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I agree! When I first moved to Minnesota, I was shocked by how expensive groceries were here. When I lived in Houston, I used to go to HEB or Albertson's, food was dirt cheap. In New Mexico, Albertson's was also dirt cheap. In Arizona, they had regular stores similar to Cub, but some really cheap stores like Food City or the "Hispanic" supermarkets. Everytime I go to Chicago, I always stop at Meijer, it would be nice to have one here too. We desperately need a low cost grocery store here, but it seems to be a near-monopoly here in Minnesota
Near Monopoly? Like the gas stations, all owned by the stingy Erickson family (Holiday Stores) and Super America. That is a major problem in the Upper Midwest - the monopolistic attitude by the gas stations and that arrogant airline called Northwest - which only has the Twin Cities by the tit when it comes to gates and everything else. It's really pathetic that this state caters to that airline - freeing them from bankruptcy, infusing them with cash, then in turn they treat their employees like crap, not to mention any passenger who doesn't fit physical traits of what they consider to be upstanding and important flyers. I refuse to fly with them, due to their arrogance. Obviously, they would see me as a terrorist, or at least looking like one.
I think Minneapolitans just love their grocery stores (I'm not from here, I'm proud to admit). They feel they are important enough to be waited on, get their stuff bagged for them, and even carried out to the car. It's all very fitting for their arrogance. Go to Lunds or Byerly's just to see the way the customers act. It's amusing.
Wal-Mart bags groceries for everybody too. It must be full of arrogant shoppers that think they are important and expect to be waited on.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brantacanadensis
Also, grocery stores are more than just stores here - it's the meeting place, just like in small town America - since you can't talk to you neighbor next door since he won't answer his door when you knock on it, you may just run into him at the grocery store, and can chat there. If it weren't for the grocery stores in this area, people would never see their next door or just down the block neighbors.
Totally ridiculous statement. Maybe your bad attitude is the reason that your neighbors don't answer the door when you knock. I have never had that problem anywhere in the state.
Wal-Mart bags groceries for everybody too. It must be full of arrogant shoppers that think they are important and expect to be waited on.
Totally ridiculous statement. Maybe your bad attitude is the reason that your neighbors don't answer the door when you knock. I have never had that problem anywhere in the state.
If you've spent large amounts of time in other places in the state (enough to live in them and have neighbors) then obviously you're from here. That helps for Minnesota. If you are from anywhere else - be it East Coast, South, California, or even Middle America*, people are not very receptive. I've been in the company of people from the area, and they open up when someone mentions growing up in the area. Oh, they usually bring up the big Halloween blizzard, or their high school prom, or their best friend's high school prom. But, if someone opens his mouth just to say one sentence, and an accent is discernible, oh, the locals shut up. They don't want to say, "oh, where are you from? What is it like there?" for several reasons. They don't have any interest in other places, except maybe Oslo.* The fact of the matter is is that people here are too damned reserved, cold natured, have always lived in an INSULAR and PROTECTED, isolated environment (which is why they have been very, very opposed to the recent immigration - Somali, Hispanics, Hmong), have always had a resentment toward the powers that be who control their livelihoods (think farmers and Wall Street), and just have rarely made the opportunities to interact with others from other places. They figure they don't need to.
*Middle America - knew a doctoral student from Missouri. Older person - about early 40s when she moved to Mpls to attend the holier than thou "U", as if it's the only university in the state. Sold her house in Missouri, and bought one in the city limits, Southwest Mpls area. Not one neighbor talked to her, not one introduced himself to her, not one bothered to get to know her. She was a VERY, VERY, NICE PERSON. Hey, she was from the Midwest. She wasn't one of us abrasive Easterners. And, when she met me in a class, she enjoyed my company very much, which got extended to outside the class. This woman joined a church, did some other neighborhood stuff, but noticed that everyone pretty much had their own group and wasn't interested in letting her in. She called the realtor a year later and said she was selling and moving back. The realtor told her, "I'm not surprised. I've seen this happen before here." The student finished her degree, but rented during the next year of coursework, and just lived up here when she had to student teach. Otherwise, she did her work from Missouri. I can write chapters on the people who have left for similar reasons. I would say they are not mean spirited people with bad on-line and off-line personalities. They were child psychologists, lawyers, professors, and others in between. But, continue to keep your head in the sand. It's helps to avoid the issue, and passive-aggressiveness and avoidance are big psychological disorders around here.
*Oslo: I encountered this disinterest at a business once. I was the one non-local, and no could give a rat's ass about my background or state or anything, but when the blond chick from Oslo interned at the office, oh, everyone was so sickening damned excited.
