Skipping preview is how we wreck our own jokes.
staples, not stapes. I buy ear bones there all the time.
I’m back. Been away from the computer over the long, four day weekend.I’ve calmed down, which doesn’t mean I’m not still pissed off about it. So some clarifications… ::drum roll::
Pobe is a word that I’m using derisively to refer to the poor. Where’s it come from? I have no idea… “South Park” possibly? Maybe “poverty” → “pobe”? I’m not sure at all, but I’m reasonably certain that I didn’t make it up. Google’s no help. ::shrug:: It’s not the Pope for sure; I would expect that only the highest cardinals do the Pope’s shopping anyway.
fsck is my attempt not to swear too much; I’m not a total jerk, after all. Yeah, maybe it distracts from “fuck” or possibly draws more attention to itself in its jarring, glaring way. For those that aren’t aware, the real meaning of the word is something like “file system check,” and it’s a Unix tool similar in purpose to the old Windows “Scan Disk” application.
loyalty cards sucking isn’t the point of my post. That’s a separate Pit rant. What sucks is Farmer Jack for going back to their crappy, little system. I’ve since confirmed that Meijer doesn’t require them, and Nino Salvaggio’s still doesn’t require them. Well, I knew about Nino’s, but it’s been a while since I’ve stepped foot into a Meijer (location is everything).
premium shopper doesn’t mean I’m a snob. I’m not defining myself in that context – the grocery industry is. I just buy what suits me without categorization. It’s just that Cheez-Whiz and Shake 'n Bake don’t suit me after having grown up as a pobe eating that crap.
a loyal shopper I already am. I don’t hop around to just any cheap, slutty little store that has a box of Shake 'n Bake for $0.05 less. Plus what’s a loyal shopper when you have every loyalty card from every store that forces you to have one? Like walking around with a pocket full of condoms (well, yeah, but I’m married now).
A horrible monster I’m not. Really. It’s a Pit thread. I’m pissed off. You say things in an exaggerated fashion because it feels damn good. The contrast still exists, but by fashioning things as black or white with no shades of grey you can invoke feelings of (dis)agreement to one alignment or the other very rapidly. It’s not a valid trick in an honest debate situation or in GQ, but it sure as hell was effective here. 
All in all, there is a real, true concern that the quality is going to suffer like hell aside from the price discrimination. It’s the Wal-Mart-ization of the grocery industry. I’ve heard rumors of these nice Wal-Marts out there, but I can’t find 'em. You cater exclusively to people that pinch pennies (“pobes” or just bargain hunters) and your quality must decline as a result. I’ve seen it happen at Kroger. I saw it happen at Farmer Jack the last time they played these silly games.
FUCK FARMER JACK (the store, not some poor dude named Jack that lives on his Farm west of Topeka)
I can’t believe I started a three page thread – I’m going to have to go through some of the flames in more detail when I have some minutes…
Balthisar, thanks for coming back to the thread. Congratulations, you’ve added a new word to the SDMB vocabulary. And my use of the phrase “arrogant asshole” in agreement with WOOKINPANUB’s use of it was just pit-friendly kidding. I don’t think you’re an arrogant asshole.
Welcome. But no, “seagull” has been in use before, at least on other MB’s. It’s 'troll-lite". 
It’s been awhile. They just opened one in NYC, to much fan-fare. It’s becoming the Starbuck’s of the “grocery” world.
We’ve had one here in Virginia for a couple months now. We needed it too. Haven’t had a good grocery store since we moved down here and left our Wegman’s.
That really bites. They haven’t even got enough of them here in SoCal yet (closest one to me is a half-hour bus ride in a direction I don’t often go), and I’ve got a $25 gift card left over from Christmas that I can’t spend until I can drag myself out there.
Psh. Get your priorities in order, TJ.
I don’t really have a horse in this race, but I will say that pobes were WAY more compelling when they were shrouded in mystique…
FWIW, there was a Trader Joe’s in Seattle when I moved here in 1996. I think the east coast is much newer turf for them.
There have been a bunch of stores in NY/NJ for years now, it’s just the Union Square store that’s new. Too bad… I enjoyed making some of my fellow Manhattan apartment-dwellers jealous with bags full of purchases from the Scarsdale and Plainview stores.
I just wanted to say that I got it from DrDeth, but I see he’s already been here. And I have to retract it, anyway, since Balthisar dropped by.
We’ve had one in the 'burbs of Baltimore for about three or four years. I like it, but parking is a bit inconvenient (small lot, crammed in with a Pier One and a Barnes and Noble) and it’s always crowded.
I’d agree the poster who said that as far as pricing goes, it’s hit and miss. Some stuff is cheaper and some stuff is more. When they first first opened, they claimed they were they only place in town to carry the organic kiddy cereals like Gorilla Crunch, but I can get that at Safeway for the same price.
Man, dudes, we have “seagull”* and “pobe” both moving into the lexicon, mostly because of this thread. Balthisar, you should be proud! I still think that “pobe” comes from “prole”, but hey! 
*and thanks for featherlou for using it. I like it, as even some well respected posters will do a “seagull” now and then, but they aren’t “trolls” in any way shape or form.
Hey, Balthisar, you missed a good opportunity to say that you meant pobre* instead of pobe, showing your bilingual flair! It’s too late now, but that’s how I kept reading it.
I hate the cards, and was glad when our local grocery store realized it wasn’t worth the cost and effort to keep up the program (our store was listed on LucyinDisguise’s site as one that had come to realize the bad side of the equation).
*can be translated as poor one, if you look at it sideways
I agree. The delicate bloom of my ignorance has been sullied! I may never smile again …
I figured pobe was derived from po’ boy, but that was tacked onto an oyster sandwich long ago.
IMO, the conotation of “pobe” has already expanded from “poor” into “an unreasonable, picayune person”. For me, it has little to do with income.
Pobes eat stupid food for breakfast.*
FWIW, I don’t like the cards, use them to get the “bargains” and accept that my shopping habits will never make any marketer happy.
*another quaint turn of phrase that I learned here and love.
It might be a little paranoid, I admit, to think that someone would be arrested by the items recently purchased on their card. But I bet my insurance company would love to know how often I eat red meat, how many packs of cigarettes I’m buying, and how many six-packs I buy per week. That kind of information sounds like a statistician’s field day; the insurance company would love to raise my rates whenever I buy something that would raise my risk. To be fair, I’m not sure if it’s legal for the grocery store to sell that information. Plus, the 80 year old Eskimo general tactic would really skew their data.