It Ain't Like Before

[mso489]

Went for take-out at our old favorite Lebanese grocery and deli, and to buy some groceries. It was a shock. The little grocery has lost all its aisles with shelves, having only those against the walls. Many items were sold out. I did get the last olive oil in a jug and feta cheese, but no sumac or desserts with the buffet meals. They were short staffed, with very young people, and it took much longer than usual to get the take-out food. At least two of their other stores have closed. So it ain't like before. I hope they come back to their former glory, but they're hanging in the balance. I'm hoping for a home haircut later.

 

[verporchting]

There will be many many businesses that don’t survive this pandemic.

Many were marginal to begin with, while others were doing just fine and had the bad luck to be extraordinarily vulnerable to this exact type of stress and might succumb to it.

Small retail and service businesses are getting creamed. Bars, restaurants and movie theaters are going under like mad.

There is an Italian deli and grocery shop that I just love but man are they struggling to stay afloat. I buy everything I can from there but it may not be enough.

Tough times for sure.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Bars, restaurants and movie theaters are going under like mad.

I have never understood what kept movie theaters going. Why go there and watch a movie when a week later you can watch it for nearly free. Spending $50 a person after drinks to set in a sticky seat with people I don't really want to set around with... I just don't get it.
And, hell, most of the restaurants don't deserve to stay open. Some, around here I haven't seen a car parked in front of them in years. Bars... I don't even understand. Pay 20xs as much for a beverage and then risk a DUI getting home? I don't even like to be around people drinking. I don't understand it. Maybe if a place had entertainment, but even then, 90% of the people aren't paying any attention to the music, and they ruin it for everyone by talking through a performance. I say, reinvent the who bar concept and come back when you have something better to offer me. If your restaurant didn't attract people before, don't blame it on covid. You just sucked to begin with.
Movie theaters, burn them down.

 

[mso489]

Yes, this Lebanese family started this place maybe thirty years ago and took off from there with new stores. The food is unique and appealing. They are good business people, so likely they will live on their investments for a while and size up the opportunities when the plague is over, but it's sad. They had a huge customer base, partly from the nearby university, but also across the state. People totally out of town and away know their name and menu items.

Cosmic, I agree on music. I guess some is just intended as background music, even if it is live. But to have a great ensemble with people talking over it and shrieking with laughter -- not my thing. Really good music deserves an audience that's tuned in and listening.

 

[ashdigger]

I have never understood what kept movie theaters going. Why go there and watch a movie when a week later you can watch it for nearly free. Spending $50 a person after drinks to set in a sticky seat with people I don't really want to set around with... I just don't get it.
And, hell, most of the restaurants don't deserve to stay open. Some, around here I haven't seen a car parked in front of them in years. Bars... I don't even understand. Pay 20xs as much for a beverage and then risk a DUI getting home? I don't even like to be around people drinking. I don't understand it. Maybe if a place had entertainment, but even then, 90% of the people aren't paying any attention to the music, and they ruin it for everyone by talking through a performance. I say, reinvent the who bar concept and come back when you have something better to offer me. If your restaurant didn't attract people before, don't blame it on covid. You just sucked to begin with.
Movie theaters, burn them down.

I totally agree.

 

[peregrinus]

I have never understood what kept movie theaters going.

Did you feel this way in your 20’s, or is it something that evolved as the crowds became steadily younger and you became a cranky old codger? ?

It’s more the latter in my case.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Did you feel this way in your 20’s, or is it something that evolved as the crowds became steadily younger and you became a cranky old codger? ?

It’s more the latter in my case.

I saw a value in theaters when I was younger, because if you didn't catch it in a theater, it was nearly a year before you could ever see it again on cable.
Restaurants... a good one, I will grace over and over. A bad one, slit their throats. How in hell's name has Olive Garden remained open for this long. Why haven't real Italians blown them all up?

Bars... I used to frequent a few bars in college to meet girls. Mostly, I'd spend 20 minutes tops in a bar. Meet a girl and go for a walk. If she was good, I would drive her back in the morning to get her car.
But, no I was never a bar person. If I went to see my friends' bands, I'd get pissed because I couldn't pay attention over the assholes. Bars would make me buy a beer, of which I would pour some out to use the bottle as an ashtray, and just being around people drinking... it permeates their pores in their skin and makes people stink, and they all think they're so damned charming, but really they're pathetic and annoying when drunk.

Nope, I was a cantankerous old man even in my youth.

 

[scloyd]

How in hell's name has Olive Garden remained open for this long.

I think their $9.99 soup & salad helps keep OG afloat. I truly believe people go there for soup & salad thinking it's low cal and healthy. It's really not. They're making a killing on the soup and salad...it's low cost food. Add a glass a wine $$$.

Last time I ate at an OG the upholstered chairs were filthy. I stay away now. They need a complete makeover.

 

[mso489]

Olive Garden is/was one of those restaurants where people who don't like to cook cook out of a looseleaf notebook. They were too pathetic to anger any real Italian restaurants who didn't want customers who don't know good Italian food.