Last edited by Brantacanadensis; 11-22-2007 at 05:04 PM..
Reason: proof reading
Brantacanadensis, you are totally right on the mark! I agree completely with all your comments. I have noticed the exact same things since moving here. And I don't find your online personality abrasive at all. They just have to find an excuse for their bad behavior to justify it.
I don't know of any decent grocery stores. They are all high due to the unions. I suggest you shop at a Rainbow and get stuff you eat regularly when it's on sale. For instance, I don't like to cook or spend time preparing meals. But, I want to eat healthily, so I have a frozen dinner (healthy choice, lean cuisine or the like) but buy them according to has the 5/$10 on sale that week. I also eat power bars for breakfast, but do find them expensive at these stores. I'm checking out Wal Mart next for them. If you buy other stuff - bottle juices, etc. - try Wal Mart (not Target - they are just as overpriced). Wal Mart has some really cheap stuff. I think Minneapolitans just love their grocery stores (I'm not from here, I'm proud to admit). They feel they are important enough to be waited on, get their stuff bagged for them, and even carried out to the car. It's all very fitting for their arrogance. Go to Lunds or Byerly's just to see the way the customers act. It's amusing. Also, grocery stores are more than just stores here - it's the meeting place, just like in small town America - since you can't talk to you neighbor next door since he won't answer his door when you knock on it, you may just run into him at the grocery store, and can chat there. If it weren't for the grocery stores in this area, people would never see their next door or just down the block neighbors.
Byerly's reflects our abrasive personalities? I have never had my gorceries sent out to my car for me, even at Byerly's. The person who shops at Byerly's regularly is rather well-to-do. They are arrogant because of their excessive cash, not because of Minnesota. I have lived in a half-dozen places in this city, and I have had good relationships with my neighbors in all of them. I see people at the grocery store also, it is not the exclusive place to see people I know. You honestly cannot be that presumptious.
Did you ensure that your neighbor was home before you judged them for not opeining their door? Hey, maybe they were at home and were in the shower.
I just moved to twin cities from Madison, Wi and very dissapointed so far... I can`t find a good grocery store - I hate Cub foods and never went there in Madison, because it`s expensive, more expensive than Woodmans or Copps (local WI stores) also at Cub I couldn`t even find half of what I normally used to buy, I don`t get it - the store is huge, but it`s full of crap... plastic fruits and tasteless vegitables....brrrr ((
Whole foods, Rainbows, Kowaslki`s - those are even more expensive.
Aldi - I was surprised, but for example eggs and some other things are more expensive than Cub, that is not even funny.
So may be somebody knows if there is any grocery store, may be somewhere in suburbs, even northwestern Wisconsin is fine.
This thread has gotten off topic - if anyone cares to start a thread about this other topic - feel free. I'd like to hear more on the topic at hand.
If you've spent large amounts of time in other places in the state (enough to live in them and have neighbors) then obviously you're from here. That helps for Minnesota. If you are from anywhere else - be it East Coast, South, California, or even Middle America*, people are not very receptive. I've been in the company of people from the area, and they open up when someone mentions growing up in the area. Oh, they usually bring up the big Halloween blizzard, or their high school prom, or their best friend's high school prom. But, if someone opens his mouth just to say one sentence, and an accent is discernible, oh, the locals shut up. They don't want to say, "oh, where are you from? What is it like there?" for several reasons. They don't have any interest in other places, except maybe Oslo.* The fact of the matter is is that people here are too damned reserved, cold natured, have always lived in an INSULAR and PROTECTED, isolated environment (which is why they have been very, very opposed to the recent immigration - Somali, Hispanics, Hmong), have always had a resentment toward the powers that be who control their livelihoods (think farmers and Wall Street), and just have rarely made the opportunities to interact with others from other places. They figure they don't need to.
*Middle America - knew a doctoral student from Missouri. Older person - about early 40s when she moved to Mpls to attend the holier than thou "U", as if it's the only university in the state. Sold her house in Missouri, and bought one in the city limits, Southwest Mpls area. Not one neighbor talked to her, not one introduced himself to her, not one bothered to get to know her. She was a VERY, VERY, NICE PERSON. Hey, she was from the Midwest. She wasn't one of us abrasive Easterners. And, when she met me in a class, she enjoyed my company very much, which got extended to outside the class. This woman joined a church, did some other neighborhood stuff, but noticed that everyone pretty much had their own group and wasn't interested in letting her in. She called the realtor a year later and said she was selling and moving back. The realtor told her, "I'm not surprised. I've seen this happen before here." The student finished her degree, but rented during the next year of coursework, and just lived up here when she had to student teach. Otherwise, she did her work from Missouri. I can write chapters on the people who have left for similar reasons. I would say they are not mean spirited people with bad on-line and off-line personalities. They were child psychologists, lawyers, professors, and others in between. But, continue to keep your head in the sand. It's helps to avoid the issue, and passive-aggressiveness and avoidance are big psychological disorders around here.
