But Aren’t They Missing the Point?
I’ve felt a little more detached from the world at large lately, and things that happen around me don’t seem to make much sense to me, although everyone else seems to go along with it just fine.
I was in the Canadian Tire last night along with Chippy Sunshine, on the quest for duplicate keys. When we got there, we were greeted with the most unholy sight one could expect to find in a hardware store: a grocery store.
Yes, it seems that Canadian Tire has decided to try out a pilot program in our area (see also: Big Mac Snack Wrap, Pizza Pizza Dipping Sauce), where they’re going to put a small grocery department in the middle of the store and see how things go. Presumably this is to counteract the effect of Walmart, a store that we don’t have in our city.
It was absolutely confusing. At first I thought it was just an aisle of chips, and I thought “ok, this is pretty convenient“. Then came an aisle of other snackfoods like jerky and candy. Then came soda, then cereal and so on. By the time I got to the frozen food section I thought I had walked into the wrong store. When I turned around and saw the section with the bread, milk and eggs, my mind shattered and I spent the rest of my visit trying to reason with my recent experiences.
I figure that by the time I’m out of therapy, the pilot program will be over and Canadian Tire stores all over the country will either carry groceries or they’ll be having large discount sales on surplus cans of Chef Boyardee ravioli. I hope it succeeds; if not for any other reason than to sow madness among the populace.
What was strangest was that many of the frozen foods were from a brand called “Zacky’s”, which I had never heard of. I managed to snag a few treats there for a future Horrors of the Ice Box.
Thinking about it now, it’s actually quite a clever idea. It’s one less trip for men to make. Go get those bathroom fixtures that you needed, and pick up a can of chili for dinner. It’s almost insidious in nature.
Also, today the Olympic torch [Olympic is a registered trademark of the International Olympic Commitee (IOC) and is not affiliated in any way with Jordan's Page of Useless Babble or Jordan's Mindless Ramblings.] passed through my hometown of Lindsay today and the city decided to put out the red carpet and have a massive wank-a-thon (not literally) over it.
My problems with the Olympics aside (those being: bribed judges, prevalence of performance enhancing substances, subjective scoring, suing AEG for the use of five interlocking rings for the logo of Legend of the Five Rings, the likely bribing of IOC members in selecting home cities of the Olympic games, exploitation of areas by the Olympic games, the political squabbling, price gouging in the general vicinity of the games and the decision of the IOC to remove baseball from the Summer Olympics) it was actually surpising to see Lindsay actually not half-ass an event. (Such as the Scottish Festival, Rennaissance Fair, Zombie Walk and the Lindsay Fair from 2006-2009) I guess when the entire country is watching you, no matter how briefly, you shape up. It’s a shame they don’t do the same when it’s just the locals involved.
Tags: Canadian Tire, government waste, groceries, IOC, L5R, Legend of the Five Rings, Lindsay, Lindsay Fair, Olympic torch, Olympics, relay, Rennaissance Fair, Scottish Festival, Zombie Walk