Comments

1
When I lived in the pearl there was a place called the Little Green Grocer on I believe 11th and Northrup. I once went in and bought brussels sprouts (couldn't have been more than a lb and a half) and salt, and my total was 18 dollars and change.

Yes, it was a cute shop and all the fruits and veggies were in little wicker baskets like I was living in fucking Amelie, but I went by that corner recently and the place is no more. What a shocker.
2
Anyone who knowingly paid $18 for 1.5 lb. of brussel sprouts and salt, only to complain later that it was a rip-off, is kind of a moron. There are small-scale local places to get food that price the food fairly. And a lot of the produce at Fred Meyer sucks, and it's not even that inexpensive. Anyone who wants to shop in a locally owned business but expects Walmart prices doesn't get the economics of how these chain behemoths operate.
Anon, if you really love these small shops and want to support them, as you say, why not just carry around $20 or $30 in cash to pay for small transactions and use plastic for the larger purchases? This is what lots of people do, and there are no disdainful sighs involved. The credit card transaction fees for small transactions can be a real problem for businesses with a small profit margin. Also, you should not have to be paying any ATM fees if you plan right.
3
Oh god, here comes the "If it ain't mom n' pop it's EVIL WALMART" nonsense. Get real. The guy who owns my local bodega drives a late-model luxury SUV. He makes a killing selling chicken wings to the poor black folks and PBR to the white hipsters. All day, all night, money flows into his store like water into a storm sewer. When church lets out there's a line for chicken that goes out the front door. When the white people art fair happens, every rail hoppin' crust wannabe and their dude bro counterparts are in line too, for $10 six-packs.

Yes, I carry cash for such situations, but you know what? I hardly feel sorry for the small business owner. Nobody seems to give a shit about the fees when they're hungry and / or wantin' to get drunk.
4
So that's your take on small business owners in general? Wealthy SUV drivers living high on the hog from a river of cash from poor people and stupid "white people"? I would guess you don't know too many small store owners.
Oh but there's a small business owner who sells chicken wings to "the poor black folks"!! Oh my god, what a monster. Guess what -- Fred Meyer also has $10 six-packs. So people shop at the bodega -- what's your point? Look, I,A already acknowledged that small stores are worthy of supporting (not the shitty ones obviously; the good ones). No one has asked anyone to feel sorry for small business owners. The fact is that in general they face challenges that larger stores, where more people make large purchases, do not. It's an economic scenario, not good vs. evil.
If someone feels locally owned businesses add something to Portland, then support the good ones. If one would just as soon have all chain stores and franchises, then fine, keep shopping at those. Some of these generalizations about small stores though, including in the I,A, are just laughable.
5
Everything is "marked up" because small stores can't buy the quantities that supermarkets do. They pay more, so we pay more. Basic economics strikes again.

Now New Seasons - their shit is truly overpriced. I can't seem to get out of there without paying at least $15, regardless of what I'm getting.
6
I don't know what IA is whining about. Plenty of small indie stores and grocers have prices that are competitive with large chains. And since when has ANY store of ANY size run a "guilt trip" on its customers? PLEASE! Sounds to me like IA is just making shit up.

Lastly, surcharges for debit/credit card use is typically 35-50 cents. No big deal at all if you're just getting something every once in a while. However, if you live near such a corner store and you find yourself buying stuff from there afew times a week, then use CASH dummy!



Chunty - Are you implying that White people don't eat fried chicken too? Are you sure you want to go there?



Btw - anyone who lives or has lived in the Precious Pearl and WILLINGLY paid over $18 for a lb. of brussel sprouts and salt then has the bloody nerve to complain about over-price...
7
Geyser: next time you want to voraciously defend your IA submission in the comment section, don't make it so obvious. The grammatical similarities between both are more than obvious. At least I know you're one of 'those types' ;)
8
Cash is King. Long live the King.
9
geyser, he only drives his SUV when it's raining. Otherwise he drives an $80k sports car. His six-packs are generally $2 to $3 more than FM charges. But you know what just happened in my area? 7-11. I won't set foot in 'em because I like my bodega, I like the owner, and I know what's a good deal and what ain't. Furthermore if I'm already three sheets to the wind I'm not going to drive to Freddie's / Safeway to save a buck, ATM fees or otherwise.

