Is the US a dystopia?

Not that I am bitter or anything

Speaking of dystopias

Dillard's stock has gone up nearly 500% since 2020.

There was a chain in Michigan (and probably in other states in the Midwest) called Grant's. For my five-year-old self, it was a utopia: they had the best toy section I can remember. The Marx "historical" figures were the gold standard.

There were some Grants in Florida before they all suddenly closed around 1976. Fabulous store if you were a kid. Also in South Florida was the aforementioned Burdines which I miss, plus a thing called Jefferson('s) which had a great record department, and there was Britt's which had many bedroom showrooms that were fun for a kid to play in. There was also J Byrons, which was good for school clothes. It's kind of a bummer that every other department store is a Macy's now.

ymp you know too much lol, condolences

There were some Grants in Florida before they all suddenly closed around 1976. Fabulous store if you were a kid. Also in South Florida was the aforementioned Burdines which I miss, plus a thing called Jefferson('s) which had a great record department, and there was Britt's which had many bedroom showrooms that were fun for a kid to play in. There was also J Byrons, which was good for school clothes. It's kind of a bummer that every other department store is a Macy's now.

― Josefa,

I remember Jefferson's well -- it closed in the early '80s. Specialized in technology, if I'm not mistaken.

Marshall's and a store called Ross have taken over the J. Byrons; they're a step below Target.

Ross Dress for Less! i have gotten many pairs of fancy gay underwear at Ross

It's bittersweet to see department store America preserved in the opening credits of old TV shows, for example on The Bob Newhart Show Bob walks past Marshall Field in Chicago, and on The Mary Tyler Moore Show Dayton's is seen in the background and she tosses her hat in front of Donaldson's, both in Minneapolis. All defunct store names now afaik.

Oh -- Target is a vast improvement over Kmart and its forebears. I never mind going.

I don’t usually find things I like in Ross, but Nordstrom Rack usually has at least something I do, usually in shoes

My Target's always packed and the customer service is terrific. I suspect the number of South American tourists keeps our department stores (Macy's included) humming.

the anchor stores when I was a kid at the local mall were Younkers, Montgomery Ward, Richman-Gordman, and Sears. I think all are dead as a doornail, now. as is that mall

Maybe it’s because I haven’t had the joy of the Kmart experience in many years now, but Target is starting to feel like it’s on the way out. Stocking issues, yes, but also the Walgreens-ish insult of having major swaths of products behind locked doors and very few staff to unlock them any sooner than three/four minutes after signaling the alert

This may be location-specific, I haven't noticed much lockdown at my local stores.

But Alfred's comment reminds me of a conversation I had with a friend who owns a chain of furniture and household good stores. I asked him why stores like Dollar General and Walmart always have such a grim and dingy vibe — their color palettes, store lighting and fortress-like exteriors are anything but welcoming. Whereas Target generally feels clean and bright. My question was, clearly there are some basic and not very expensive things DG and Walmart could do to make their stores feel "nicer," so why don't they?

His response was that it has to be a deliberate strategy, and he believes it is intended to make consumers feel like they must be getting a "good deal" on merchandise because the stores themselves feel "cheap." i.e., we unconsciously associate low prices with a general sense of things being a little rundown. So where Target's design and decor is supposed to make their middle-income customer base feel like they're in a sort of upscale department-store setting but with moderate prices, DG and Walmart's is supposed to make their lower-income base feel like they're getting a bargain.

A major Canadian grocery chain, No Frills, is entirely built around that ethos, including the name of the store.

the anchor stores when I was a kid at the local mall were Younkers, Montgomery Ward, Richman-Gordman, and Sears. I think all are dead as a doornail, now. as is that mall
My mom worked at Younkers in Merle Hay when she was in high school, before their big fire

The Target closest to me always seems to be in the middle of stocking up — there's always someone in one of the aisles putting stuff on shelves, and random sections will be emptier than they should be — but it's clean and well lit and nothing is locked up. I go about once a month.

There's a Ross next door, and a Best Buy, but I've never been inside either. All the big stores are clustered together in Kalispell, in fact — there's a Home Depot and a Walmart right by Target, and a Bed Bath & Beyond and a few other places across the road. My regular grocery store is Harvest Foods, which is a regional chain with stores in Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington. But there are also local businesses that seem to be doing fine.

I must admit to being charmed by Tracer Hand's shopping list:

Underwear
Small dehumidifier
Serving spoon

And I imagine my spouse saying, "Hey dear? We need milk and cat food. Also can you swing by John Lewis and pick a couple more small dehumidifiers? Also we are running short on serving spoons, plus granola. Thanks."

Oh and please grab some extra panties while you're there, thxbye

“I bought a 12-pack of sexy thongs last week. They’re on the shelf behind the peanut butter”

It strikes me that the US dystopia thread taking an extended detour into nostalgia for department stores is an indisputable mark of the graying of ILX, like all those tooth-sucking 'Remember When...?' memes that started in email chains and moved to Facebook. Next on the agenda: a thread reminiscing about defunct mass market candy bars that gets 411 posts in five days.

Harvest Foods, which is a regional chain with stores in Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington

Was just thinking, Man, it's been forever since I've been in a Harvest Foods. Wonder where the nearest one is?

And that's when I discovered that they've been gone from my region for 27 years. Oh, maybe that's why I haven't been there lately.

https://i.imgur.com/y8jWr8w.jpg

The peanut butter shelf is for sexy thongs, the unsexy thongs are behind the Cheerios.

“I bought a 12-pack of sexy thongs last week. They’re on the shelf behind the peanut butter”

― badpee pooper (Eric H.)

