Thursday, July 16th, 2009...11:18 pm
Left Behind News: Kirk Cameron Cast As Cart Boy
The big buzz here in Richmond is the threat of the #Ukropalypse (props to fellow twitterer, @Mr_Sterling, for coining the term). For those not in the know, Ukrop’s is a local legend. A friendly, family-owned market with 28 locations that is known for its baked goods, salad bar, and lack of alcohol or Sunday hours. The Ukrop family is also active in our community. According to their Wikipedia page, Ukrop’s gives a minimum of 10 percent of its pre-tax profits to the community. Ukrop’s also sponsors the annual Ukrop’s Christmas Parade on Broad Street in Richmond and one of the largest 10k running events in the United States, The Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10K.
All of this is well and good and there’s no doubt that the community has benefited from the generosity of Ukrop family. I don’t shop at Ukrop’s, but only because I work for a competitor with better products that I get at a big discount. Well, not only because of that. I am irritated by the “Let’s all go to worship this week” over the door. In my opinion, if *I* am paying *you*, I should not have to be subjected to your beliefs, no matter what they are.
It’s the same way I feel about Forever 21 having John 3:16 printed on their bags. You gotta be kidding! Do-Won Chang and Co have been sued so many times for questionable business practices but goshdern it, they are evangelizing. WWJD? Use sweatshops to manufacture products, the designs for which were stolen, that’s what.
And what about Wal-Mart, the retail leviathan who requires cd’s with “offensive” language be edited to appear on their shelves and the covers of ladymags to be covered, because of titillating titles? How will the next generation learn how to get a beach-ready body in six weeks or drive their man wild? Former Wal-Mart executive Don Soderquist said at a recent prayer breakfast, “Is Wal-Mart a Christian company? No. But the basis of our decisions was the values of Scripture.” Is that not the purest definition of a ‘Christian company’? And don’t even get me started on the seven years where they refused to stock Preven, even in towns where the Wal-Mart had the only pharmacy.
My point is not that Ukrop’s is in any way similar to F21 or Wally in biz practices, other than the fact that I feel their proselytizing prevents me from being comfortable shopping there. In fact, they seem like fine people and, if their stores were to fall into the hands of a large grocery chain, part of the city I have come to love would pass into history. But what point do I stop being a customer of their store and start becoming a customer of their religion? Am I just a potential convert to them or are they, as business owners, only sharing their philosophy? I’ll speak with my dollars. And stick with my discount.
27 Comments
July 16th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
Hooker clothes and Bible scripture. Go F21!!
In N Out has bible quotes on all of their cups as well, which seems disrespectful since it will just be thrown away.
I agree though, unless I ask, I need to know ZILCH about your religion! I had more to say but I do not want to offend on someone else’s blog
July 17th, 2009 at 1:46 am
My favorite part of the bible is and forever will be that section of Genesis where Lot’s daughters get him drunk and sex him up so they can have his incest babies.
You can’t find that kind of sexiness anywhere else.
July 17th, 2009 at 5:21 am
The OT is much more funky than the NT, don’t you know?
Hmm. Quotations from **Gilgamesh** on shopping bags. There’s an idea.
July 17th, 2009 at 6:01 am
I’m so observant. I’ve been shopping at the U for 6 or 7 years and have never noticed anything religious in the stores… I would think I would have noticed something as irritating as a sign inviting me to worship. I’ll purposely avert my eyes when walking through the doors from now on. I don’t want to see it. Personally, I like that they don’t sell alcohol because it opens up the square footage they need to sell the organics. There’s always a CVS for beer and a locally owned wine shop next door to get my wine.
July 17th, 2009 at 6:39 am
Yes but have you tried ukrops lemon tarts? Omg delish. I get my religion from eating them. Amen.
July 17th, 2009 at 7:03 am
that “let’s all go worship” sign to me is kind of like when the jehovah’s witnesses leave little pamphlets in my front door… i look at it, think “thanks, but no thanks,” and move on. or in the case of ukrop’s, “thanks, but i’ll just sit at home and eat your incredibly delicious cupcakes on sunday morning instead.” (yes, amen, indeed, tiffylou!)
i kind of feel like if you’re very religious and own your own company, you’re welcome to stick bible verses on the bags or put a sign up encouraging people to get thee to the nearest church. it doesn’t impact my shopping experience in the least. the whole censoring thing that wal-mart does with the CDs, though, that does bother me. who the hell are they to decide whether or not people can hear “offensive language?” (i mean, i know, they’re WAL-MART, that’s who they are, but still…) actually deciding how i can live my life for me pisses me off. suggesting to me that you’ve got it all figured out and i should go hang out with god, well, aren’t you sweet, but i’ve figured it out for myself, thanks…
anyway, i totally need a cupcake now.