DamosA, please tell me why I can't find delicious fried chicken every other block in the west hills.
10
"DamosA, please tell me why I can't find delicious fried chicken every other block in the west hills."



Ok, you didn't really answer MY question - not directly - except to respond with another quasi-rhetorical question which (again) vaguely suggests that White people don't eat chicken.

So gosh, i don't know why you can't find delicious fried chicken every other block in the West Hills. But i'm pretty sure you won't be able to find ANY restaurant (fowl/burger/pizza/deli/fast-food/sit-down/etc.) every other block in the West Hills.

But you know what? I bet the nearest Zupans sells alot of chicken. And i bet most of the folks buying it are White as rice.
11
Damosa is right (bring on the dislikes...). There basically aren't businesses in the west hills, cause those might give unsavory (i.e. not rich) characters an excuse to visit the neighborhood.

Also, I'm white and I eat fried chicken several times a week. I get it at the Hollywood Fred Meyer deli, or I get the frozen chicken strips for late night chicken and Mine Craft. I fucking love fried chicken, so until my metabolism catches up to me, I will be eating the fuck out of every bit I can get my greasy little hands on.
12
@Chunty: zzzzzzz
@Arenit: Grammatical similarities? Well, both show signs of standard English, so there's that. I've never submitted an I,A. Moreover, don't mess with me. I was in 'Nam. Not during the war or anything, I was just in Vietnam a few years ago and like to use the shortened name. So you don't want to tangle with somebody like that.
13
Yeah.... I have to say, Arenit, your reading comprehension skills are a bit off. Geyser was calling the post dumb, not defending it.
14
Oh hey, and I was in Nam too! 2010! Dong is like... the BEST currency for gambling, I must say. I lost 10,000 dong in a card game to a tiny Hmong girl. I think that's like 50 cents.
15
I disliked comment no. 11 b/c i felt it was my last shot at irony for the year.
16
Fair enough. I used to get like 90% likes on every comment I made. Then I stood up for you/was willing to talk about race, since which my reputation has gone down the shitter.
The nice thing about having a troll account is that you don't have to care about reputation. :)

I gave you two likes cause I hear irony is going out of style and I wanted to get on board while I could.
17
Irony is a classic art form that shall NEVER "go out of style" - all the hipsters in the world won't change that!
18
Hipsters are mythical beasts anyway. It's just something to accuse other people of being if they're kind of condescending/wear skinny jeans.
19
^^and it fits, also when the fuck did the word "bodega" become common parlance here? let me guess, right after yet more hipsters from NY moved here.
20
I mean, for every other genre of music/style there are people who consider themselves members of a subculture. Punks, hippies, emo kids - these are labels that people tend to give themselves. Nobody claims to be a hipster, and there isn't really any defining musical genre or community of hipsters. This is why "hipsters" also hate "hipsters": there is no solidarity among them because they aren't all part of the same social circles. I think it's really more of a generational attitude that has earned that label, but it's about age more than anything else. If you're in your 20s- early 30's and have a shred of fashion sense, you're going to be called a hipster. It's so generic at this point that it doesn't really mean anything.

As a member of the generation of people who can't be bothered to really get good at anything, I see the obsession with being "in the know" as a sort of replacement for actually doing anything for yourself.

"Oh yeah, I know all about music. No, I can't read music or play any instruments and I'm basically tone deaf, but I knew about all of these bands when they were obscure."
21
"Oh yeah, I know all about music. No, I can't read music or play any instruments and I'm basically tone deaf, but I knew about all of these bands when they were obscure."



Well, i don't think i'm tone deaf at least.

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