11 Comments

I adore this nuanced oasis-of-a-moment you found in the suburban desert

Expand full comment

It felt extra special because it just seemed like it shouldn't exist. Because it just didn't seem to make sense economically, it almost felt magic. But also it was just a lame grocery store.

Expand full comment

I shopped Shoprite . they had a great deli and prepared meals. This was a nice read!

D

Expand full comment

You were their one shopper, Den!

Expand full comment

For more than a decade, there was a restaurant in Pasadena that never had any cars except the owner's parked in the lot. Didn't matter what time it was: morning, afternoon, evening. One car, always the same car, always in the same spot. And yet the place was open and stayed open until the pandemic finally did it in. God, the theories my mom and I developed. We started with "drug front" and "money laundering" and it got progressively wilder as the years passed. I think we finally settled on "illegal marionette puppet cage fighting" and "exotic scorpion smuggling holding pen."

Expand full comment

There's also a diner-type place in our town, Tool's Family Restaurant, that any time you pass it is completely empty. And very dated. I had never seen any human in it. I thought it was an exotic scorpion smuggling front as well. Then Grace passed by it at like 5:30 in the morning and it was packed: apparently it's the place where every old person who wakes up absurdly early goes for coffee and breakfast in the morning.

Expand full comment

It was great to shop there during the pandemic. 60 foot distancing

Expand full comment

it feels entirely possible that shoprite was so devoid of customer that it got more crowded during the pandemic

Expand full comment

Well the way things are going lately…

Expand full comment
Dec 3Edited

WildBird Junction in Delmar has 97 ratings in Google Maps, all of them five stars except for one: Big KC, who was concerned that birds were controlling him via email.

Expand full comment

this sent me down a rabbit hole of reading WildBird Junction reviews. An actual excerpt:

"They seemed disgusted by the fact that we purchase seed from Tractor Supply. Even though we purchased a gift item, we felt the icy breeze of their distain as we were leaving. No cheery thank you. No Come again. We won't."

Maybe they learned their icy breeze of distain from the cartels? We got some Shakespeares here on Delmar Yelp tho

Expand full comment