{"id":9616,"date":"2014-02-15T21:13:29","date_gmt":"2014-02-16T02:13:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/streamingradioguide.com\/startingover\/?p=9616"},"modified":"2014-02-15T21:13:29","modified_gmt":"2014-02-16T02:13:29","slug":"what-publix-wants-publix-gets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/streamingradioguide.com\/startingover\/?p=9616","title":{"rendered":"What Publix Wants, Publix gets"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Today was the best day since arriving back home in North Carolina. Maybe a month ago, I wrote about the Florida supermarket chain Publix preparing to open 8 stores in Charlotte. This is important, since Charlotte is a huge food desert with almist no places to buy food.<\/p>\n

So I decided the time had arrived to go across the state line and search for food at the Publix already open in South Carolina.<\/p>\n

On the way, I stopped at K&W Cafeteria for lunch. The table attendant Antoine could not have been more helpful and attentive. He had helped me before. I’m not sure where he immigrated from – I’m guessing the Virgin Islands or Dominican Republic. He’s one black man who clearly loves this country and his job. I asked if K&W has a schedule of the things they normally serve each day. He told me the cooks decide that each morning based on what they have. However, I was signed up for an email service that will send me the menu each morning. Off to a great start.<\/p>\n

It’s in the 50s, the sun is shining! The enchanting land of South Carolia awaits. I cross the magical line and about 4 miles further, there is Publix. I notice there is a haircut place next door and I’m way overdue. The woman who cuts my hair is probably 40ish, not a dim bulb 20 something. I start throwing out information about how glad I am to be back. We start talking about grocery stores and such, and how they’re planning to move the NC\/SC border. She was actually listening to my stories and adding her own experiences and opinions. Wow, an actual conversation, not a couple grunts pretending to care. I’m feeling good.<\/p>\n

On to Publix – it is pretty much what my prior research suggested – it is a Florida chain, not a Southern chain. The parking lot has cars from Florida and NY in addition to North and South Carolina. It’s a chain targeted at people who spend the summer up North and winter in Florida (or maybe now the Carolinas?)<\/p>\n

So I ask a few questions telling employees I’m new here and they are helpful. Then Davia spots me. She’s a very attractive black woman with a Slight Carribean accent and incredibly friendly. She has moved up from Florida to help open the new stores in Charlotte. She’s definitely flirting with me, which never ever happens to me. It likely is just part of her job to drum up business but encouraged me to come see her again at the store opening next week. Even if it isn’t sincere, it feels really good. Mr Happy is (TMI). I must have one great looking haircut today \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n

Then the big shocker. Yesterday, I bumped into the Pepsi guy in Walmart and asked him about Pepsi Throwback (the non-HFCS sugar version). He knew what I was asking, but the bottling company in North Carolina discontinued it. But I had reason to believe it might be availiable in SC. Got to the soda aisle and there it is! I’ve found the prey I was searching for. It can’t get better than this.<\/p>\n

The two women at the checkout are friendly – I mention that I’m smuggling Pepsi Throwback back to North Carolina. They get it. One of the women asks about something I’m buying – have I had it before, do I like it? Probably sincere, maybe just something they do to be friendly. But it really doesn’t matter. We had a very pleasant interaction. This is nothing like Connecticut. I will continue to miss CT every chance I get.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today was the best day since arriving back home in North Carolina. Maybe a month ago, I wrote about the Florida supermarket chain Publix preparing to open 8 stores in Charlotte. This is important, since Charlotte is a huge food … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[115,128],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arts-big-adventure","category-north-carolina"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/streamingradioguide.com\/startingover\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/streamingradioguide.com\/startingover\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/streamingradioguide.com\/startingover\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/streamingradioguide.com\/startingover\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/streamingradioguide.com\/startingover\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9616"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/streamingradioguide.com\/startingover\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9620,"href":"https:\/\/streamingradioguide.com\/startingover\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9616\/revisions\/9620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/streamingradioguide.com\/startingover\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/streamingradioguide.com\/startingover\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/streamingradioguide.com\/startingover\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}