Time for a reality check...
My 'frig getting pretty empty and the cubbards kinda bare I visited the new 'hood cub in search of victuals this morning. And despite the parking lot being half full I am none to happy to report that there was no waiting at the checkout lines. It's the end of the month, and clearly a lot of working class Northsiders were hoping for a bit of free food to bide them over 'til the next check comes in. The were unrewarded with the least free food I've ever seen given away at a supermarket opening, and of the half dozen or so sample tables set up only one had anything to hand out.- collard greens! Says something of what the mass marketers think of the Northside...
Telling also was the better than a half dozen dislocated displays hawking Interstate Baking's products- that a company on the verge of bankruptcy rents this much display space suggests this CUB must have the lowest slotting fees of any in the chain. Much of the overpriced bread from those displays was abandoned next to the cheaper private label bread racks buried towards the back of the store.
Back to the shopping "experience"- I could have filled up the huge grocery cart if I could have actually found everything I was looking for. Part of the problem is that someone got a little too creative and rearranged a lot of the merchandise from the standard CUB storeplan. But a lot of the lower priced items just plain seem to be missing... give Jerry's credit for cleverness. If they would have priced the same item higher than at the other CUB stores they would have drawn the scorn of neighborhood activists, but by simply not stocking lower priced items they don't quite look like a 'hood store... yet.
None the less I did manage to find maybe half of what I was looking for after two complete circuits of the facility. I did find the shelves full, in fact a bit too full- some were jammed so full I had to cripple a couple items to remove some to actually buy. I might be interesting to stop back late tonight and see how little merchandise has actually moved off the shelves- I suspect this store will need a lot less overnight restocking than the average CUB. Then again, given the recent murder right across the street I don't think I'll stop by after dark. None the less, their was a substantial law enforcement presence in attendance- not sure if they got ordered there by the city fathers or if they were promised free donuts and coffee.
Again, there was no waiting to get to the checkout. However, the cashier spent about a minute demanding a picture ID, untrusting of my credit card from a respected local credit union, and perusing it. I later noted a sign that announced that the West Broadway Cub demands picture ID with all credit card purchases. Now I have never noted such a requirement in any other CUB store, except this one.
So lets add up the totals: Low priced items missing, working class Northsiders treated like felons=
Welcome to the new West Broadway CUB big box hood store!
I left the store convinced that either Jerry and his company are either a) senile and have forget the basics of marketing, or, b) are crazy like a fox.
I'll bet on b- take a look at a map of Minneapolis and try to find a 10 acre site for say, WalMart, to plop a SuperCenter down on. Then consider that WalMart has been striking fear in the heads of grocery executives of late. Then throw into the decision matrix the monopolistic supporters of an overpriced Northeast food co-op who have kept CUB out of that quadrant of our city. Also note that no one has yet been able to site the long awaited downtown supermarket anywhere else, and the fact that the luxury lofts are less than a mile away... One gets the feeling that Jerry's/CUB/Super Valu is really holding off the Beast of Bentonville and maybe doing a bit of property speculation whilst going through the motions of running a big box 'hood store.
On the way home I noted that business was as brisk as ever both inside and outside the local 'hood store.
from Hawthorne-in-the-Hood,
Dyna Sluyter
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