some updates from Minneapolis

[mellowtigger]

I'm in a mood to put seeds into flats, although we're still many weeks from ground thaw, and the seedlings wouldn't be safe from frost on the porch yet. My indoor holiday cactus is blooming again in its semi-annual tradition, and earlier than last spring. I hope I get a job soon, so I can stay with my garden.

I took this photo yesterday morning. The knee-high corner of the raised garden bed is beginning to show again after the recent snowfall. Today is another overcast day, although the temperature is supposed to rise above freezing again this afternoon. Snow has been there on the ground since November, which is typical for Minneapolis winters. The last news I saw said that we were in our 8th snowiest winter ever. Some people are having fun with the evidence.

There's been more gunfire here in the local warzone, with some of it fully automatic. The police dashboard is a mixed bag. Some crimes are down significantly, but others (car theft) up significantly. If you choose the dropdown menu to select only "Precinct 4" data (where I live), you'll see that homicides are nearly double the rate from last year locally. Obviously, I'm very safe and very rich, if you average me with Bill Gates instead of my actual neighbors.

I've used the local Asian grocery for two months now. It's a good place to find fresh fruit and vegetables, although "organic" isn't really available, like it was at Aldi's. One day, the cashier asked if I found everything, and I asked if the instant (think: Ramen) noodles had any gluten-free options? They went in back to look, didn't find any, then came back to me and said to check next week after they ordered some. Now, I'm glad to report that the rice-based Mama and Mamy brand instant noodle meal packets are enjoyable. This is in addition to the huge bags of potato noodles that I found back in October on my first visit to the store (when I had a car). Plus, I get gluten-free flours by postal delivery from Target to make my own cookies, so I'm not hurting for food choices necessarily.

Another major food source is closing nearby, though. It's a neighboring city, but it's the one where Daunte Wright was killed in 2021, one of the areas near to "north Minneapolis". I'm beginning to wonder if insurance companies have had sternly worded conversations with their corporate customers and made it clear it will become expensive to insure in areas where they forecast increased unrest soon. Is corporate withdrawal happening in other metros in the USA? What new crisis are they expecting, or is it just the usual SNAFU with continuation of terrible wages compared to cost of rent and food as evictions continue?

Comments

[shimmerwine]

There's a Walmart in a particularly unsafe part of town that is closing imminently. It's in an area that doesn't have any other big box stores, so the community is going to have to travel to shop now. If they are able. It's closing mainly due to the incredibly high level of shoplifting, rather than violence, and it's leaving a huge swath of people unable to get prescriptions filled, etc.

I don't really have gluten issues, but I'm' going to look for those brands of noodles the next time I'm out shopping.

[mellowtigger]

Which city or state (or country maybe)? Shoplifting is blamed locally for our recent closures of major stores too, despite whatever corporate-speak memo was issued about the closures. It still seems like it would be so very much cheaper to just switch to UBI (universal basic income) instead of paying for guards/prosecutors/jails. I swear, when it's my turn to run the planet, I'm making some serious changes. ;)

P.S. Oh, and those brands also come in gluten versions. You have to look closer at the packet ingredients to determine which is rice.

[shimmerwine]

New Mexico. Our homeless situation (which fits nicely with your UBI switch...which, really, why not? Oh, we know why not...) is exploding, and that's got a lot to do with it, never mind the organized shoplifting ganga.

When it's your turn, I'm all-in!

I found some rice noodles today, don't remember the brand off-hand, that I'm going to try. The store didn't have the ones you mentioned. OH!!!!! That reminds me: I have a rice bread recipe saved (on the desktop, so it will have to wait til tomorrow if it sounds interesting) that only has some yeast in it, no flour.

[mellowtigger]

I can't remember if I've ever heard of a rice bread. Yes, please do post it sometime for the curious. :)

[brian_bogue]

Here in Portland Oregon all the Walmarts have closed as well as the major Nike store, (not that I ever buy Nike's overpriced sneakers). Walmart says that they were under preforming (whatever that means), and Nike says that they were suffering from way too much shoplifting.

[mellowtigger]

I had a pre-pandemic moment in the warzone where I learned from arguing neighbors that Air Jordans are a value store. I still don't quite understand how a few Nike shoes can be worth $7,000. They sound like stocks, which today seem to be just another form of baseball trading cards, valuable only if you can convince someone else that they're valuable.

[scrottie]

Been in a Richmond, CA Target that was sacked a few times. Both times I was in, they had very little inventory, and not much and only the most basic stuff in the way of sneakers and electronics. Even the sock options were crap. Seeing a partial withdrawal was interesting. I have no doubt that as soon as they stop making money or expect to stop making money, that'll be yet another dead mall.

[mellowtigger]

Unfortunately, store theft probably has a lot more to do with Target investing in delivery improvements, rather than their realization that (like Sears Roebuck long ago) order delivery is how most people would buy their stock in the post-2019 pandemic era if the process were easier.