 

[cosmicfolklore]

We have in my little town, 14 Mexican Restaurants, with only two serving real Mexican foods. I don't even understand why people go to the ones that serve Burritos and chimichangas... are margaritas worth the taste of Mexican food made for bland assed white people?
And, we have 10 pizza places. Only two of those can find my house, ever. And, I live right in front of the damned elementary school. Like, everyone of their drivers should know where that is.
And, Chinese food... same as the Mexican places, straight out of the can, made for white people crap.

I like a place that has a constantly changing menu. And, limit your choices. Some of us don't like to chose. My wife dragged me to a Thai place once. I couldn't make heads nor tails of the menu, so I just told the waitress to bring me whatever was popular, she was dumbfounded. Choices of noodles I have never heard of (much less can say the names), choices of sauces I had no idea what they were. I ended up just grabbing a cheese burger on my way home. Mrs Cosmic always enjoys her meals, and doesn't mind me setting there drinking water or coffee while she eats. I am pretty damned charming to take out to eat. But, I refuse to have a waitress give me shit because of their stupid choices. If they can't just bring me something without asking me a lot of crap, burn it down.

 

[tbradsim1]

Down here with fresh seafood and good Cajun food, I don’t understand the chain restaurant business. I can cook, or let me back up, my wife can cook better than those so called Chefs, we have lots of little plate lunch places, never could understand McDonalds 7$ meal when you could get a good plate lunch for 6$. Last time I went with wife and wife’s Aunt to a high-class seafood restaurant and ordered fried flounder it came in batter in what looked like Sheetrock mud, asked waitress, could you get me a hammer so I can bust that sucker out!

 

[cosmicfolklore]

Down here with fresh seafood and good Cajun food,

When we go to LA, we eat our way through your state, sometimes stopping for five or six meals in a day. But, we don't get fat, because we burn off all of that food with constant sex while we are down there. Louisiana gets my vote for the tastiest and sexiest state in the Union. Nowhere else compares.

 

[condorlover1]

@tbradsim1 You know Arnaud’s has really gone down hill when I ate in there last year!

 

[STP]

Better than it was a few months ago, but it’s still bad. I wanted 3 months for some electrical supplies to be restocked at Home Depot and Lowes. If you’re not an early shopper, then I think you’ll be out of luck this Christmas season, which will surely be crazier than ever...

 

[brian64]

I have never understood what kept movie theaters going. Why go there and watch a movie when a week later you can watch it for nearly free. Spending $50 a person after drinks to set in a sticky seat with people I don't really want to set around with... I just don't get it.
And, hell, most of the restaurants don't deserve to stay open. Some, around here I haven't seen a car parked in front of them in years. Bars... I don't even understand. Pay 20xs as much for a beverage and then risk a DUI getting home? I don't even like to be around people drinking. I don't understand it. Maybe if a place had entertainment, but even then, 90% of the people aren't paying any attention to the music, and they ruin it for everyone by talking through a performance. I say, reinvent the who bar concept and come back when you have something better to offer me. If your restaurant didn't attract people before, don't blame it on covid. You just sucked to begin with.
Movie theaters, burn them down.

Hear! Hear!

And people should only buy jewelry at Walmart too!

 

[americaman]

We have in my little town, 14 Mexican Restaurants, with only two serving real Mexican foods.

Mexican restaurants in Alabama? Yeah right. Come to Southern California.

 

[Waning Embers]

Louisiana gets my vote for the tastiest and sexiest state in the Union.

That's where my first wife was from.?

 

[Capt Morgan]

It is like that with the tobacco stores around here.

 

[ophiuchus]

I have never understood what kept movie theaters going. Why go there and watch a movie when a week later you can watch it for nearly free. Spending $50 a person after drinks to set in a sticky seat with people I don't really want to set around with... I just don't get it.
And, hell, most of the restaurants don't deserve to stay open. Some, around here I haven't seen a car parked in front of them in years. Bars... I don't even understand. Pay 20xs as much for a beverage and then risk a DUI getting home? I don't even like to be around people drinking. I don't understand it. Maybe if a place had entertainment, but even then, 90% of the people aren't paying any attention to the music, and they ruin it for everyone by talking through a performance. I say, reinvent the who bar concept and come back when you have something better to offer me. If your restaurant didn't attract people before, don't blame it on covid. You just sucked to begin with.
Movie theaters, burn them down.

I liked movie theaters ... when it was the only way to see some films without waiting two years.

I liked bars ... back when I was a stupid drunk trying to get laid.

I never really liked restaurants. I never liked eating out like that. I liked some of the food that could be had ... at very few. It took me longer than most, but I’m a much better cook now.

I liked people watching. That made all of the above somewhat worth enduring. There are other ways to watch people, and I’m not as interested as I used to be.

I do appreciate missing things you become accustomed to and enjoy, though.

 

[kola]

It's a bit sad to see the slow global death in progress. But hey, we'll be so much safer once all the small businesses shut down for good. And the owners go bankrupt. And they lose their homes. Safer.