So, 3,000 people stood in line for... WHAT?

Sept 30, 2019

Meanwhile 3,000 people stood in line for… WHAT!

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What did YOU do this past week that was silly? Hopefully “something” even if it was just putting on your socks before you put on your pants. Some people do that I’m told… I don’t know anyone who does; but I’ve never asked anyone I know so…

You can know some folks most of your life… and there’ll always be stuff about them you don’t know… thankfully. I wonder if John Wayne Gacy’s cousins said that …

My answer to my own question is: I stayed up until 4:20 AM Wednesday morning watching a 19-inning baseball game. The outcome of which was only of minor significance… if that.

For 3,000+ of my fellow Raleigh-area residents, they will look back on a shared experience yesterday (Sun) that will forever mark them as…

“… actually stood in line for several hours for the opening of a grocery store?”

“Greater Raleigh” already has more grocery store chains than it does subscribers to its local daily newspaper. Now it has ANOTHER ONE. Grocery store chains… not newspaper subscribers.

Wegmans has come to Raleigh. I used to be involved with an LPGA golf tournament in Rochester NY that was sponsored by it’s locally based grocery store chain – Wegmans. In the 3-4 years I went to Rochester I never visited a Wegmans, but I’m sure they are very nice grocery stores.

I don’t like grocery stores. They don’t like me. Every grocery store chain I ever go to is part of a complex conspiracy to hide the 2-3 items I need. Peanut Butter, for instance, is never listed on those overhead signs that tell you what is on each aisle. Sure, I could ask a helpful store employee but I’d rather “do it myself”… spend 45 minute of my life trying to get into the mind of the diabolical SOB that “hid the freakin’ peanut butter”. … and the Bel-Vita breakfast crackers.

There are seven grocery stores within 1.5 miles of BobLee World HQ. I only shop in two of them which happen to be across the street from one another … a Harris-Teeter and a Food Lion. I am a minimalist grocery shopper. I don’t know if I have EVER used a standard cart. I just use one of those plastic baskets. That keeps me from impulse buying.

You have probably guessed, I don’t do the primary grocery shopping for our household. There are many reasons to “get married”. Having a spouse to do the grocery shopping is in the Top Ten for me.

Soooo, I was NOT among “the record-breaking crowd of 3.000+” to attend Raleigh’s first Wegmans Grand Opening. Apparently the Guinness Record guys keep tabs on grocery store openings. This may not have been LARGEST EVER but rather “… for a Wegmans opening in a city that starts with an “R””.

Should Presidential hopefuls – not named Trump – coordinate their campaign rallies with Wegmans Grand Openings to insure decent crowd “photo-ops”.

I am NOT making fun of folks who want to be “among the first to visit a new grocery store”. I would be curious if “political ideology” and/or college sports team preferences affect one’s passion for “grocery stores”.

I visited a Whole Foods store a few years ago and had Rush’s “bumper music” playing on my Ipod with the volume turned up as I walked the aisles… just to see what mischief it might create. Lots of scraggly constipated abortion-loving vegans going into catatonic fits and poking themselves in the eyes with toothpicks. It was quite the sight.

Is there “a Wegmans customer-type”? Did Mr Wegman’s great great great grandfather own a slave? Does Wegmans donate to eeeevil organizations like The Salvation Army? Does Wegmans sponsor a softball team in “church leagues”? … I’m sure someone has vented all those valid concerns… right?

Wegmans is opening a store in Chapel Hill sometime in the next 8-10 months and, I think, one in Cary too. Both of those Triangle-area communities have well-earned reputations for being “municipal funny farms” with extensive city ordinances on what shade of beige one is allowed to paint one’s mailbox. Negotiating with their zoning nazis oughta be a hoot.

The last time we were in Emerald Isle, the oceanside community was all atwitter over the upcoming opening of a Publix grocery store. What is it about “a new grocery store”?

For the record, I have never visited an IKEA store which apparently has a similarly passionate customer base.

… I’m sure grocery stores aficionados would wonder why I stayed up until 4:20 AM to watch a baseball game. I wonder too.

I will visit Wegmans over the nest few weeks “just because”… I’ll wait until the HUBBUB dies down. I wonder how long it will take me to find where THEY hide their Peanut Butter.

Summing up the recent Football Weekend…

I 100% Support Mack “going for 2” versus The Fighting Dabos. As Michael Corleone said about Tessio siding with Barzzini – “It was the smart play.”

Apparently Mack spending “millions” to bling-up the UNCCH locker room has narrowed the gap twixt the two programs.

As for Mack’s choice of what play to call… in the Official Handbook for Monday Morning Quarterbacks: ANY PLAY that – in hindsight – did not work was NEVER “The Right Play”. Duh! Every MMQB knows that. Silly.

It was not the same Kenan End Zone; but that final UNCCH TD was eerily similar to one involving “TA’s knee” that will forever haunt every loyal citizen of WolfpackNation.

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Speaking of WolfpackNation… A decisive loss in Doak Campbell Stadium would, historically, not be all that bad… but when The ‘Noles are historically bad, it is. That the FSU win was engineered by a Transfer QB from “my Wisconsin Badgers” was noteworthy. The phrase Transfer QB and Wisconsin Badgers has special meaning for NC State Football loyalists.

With no Ws over “a Power 5 opponent” after Week 5, this is NOT shaping up to be the year that TeamDoeren gains “Juggernaut” status. A grim reality not being accepted well among Carter-Finleyites.

Oh well… it could be worse. Up in Hokieburg Va, Bud Foster’s Farewell Season as “World’s Most Famous Defensive Coordinator NOT Named Brent Venables” is NOT going well at all. OUCH and OUCH!

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Speaking of Baseball… On Saturday, I had THREE “devices” going simultaneously. I was watching (1) College Football on the TV … (2) My Cardinals VS Cubs on my IPad … (3) Brewers VS Rockies on my IPhone. … “I felt sorry for myself that I only had three “devices”… until I met a man who had no feet” or however that old saying that goes.

When the 162 game season ended late Sunday afternoon, “My Cardinals” were NL Central Champions after a final series of nailbitin’ games that reaffirmed WHY – I Love Watching Baseball.

In the Cardinals’ postgame locker room celebrations complete with the perquisite “ski goggles” to prevent champagne blindness… the players – three of whom actually spoke decipherable English – managed to squeeze in EVERY SINGLE cliche for a sports locker room celebration… “Great bunch of guys who never quit” … “We never gave up” … “We just keep battling” … “We are A Family” … – and my personal favorite – “We never stopped believing in ourselves even when everyone else doubted us”.

ON TO THE MLB PLAYOFFS… Oh Boy!