sayin’.

red and tan what?

if the targetrons weren’t so full of themselves and standoffish I’d love to get to know a few of them

*wink wink*

no no, the targetrons are the hot corporate workers downtown, not the floor staff at the stores.

Yeah, there’s a difference between working at Target and working for Target.

A big group of friends once massively over tipped our server at a prominent Mpls. dining establishment. She received, well, let’s just say that she probably made her rent off of us that night, or very close to it.

Yeah, there’s a difference between working at Target and working for Target.

When you work for Target, you have to spend more time color coordinating outfits before leaving the house for work.

And you’re well on your way to becoming The Man who keeps everyone who works at Target down.

Also, my blog is never going to make it on to the aggregator, is it? Sigh.

off the subject but did you guys see this?

Wow. I wonder what set them off. Was it when Tabitha claimed to be a volunteer hooker?

“And you’re well on your way to becoming The Man who keeps everyone who works at Target down.“

That would be so cool! I’d love to be the guy who keeps everyone down!

“Hey! You! Yeah, you in the blue shirt! No, not you, the OTHER blue shirt! Yeah, you! GET DOWN! Right now!!!”

Damn, that’d be fun!

Guess we’d have to go back and see if anyone got curtly warned off today.