*Oslo: I encountered this disinterest at a business once. I was the one non-local, and no could give a rat's ass about my background or state or anything, but when the blond chick from Oslo interned at the office, oh, everyone was so sickening damned excited.
How is judging an entire state of people any better than our (perceived) dislike of outsiders? Why would I talk about Prom with someone who grew up in Wayzata if I grew up in the city? How could you be so omnipotent as to claim that we have some inherent opposition to immigrants. If they were really that hated, do you think they would choose to live here for so many years? Insolent.
How is judging an entire state of people any better than our (perceived) dislike of outsiders? Why would I talk about Prom with someone who grew up in Wayzata if I grew up in the city? How could you be so omnipotent as to claim that we have some inherent opposition to immigrants. If they were really that hated, do you think they would choose to live here for so many years? Insolent.
I've studied some immigration in my grad level history classes. Immigrants usually end up where they can go (they need sponsors), where the jobs are in some places, and then some also tend to relocate after that (called secondary migration). For many, they don't necessarily like the area, but that is home for now, until they can get out. They experience the push/pull factor associated with immigration. They don't really want to leave their own countries, but due to famine, war, civil strife, they don't have a choice. It's not like it was in the 1800s when the call went out to those in Northern European countries (except the hated Irish in Ireland - isn't that partly while many Minneapolitans find it so hard to cross that river into St. Paul) offering land for sale at cheap rates to those interested in settling middle America, fulfilling the desires of America's Monroe Doctrine and Western Expansion. Those in Southern Europe were considered too undesirable. Many immigrants in the early 1900s, and now, had to settle for a piece of concrete slab in a city. (I know, my family came as immigrants in the early 1900s and made do where they ended up due to their sponsors. Then, they sent their kids to college in the 50s, which is not something to scoff at. Can't say a that for some families who've been in America for generations before that.) My grandparents could not move to a suburb in the 1930s because they weren't Protestant, and were not considered white (they were Italian.) They could afford it financially, even during America's depression, when many Midwestern farmers were eating slop. So, when the covenant restrictions were removed in later years, they decided to stay where they were at that age. Many immigrants start their own businesses, which is another reason why they remain where they are, not necessarily because they like the locale. And, about those white immigrants being offered cheap land in the 1800s, and many descendants are right here in the Upper Midwest: that wasn't a bad deal, considering what that land is worth today. I'm sure many other immigrants (from Southern Europe - us "dogs of Europe" as we were called by the Northern Europeans) would have loved to have been a part of that gig.
As for the person who wants to change the thread. Does this on-line conversation bother you? Sorry, I can't engage in small town talk about grocery stores. My intellect won't allow it.
As for the person who wants to change the thread. Does this on-line conversation bother you? Sorry, I can't engage in small town talk about grocery stores. My intellect won't allow it.
I am not a moderator but enough is enough.
Wanting to keep a thread on topic has nothing to do with intellect - but rather respect. There are rules of this forum & one is that if we want to stray off topic we must start a new thread. Period. I'd love to discuss some of the matters presented as, frankly, I share some of your opinions & insights - minus the hostility.
I was trying to be respectful & low key with my previous request - there was no need for you to become insulting. If you don't like a grocery market thread - quit posting on it.
1. You did really not need to chew out a person for wanting to stay on topic.
2. Believe me, nobody's intellect is so stellar that they can't partake in menial conversation. having intelligence allows you to have both menial conversation and provoking conversation. No wonder nobody here talks to you. You thought the people at Byerly's were snobbish and elitist. (snicker)
3. taking a graduate level course does not make you the authority on immigration in the midwest and Minnesota. I feel that immigrants have created good lives for themselves here. The Hmong populations have been here for upwards of 30 years and have been elected to public office. That is far from a temporary layover in The Cities. The Somalis in Mpls. are the upper echelon of people from that nation. It is home to expat writers, thinkers, and well-educated leaders. Surely their superior intellect (not unlike yours, I must assume) would have dictated that they distance themselves from menial grocery store conversations. Actually, they haven't. Your rant on the "dogs of Europe" is right, but it is right per the history course that you took.
Last edited by Minnehahapolitan; 11-23-2007 at 12:29 AM..
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