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News & Updates

More regular updates can be found on Bluesky and the Message Board.

Updates, testing, and other things

I haven’t really left the house much this weekend, not wanting to multiply the evil effect pollen has had on me this year. That said, I probably would have risked leaving the house for a 25th anniversary sale at Safeway in Vancouver. Plus it seemed like time to move the April Fool’s gag out of the top position.

So you get updates. You’re welcome.

Page layouts:

After almost a year, I have finally finished my project to re-format all the location lists on the site (which took longer than I planned). For the past ten-plus years, these pages were generated with a Google spreadsheet in an IFRAME. This simplified lots of things for me but also had some negatives. To start, it was absolutely horrible on mobile devices. Also, since the sheets were externally hosted by Google, none of the data showed up when you searched this site. Both of those problems are now solved. And for those of you who would rather see the lists in tabular format (which really is the best way unless you’re on a phone) you can still view them in Google Sheets, as a CSV, or as a PDF.

If you’re interested in geeking out and learning how I (sort of) automated this using OpenRefine, let me know!

Search options:

Another thing I started on quite a while back was adding a function to search both the main site and the message board simultaneously. This is harder than it sounds; these are two different platforms (WordPress and phpBB) using two different databases. There are plugins and paid options to cross-search, but I’m cheap (and don’t receive any compensation from the sites) so I opted for a Google-based option that I had used before. I finally have them reasonably well implemented on both sites. I have not (yet) replaced the traditional search functions on either; the Google option is an additional search box while I’m still testing and tweaking. Let me know how it works for you!

Latest updates:

Since March:

 

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March updates

Since it will soon be Daylight Savings Time and I’ll be too much of a zombie to type…

New additions since December:

Updates since December:

I’ve been busy…

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December (and coming soon)

Back from my annual road trip to Southwestern and Southern Ontario and other places along the way. This trip included one of my periodic runs to the amazing Allen County Public Library in Fort Wayne for some major data acquisition. You can see what will be coming soon as a result of this on the “works in progress” page.

New additions since October:

Updates since October:

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New additions

Giant Food Price Cutter 1933

New stuff over the past couple of months:

Again, follow along on Bluesky if you want these updates as they happen.

I’m also still plugging away on reformatting all the location list pages. It’s slow and tedious and I can only maker myself do so many in sone sitting, but I’ll get there.

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Remodeling

As you can see, I’ve done some significant remodeling of ye olde Groceteria over the past few days.

Since people are inherently resistant to change, I’ll stick to the benefits of this particular round and leave the negatives for the comments (I’m kidding. Sort of.):

  • The main site and the message board now have relatively consistent navigation and actually look like one site. Imagine…
  • I think the typography is nicer and the layout in general is cleaner. Your mileage may vary.
  • The new base theme I’m using is incredibly customizable, which will no doubt allow me to do all sorts of new and fabulous things with it. Eventually.
  • Remodeling every few years is a generally good thing to do.

However, if you want nostalgia, here’s what the site looked like 25 years ago:

Site front page, 2000

For the record, I’m also still working on reformatting the location lists as I mentioned a week or two back. Canada is done and I’m working my way through the U.S. alphabetically. I’m somewhere in the middle of Illinois right now.

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News and stuff

Sorry. It’s been a bit. Things have been very hectic at the day job (you know, the one where I actually get paid).

So…news:

I forgot to mention it here when it first ran, but you just might see a quote and a photo from yours truly if you read this article on SF Gate: After 70 years, San Francisco’s skyline ‘miracle’ is about to come to a close

Otherwise, most of the action has been on Bluesky of late, but here are some recent additions, for those who care:

I’m also working on a project to reformat all the location lists and make them more mobile-friendly and discoverable through the search function. I’ve done all of Canada and am working my way through the U.S. (currently at California). As it happens, the only link above that I have done so far is San Francisco.

And that’s the way it is.

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Pay’n Takit to return

In a surprise announcement on the first day of April, Albertsons has revealed that its Safeway subsidiary will be reviving the century-old Pay’n Takit brand for a new discount chain focused on self service and cash sales.

Established in Arizona in approximately 1921, Pay’n Takit was acquired by Safeway in 1928 and the branding was used in several markets into the 1930s.

Additional stores may open on the first day of April in subsequent years. Most will be conversions of existing properties, but a prototype deign for new builds has also been leaked:

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