These are the latest blog updates. Click on the title to read the full article.
More regular updates can be found on the Twitter Feed and the Message Board.
Next Thursday
I will have the privilege and honor of introducing Dr. Lisa Tolbert at a book launch for Beyond Piggy Wiggly: Inventing the American Self-service Store next Thursday night at the Greensboro History Museum. Come by if you’re in the neighborhood!
Updates, new book, Canada, etc.
New book that you want:
…and not just because I’m several footnotes and an acknowledgement in it. This one is really good and was written by a colleague of mine at UNCG. There will be a better review coming soon, but you can pre-order now. It drops on 1 August.
Newly added since last I bothered to update the front page:
Bloomington (Indiana) Chain Grocery/Supermarket Locations, 1929-2020
Kansas City Area, updated with the addition of:
- Kansas City (Kansas) Chain Grocery/Supermarket Locations, 1925-1992
- Independence Chain Grocery/Supermarket Locations, 1924-1991
- Shawnee-Mission still to come
Napa Valley Chain Grocery/Supermarket Locations, 1930-1979
Lancaster (Ohio) Chain Grocery/Supermarket Locations, 1925-2020
Springfield (Ohio) Chain Grocery/Supermarket Locations, 1925-2020
True North strong and free:
I’m off this weekend for some quality time in Canada. After a weeklong conference in Toronto, I’ll be going other places yet to be determined. This will be my first trip to Toronto post-pandemic (it’s usually an annual destination for me but I was thwarted by an early winter storm last year) and I am much excited, particularly following my big recent Toronto update. If you see me in Loblaws, say hello.
Search Testing
The content on Groceteria comes from three primary sources: the main site, the message board, and the Google Sheets that generate the location lists. Right now, you can’t search across all those. The easiest (and free) way to accomplish that is to add a custom Google search to the site. I don’t love that option (especially the look and feel and the ads) but I’m testing different things and this is thing number one.
Try this and let me know what you think.
It’s an external link because I don’t want to take it live as a search box on the site yet.
Brockville, Ontario, North America, Earth
In case you haven’t taken a look recently, this is how the map of location lists is looking these days.
Just added tonight: a quick look at Brockville, Ontario.
New stuff: Medford and Wilkes-Barre
For your Saturday viewing pleasure, two new location lists:
And the fact that Medford had a chain called “Groceteria” is only part of my excitement.
It talks!
In which I give a public talk about Triad supermarket history for the High Point Historical Society at the High Point Museum.
It was a great crowd and this was tons of fun!
New addition: Amarillo
By request from a Twitter poll, Amarillo chain grocery.supermarket locations, 1925-2020. It’s more interesting than I expected, I must admit. Lots of independents and small chains, plus an unusual (for the late 1950s) entrance through acquisition of a local chain by Safeway.
File under…
…things I’m relieved that I don’t have to eat this weekend.
Happy holidays!
Friday night December-style updates
For those of you who have departed Twitter, I’m trying to start listing the updates more frequently here (and on the RSS feed should that still be your thing).
The latest batch of new pages:
- Lexington, Kentucky, 1925-2020
- Lewiston and Auburn, Maine, 1930-1966
- Hamilton/Fairfield, Ohio, 1925-2020
- Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1925-2020
And some updates:
And here’s what’s on the horizon over the next few months.
Muskrat, muskrat
I’m not quitting Twitter, at least not for the moment. I am, however, in the process of migrating to other platforms and using Twitter basically as a reposting service for content that’s primarily hosted elsewhere. That means, for now, this website and flickr (the latter for photos, obviously). I’m not sold on Mastodon yet, though I did stake out a territory there today (more when that territory is better occupied).
A little about how I use social media, just for context:
- As a publishing platform for brief thoughts, links, and photos.
- A way to promote updates on the site.
- As a reading list for other content I might want to see more of.
That’s pretty much it. I don’t generally “engage” on social media. I don’t get into long discussions and I avoid arguments entirely for the most part. Who has the time or energy for that? Life is way too short.
Interestingly enough, though, this is why Twitter works well for me. It’s easy to post links, photos, etc. when I’m on the road, and it allows me to pretty well curate what I see (or don’t see). It’s no different than handling toxic politics, white supremacists, homophobes and other bullshit every day walking down the street. My feed is pretty much buildings, retail history, a little music, some random Canadian pop culture, and a couple of friends. That’s it. No drama, no pointless arguments with idiots whose minds will never be changed anyway, and a lot of pointers to good content that’s posted somewhere else (and some that’s actually posted just on Twitter). I tune out the moronic conspiracy theories the same way I tune out the moronic “Let’s go Brandon” bumper stickers. They irritate and horrify me, sure, but they’re not the majority of what’s out there. We have to choose our battles and choosing “all of them” is invariably a losing proposition.
I’m the muskrat’s nightmare user.
I swore off Facebook a few years ago mainly because it was such a “walled garden” and because it no longer seemed like a good use of my time or something I enjoyed. I make no promises right now that I will or won’t be exiting Twitter altogether. There are things I like about it, just like there are things I like about the purple state where I live. Leaving either would be, in many ways, like cutting off my nose to spite my face. The muskrat doesn’t care whether I’m here or not. And there need to be people hanging around to balance out the crazy, in virtual environments just like in “real” ones.
I do think the platform will ultimately implode, which is why I’m also using others. Backups are good.