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Afternoon Links: Grocery Wars, Female Clubs Under Attack, and Baseball, the One Constant

By Jim Swift

23 Years Later, Man Returns to Groundskeeping Job With White Sox. This Chicago Tribune story about Nevest Coleman’s wrongful conviction is heartbreaking. For a man so wronged, it’s heartening to see that the White Sox were eager to offer him his old job back.

Grocery Wars: The End of Small Chains? Growing up in Cleveland I remember the commercials for TOPS grocery stores. But it’s not until you get out and travel the country that you realize that your local chains are just that… local chains. (TOPS exited the Cleveland market when I was a senior in high school.) They’re the focus of this interesting New York Times story about the changes in the grocery market.

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Tight on cash, the grocery chain has faced tough competition, even in more remote markets like Chestertown, a community of about 700 people in the Adirondacks. Many residents said they drove 35 miles to shop for food at Walmart on the weekends but shopped at Tops, often paying higher prices, during the week because it was close to home. But Tops’s virtual monopoly in the town ended in August 2016 when Dollar General — a national discounting chain — opened a store in Chestertown. The Dollar General doesn’t sell much fresh produce or meat, but it is siphoning off Tops customers with huge deals on other staples. At $2.80, a gallon of whole milk at Dollar General costs about the same as a half-gallon at Tops. Alex Colpas, 27, who works at a marina on a local lake, said he rarely shopped at Tops any longer because of the deals at Dollar General. “You don’t even need a grocery store, frankly, if you can find a better way to shop,” Mr. Colpas said. “It’s a relic.”

Unionized grocery stores, in particular, are in trouble. Big stores in rural areas, too. The smaller discount grocer can come in and eat a lot of your lunch.

What’s in This Week’s Issue? Editor in chief Stephen F. Hayes breaks down the latest issue.


All-Female Club “The Wing” Being Investigated by NYC Human Rights Commission. I’m all for allowing gender-specific clubs, but this hand wringing by Jezebel is sort of enjoyable to read. I guess we’re calling gender-specific clubs “safe spaces” now. Whatever floats your boat, ladies.

How Cooking Eggs Can Be Problematic. At the Free Beacon, Sonny Bunch has a look at how making a breakfast food can provoke the ire of the #woke:

The method of cooking eggs in question involves an “egg spoon,” or an insanely expensive iron spoon that cradles the egg in a fire pit. I guess. I wouldn’t have any idea because this seems like a nutso way to cook an egg when you can literally scramble one in minutes. But I digress. The egg spoon, according to the New York Times, is a dreadfully classist way of cooking: “She’s Pol Pot in a muumuu,” [Anthony Bourdain] was reported to have said at a New York food festival shortly afterward. “I saw her on ‘60 Minutes.’ She used six cords of wood to cook one egg for Lesley Stahl.”

Eggcelent!

Save the date! Join us at the 2018 Weekly Standard summit.This May 17-20 at the historic Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs, join Stephen F. Hayes, Fred Barnes, John McCormack, Michael Warren and special guests Bret Baier, Senator Tim Scott, Representative Trey Gowdy, A.B. Stoddard, and Jonah Goldberg as they discuss the future of American politics. RESERVE YOUR PLACE TODAY! Book your tickets now.

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