Place: Leeann Chin
Lunch: Sesame chicken, fried rice, Pepsi
Leeann Chin is a homegrown Twin Cities version of Panda Express that Chin (1933-2010) founded in 1980. You order at the counter, the counter help completely ignores what you say and gives you whatever the hell they feel like giving you, you pay, you get your drink, sit down, stare at the food you didn't order, sigh, and eat it. Don't argue with tradition. The sesame chicken is spicier than you're expecting. They have some decent and unusual appetizer items like Oyster Wings. I don't like their egg rolls at all.
I saw a concert last night I didn't think I'd ever see in my lifetime. Todd Rundgren, Kasim Sulton, Willie Wilcox, and a new keyboardist got together and put on a Utopia reunion tour. There was no way I wasn't going. I posted a pic on Facebook and nobody cared because they were all busy posting corny Mother's Day meme's, so I'm punishing you by talking about it here.
It was an amazing 2 1/2 hour show broken up into two acts with an intermission, the first covering mostly the band's progressive era, the second the poppier 80's style. Even with that amount of time, they didn't cover everything I would have expected. "Cry Baby" never made an appearance. Honestly, they could have gone another half hour without scraping the barrel. The sing-along of the night was their original "Love is the Answer", the same song England Dan and John Ford Coley later covered and made a big hit. The crowd went nuts for that. It was the talk of women in the lobby post-show, just raving about it. They also threw in their version of "Do Ya", Jeff Lynne's song originally released by The Move in 1972 and later recorded by ELO in 1976. (Utopia recorded it in 1975.) This confused a guy sitting near me who asked "Did that just come out of nowhere or something?" unsure if Utopia recorded it at all and if so, who recorded it first.
Overall, it was a top notch show. They just killed it. To quote the angry old fat guy in the aisle towards the end shouting at whoever, "DO YOU F@%KING SEE THAT? WELL DO YOU??? THAT'S HOW IT'S F@%KING DONE!"
I hope it gets a video release.
Utopia will be doing dates through early June, so show up already.
Monday, May 14, 2018
Thursday, April 19, 2018
Bon-Ton
Place: Which Wich
Lunch: Meatball Grinder, ice water
We got a Which Wich right about halfway between the office and the Townhouse of Solitude and I am totally fine with this. Really. Don’t worry. I’ll be okay. Even if they did blow up the CO2 tank.
Another retailer bites the dust. Bon-Ton is liquidating. They’re a traditional mall anchor department store chain in mostly mid-tier markets that has accumulated other classic department store brands over the years including Bergner’s, Boston Store, Carson’s, Elder-Beerman, Herberger's, and Younkers. Once great department store brands that long ago offered top-of-the-line products and personal service in multiple story downtown buildings with fancy tea rooms that made you feel special just by shopping there. Tailor-fit clothes. Fancy kitchen accessories. The high-end electronics department. The premium candy store in the basement. Going was an event in itself.
All of that deteriorated with time, of course, as they expanded to suburban malls and eliminated frills until they were basically over glorified women’s clothing stores with some home goods as an afterthought. Slightly fancier than Kohl’s. Maybe.
My last purchase at a Bon-Ton brand was pillows about ten years ago. Still using them. Good pillows.
Much like the newspaper industry, executives have no real clue what happened and simply point the blame at the internet. IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT, INTERNET.
It’s not, though. It’s the store’s fault for pushing us all to the internet.
How?
For example, the last time I went shopping for pants. I go pants shopping around once every ten years. I go to a store, I try a few different styles, I buy a pair, and then I go online and buy like ten more pair in different colors.
Why didn’t I just do that at the store? Because the store only had one color in my size, and I had to spend ten minutes digging through their selection to find that one pair.
So how do we fix that?
What if stores had QR codes posted with the item price tags you could scan with the store’s app on your phone that popped up the item and let you quickly place an order through it to be shipped to you?
I think that would help.
“Oh, but the cost of putting the infrastructure into place!” Sure, okay. Just rest on your laurels. That’s gotten you SO far already.
Apps can be very helpful to in-store shoppers. If you’re in Kroger, for example, and you need to find an item, you can search it in the app and it will tell you what aisle it’s in. I have used that, and I love it.
Competitive pricing would be helpful too. Department store anchors tend to think they’re something special worth premium pricing when they’re really not anymore.
Eh. What do I know.
It’s mid-April and it snowed yesterday. Winter just won’t let go. The weather jerks promise we’ve finally cleared that hurdle.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
Lunch: Meatball Grinder, ice water
We got a Which Wich right about halfway between the office and the Townhouse of Solitude and I am totally fine with this. Really. Don’t worry. I’ll be okay. Even if they did blow up the CO2 tank.
 |
| Fizz breaking bastards |
Another retailer bites the dust. Bon-Ton is liquidating. They’re a traditional mall anchor department store chain in mostly mid-tier markets that has accumulated other classic department store brands over the years including Bergner’s, Boston Store, Carson’s, Elder-Beerman, Herberger's, and Younkers. Once great department store brands that long ago offered top-of-the-line products and personal service in multiple story downtown buildings with fancy tea rooms that made you feel special just by shopping there. Tailor-fit clothes. Fancy kitchen accessories. The high-end electronics department. The premium candy store in the basement. Going was an event in itself.
All of that deteriorated with time, of course, as they expanded to suburban malls and eliminated frills until they were basically over glorified women’s clothing stores with some home goods as an afterthought. Slightly fancier than Kohl’s. Maybe.
My last purchase at a Bon-Ton brand was pillows about ten years ago. Still using them. Good pillows.
Much like the newspaper industry, executives have no real clue what happened and simply point the blame at the internet. IT’S ALL YOUR FAULT, INTERNET.
It’s not, though. It’s the store’s fault for pushing us all to the internet.
How?
For example, the last time I went shopping for pants. I go pants shopping around once every ten years. I go to a store, I try a few different styles, I buy a pair, and then I go online and buy like ten more pair in different colors.
Why didn’t I just do that at the store? Because the store only had one color in my size, and I had to spend ten minutes digging through their selection to find that one pair.
So how do we fix that?
What if stores had QR codes posted with the item price tags you could scan with the store’s app on your phone that popped up the item and let you quickly place an order through it to be shipped to you?
I think that would help.
“Oh, but the cost of putting the infrastructure into place!” Sure, okay. Just rest on your laurels. That’s gotten you SO far already.
Apps can be very helpful to in-store shoppers. If you’re in Kroger, for example, and you need to find an item, you can search it in the app and it will tell you what aisle it’s in. I have used that, and I love it.
Competitive pricing would be helpful too. Department store anchors tend to think they’re something special worth premium pricing when they’re really not anymore.
Eh. What do I know.
It’s mid-April and it snowed yesterday. Winter just won’t let go. The weather jerks promise we’ve finally cleared that hurdle.
I’ll believe it when I see it.
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