I was in my old neighborhood today, driving around on the motorcycle, thanking Obama for making it not worth my time to get a day time job, thusly forcing me into semi-retirement and thusly forcing me to enjoy the perfect weather. But before I got onto the West River Parkway (a scenic parkway that follows the Mississippi) I saw the Seward Coop, a local food coop, and on the building it said;
"Everyone Welcome."
And as I sat there at the light looking at the sign, it occurred to me that this sign was much more telling about leftist mentality that at first glance in that WHAT FREAKING GROCERY STORE DOESN'T WELCOME EVERYONE?
Do you know of a company that does NOT welcome everyone?
Isn't that the goal of commerce is to get EVERYONE into your store so they spend their money?
I never saw Rainbow or Cub Foods (large "evil" corporate grocerers) with signs saying, "Only Tall People Allowed."
Or Target that said, "Only Jews on Thursdays, Christians on Fridays, Aethiests of Saturdays and Muslims on Mondays."
The statement is inane. But here we can peer into the delusional psychology of the left.
Understand it isn't enough to just simply welcome everyone just like everyone else does and not make a big stink about it. No, you have to wear this badge of altruism for all to see. To show how accepting of all peoples, races and cultures that you are. Forget that "welcoming everyone" is SOP, if not the most sought after goal of marketing and every business. No, you have to be special and SHOW to the world that you "Welcome everyone."
Additionally, in bragging about how they "welcome everyone" they are implying that somehow other grocerers don't. That Rainbow and Cub and Lund's and Byerly's are all racist, sexist, homophobic, bigots. Not that this was their intention, but the logical deduction is "Well if they welcome EVERYONE, then obviously other grocers don't."
Regardless the point here is the vital leftist pscyhosis of symbolism over substance. It doesn't matter that grocers don't discriminate. It doesn't matter that there hasn't been any problems with different people being able to get service at various grocers. It all simply boils down to the people who run the coop want to feel good about themselves, but without really doing anything productive or that has actual tangible worth.
"Look, we put a sign up showing everybody that we welcome everybody!"
What exact problem did that solve?
The answer, nothing, there was never a problem to begin with.
But hey, they got warm fuzzies and they can pat themselves on the back (without having to do something tangible, like contribute to GDP).
Yes, I'm sure that will help us turn this country around.
Hippies everywhere...
ReplyDeleteHippies are the problem. The dilusional psychology comes from excessive pot smoking...
Is it possible you're reading into the sign a little too much?
ReplyDeleteyour ranting fails to realize the simple fact that many co-ops are member-only organizations.
ReplyDeleteWell, about the only justification I can see (aside from the feel good one) is that some co-ops require that you have a membership to shop there. Perhaps Seward's trying to alert everyone that they do not need to be a member to shop at the co-op.
ReplyDeleteThe sign was presumably there to reassure people who might think a food coop is only open to members. (I've never seen one which wasn't, but they do usually charge 5-10% extra for non-member purchases). The Costco problem.ing
ReplyDeleteYeah, kind of stupid, but I bet not everyone really is welcome.
ReplyDeleteI suspect if you are conservative, show up in a suit and tie or ask about meat products, you'll find that you're probably not welcome.
Similar to how lefties state they "believe in freedom of speech" but then try to shout down or silence anyone who doesn't agree with their opinion.
As for the "goal of commerce is to get everyone into your store", well yes and no. Suppose your business sells a product that only a subset of people can afford or use - say an exotic luxury car or an airplane. Do you really want everybody on your sales floor pawing over the floor model, with young kids crawling over the seats? Do you really want your sales staff yakking with people who could buy even if they wanted the product? Not really. You target your advertising toward the demographic that a) can afford it and b) can benefit from it.
In our bookstore we will not allow spiders or Visigoths.
ReplyDeleteIs Michael Savage welcome?
ReplyDelete"In our bookstore we will not allow spiders or Visigoths."
ReplyDeleteAre Ostragoths ok? What about harvestmen or other arachnids?
I'm just making sure you're not excluding them the way other bookstores presumably do.
Do they accept the Salvation Army?
ReplyDeleteBy the by, for us smaller town folk, what exactly is a "food co-op"? Over here we have co-ops that have gas stations and plumbing stores and sell herbicides and fertilizer to farmers, and theoretically pay dividends to members at the end of the year, but I'm sensing that those (evil capitalist) co-ops aren't the same thing at all....
@Ryan:
ReplyDeleteI was just Dowding a joke from the movie "Life if Beautiful".
After seeing a sign on a window saying "No dogs or Jews allowed," a father explains to his son that many businesses exclude all kinds of people and animals. He and his son decide to exclude spiders and Visigoths from their bookstore.
If you haven't seen the movie, it's wonderful - a hilarious comedy about the Holocaust, if you can conceive of such a thing.
But back to the sign at hand, I think the people are right who say it was meant to convey that non-coop members were permitted to shop there without becoming members. I wouldn't agree that "most" co-ops are members only. All of the ones I know are open to the public.
Nevertheless I have seen similarly ridiculous signs in San Francisco:
"Water for thirsty dogs" - I didn't know dogs could read. Isn't the word "thirsty" unnecessary? If they're drinking we know they're thirsty. If they're not, we know they're not.
"One in five San Franciscans is hungry." - I see a lot more hungry San Franciscans at noon and 5pm.
On a Unitarian Universalist Church: "A Welcoming Place for the Liberal Spirit." - Apparently living conservatives are unwelcome.
Yeah, maybe it's because some "coops" (whatever those are) only welcome members. Anyway, I understand what you are talking about. I work in a place chock full of leftists and t'other day I was walking past an office and heard one of them say to the other (in a completely serious tone of voice) "...and that just shows you how open-minded I am."
ReplyDeleteOuch. This was a bad post. Sorry Cap'
ReplyDeleteWhat was so damn bad about it?
ReplyDeleteCould be worse. I've seen gingerbread people. Not gingerbread men, PEOPLE!
ReplyDeleteIt helps to know the area...the Seward neighborhood is an enclave of gray-ponytailed, tye-dyed, Pious (oops, that's "Prius") driving hypocritical socialist twits. Cap'n, you grew up in that area? How'd you turn into a rational human being?
ReplyDeleteI lived on the 2200-block of 27th Avenue, just a few blocks from the co-op for a year-and-a-half; that was as long as I could stand it.
The sign does NOT reflect the fact that the co-op is open to more than just its members...the Cap'n has correctly assessed their sanctimonious, holier-than-thou collectivist mentality.