"yeah, i'm looking for the _unsexy_ thongs, ya doof"

“You didn’t put unsexy thongs on the list, honey!”

"oh, for the love a... look, in the sexy/unsexy word pairing, sexy is the _marked_ term, and unsexy is the _unmarked_ term. therefore if i don't specify the sexiness of the thongs I'm looking for, your linguistic assumption should default to unsexy, and not to sexy. Come on sweetie, I know you have a background in Prague School structuralism, I shouldn't have to explain this to you again!"

ngl that's one of the things i miss most about my relationship with my ex, the _banter_

though her profound discomfort with sexy _anything_ did cause certain issues

This thread!

Aimless - you and Raymond started it

My response was meant to be tongue-in-cheek, but OK.

america has been a dystopia ever since they took the reggie bar off the shelves

His response was that it has to be a deliberate strategy, and he believes it is intended to make consumers feel like they must be getting a "good deal" on merchandise because the stores themselves feel "cheap." i.e., we unconsciously associate low prices with a general sense of things being a little rundown. So where Target's design and decor is supposed to make their middle-income customer base feel like they're in a sort of upscale department-store setting but with moderate prices, DG and Walmart's is supposed to make their lower-income base feel like they're getting a bargain.

― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Sunday, January 21, 2024 10:29 AM (eleven hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

yea I've heard stories of stores taking out nice ceilings so people could see the pipes above for this very reason

I understand the psychology, but talk about dystopian. "The market has decided that you have to shop in sad dingy stores."

in dystopia america the market shops in you

Guilty as charged (and I’ll spare you my own nostalgia for department store shopping in 1980s Maryland)

When chains moved to having polished concrete floors instead of floor tile, which was an aesthetic choice of some sort, my dad still worked in commercial floorcovering and it was a minor irritation.

I'm relatively neutral on the unfinished ceiling look, except that I hate its preponderance in restaurants and social places. It just makes everything annoyingly loud.

Lowes: We have the aesthetic of the nice mall's Montgomery Ward before they both closed.

The Home Depot: Our price tags look handwritten. There's wood everywhere. Birds fly around from shelf to shelf.

Our local Home Depot used to be a department store. I had previously worked there in the men's department. So if I need to go buy a toilet plunger, I am standing exactly in the place where I used to sell paisley ties.

Later it became famous because of a sniper incident, but that's a completely different story.

Birds in supermarkets/cash and carry: C/D?

Lowes: We have the aesthetic of the nice mall's Montgomery Ward before they both closed.

The Home Depot: Our price tags look handwritten. There's wood everywhere. Birds fly around from shelf to shelf.

No, I haven't been to that Lowes.

Not yet.

https://themessenger.com/news/texas-superintendent-black-student-locs-hair-punishment-lawsuit

A Texas school district superintendent defended the continued suspension of a Black student over his locs hairstyle in a full-page newspaper ad, paid for by an education foundation.

Darryl George has been suspended repeatedly by the Barbers Hill Independent School District for his hair. The teen's family filed a federal civil rights lawsuit saying the punishment violates the CROWN Act, an acronym for “Create a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair,” which became law in Texas in September.

The law is intended to prohibit race-based hair discrimination. But the school said the law does not address hair length and that is the reason for George’s suspension.

However, photos of George show him wearing his hair up in a way that does not reach below his ears.

The ad that appeared Sunday in the Houston Chronicle was written by district superintendent Greg Poole.

“Being an American requires conformity with the positive benefit of unity,” he stated, referencing strict codes at the military academies.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2024/01/26/mark-normand-stand-up-comedy-incident-hihi/72364363007/

Adding to the intrigue, Donald Glover shared several of HiHi's posts on his Instagram story, including a screenshot of a TMZ article about the Normand incident. "'Hi-Hi' available now," one of Glover's posts said. A Vanity Fair report published Thursday said Glover's upcoming show "Mr. & Mrs. Smith" features a mysterious entity nicknamed "Hihi." The HiHi Instagram account also shared videos of Tyra Banks being surrounded by two people in furry costumes at an NBA game this week, clips of which also went viral.

I'm not really sure I understood one bit of that but it seems to more generally pose the question 'is the modern world a dystopia?' imo

Yeah, but it was in USA today.

I know how hard it is some days to sweep the clouds away and get to sunnier days.

Our friend Elmo is right: We have to be there for each other, offer our help to a neighbor in need, and above all else, ask for help when we need it.

Even though it's hard, you're never alone. https://t.co/ffMJekbowo

— President Biden (@POTUS) January 31, 2024

Hardly an original or important thought, but I was standing waiting to cross a street this morning and was just reminded all at once about how needlessly cruel America is. First thing that caught my eye was the brand new "anti-homeless" (hate that term obvious, but I think it's important to emphasize how awful these things are and not sugar-coat them by using whatever pretty name developers wants us to use) spikes on all of the low window sills, ledges and concrete railings. As this was infuriating me all over again, I realized I could see that the city had thrown boots on four(!) different vehicles that I could see from where I stood. Not enough that they are insanely vigilant and waste so many resources on parking tickets, but they also have to add an extra layer of, "oh yeah, struggling person? fuck you, we're going to make it literally impossible for you to even get to work to earn the money to pay off these tickets, this forcing you to struggle even more". Again, not a new insight by any means, just... jesus, such small reminders of how bleak things are.

I feel this. London transport has these "please do not give to beggars, you can donate to a charity instead" announcements that just make my blood boil.

booting cars is such a potent symbol of a society that makes punishment a fetish

why do you assume the booted car owners are poor