July 17th, 2009 at 7:04 am
mixing religion and business practices makes me gag. especially after i received pro-life fliers shoved into my pay stub at a previous job. the same boss who instigated the pro-life-with-paycheck idea was also addicted to porn. it was entirely awesome.
the ukrops church sign by the front door bugs me too. i always feel like the store is shaking a big finger at me, heathen that i am.
July 17th, 2009 at 7:09 am
Yeah, I don’t really like the worship poster in every store either. But at least they’re not any more in-your-face about it. On the other hand, my friend who worked there once skipped a shift to study for a test, and as penance they made her write a letter about how Ukrop’s was important in her life…a little weird.
I agree about the wine shops! Richmond has way more great beer & wine shops that you’d expect, because every Ukrop’s has one nearby. Beer & Wine Westpark served me well when I lived out there, lots of stuff you’d never find in a grocery store.
July 17th, 2009 at 7:25 am
And of course that store is called Wine & Beer Westpark, not Beer & Wine Westpark. Sorry Matt.
July 17th, 2009 at 7:30 am
I’ve been going to Ukrop’s since I was a kid but I don’t anymore unless it’s for a specialty item (like White House rolls). I’ve always noticed the “Let’s all go to our house of worship this week” sign, but it never really bothered me. What bothers me is their recent decline in quality and hike in prices; especially in the area of prepared foods (I remember a time when a chicken breast from Ukrop’s was the size of my head). I’ll stick to Kroger and save my bucks.
July 17th, 2009 at 8:03 am
Is it possible that your head got larger as you grew up making the chicken breast seem smaller by comparision? I’ve never been crazy about the “let’s all worship sign”, but I’m willing to deal with it order to get those potato wedges. That’s my version of divine intervention.
July 17th, 2009 at 8:46 am
I get it. It’s wrong for Wal-Mart to remove words just because they could be offensive to others and Ukrop’s should remove the words that are offensive to you.
July 17th, 2009 at 9:57 am
TCG, not specifically replying to you (well, kinda, it’s on your blog) but going off on the whole Ukrops thing in general because it’s been bugging me and I now have a place to put my thoughts (as opposed to on my own blog).
Gonna put on my religious cap here…
Most Christians feel that they are under an obligation to proselytize not to inconvenience you but because if they don’t help you save yourself then that weighs on them as well.
Not that it’s an entirely selfish thing, but, well, Penn Jillett put it well when someone handed him a bible. If you see someone unknowingly step out in front of a truck you have a choice: either shove them out of the way and deal with them flipping out over your “inconveniencing” them or do nothing and see them really get inconvenienced.
Ukrops doesn’t beat you over the head with their faith. Yes, they’re closed on Sundays. Yes, they have the “have you visited…” picture in every store. But it’s subtle. The guy walking your groceries to your car? That’s part of it, too. The 10% back to the community? That’s part of it, too.
It’s subtle. They aren’t putting literature in your hand, they aren’t inviting you over for bible study, but they’re engaging you in ways that make you think about it and discuss it. That it’s an issue with so many people shows how it genuinely works in terms of engaging people despite being subtle.
End rant.
July 17th, 2009 at 10:27 am
interesting points, jason. i mean that seriously. on my end though, all it does is serve to annoy me – it doesn’t make me think, it just makes me feel even more adverse to the cultishness of “subtle engaging religious conversion tactics”.
i guess my point is, i don’t want to think about religion while grocery shopping. i will think about it when i want, where i want, and on and on. it bugs me. always have.
July 17th, 2009 at 10:30 am
*have = has. i cannot type today.
July 17th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
I really don’t see any let’s go worship signs at Ukrops unless you are referring to their being closed on Sundays. On the otherhand, hubby thinks I’m blissfully oblivious to a lot of things around me. I do spread my shopping around Ukrops, Whole foods, Fresh market and Costco depending on what I need.
July 17th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
As someone relatively new to Richmond (moved here five years ago), I was amazed by the customer service and quality of food at Ukrops. I really haven’t seen any other grocery store like it. There are other supermarkets with high quality food, and some with good customer service, but few if any have both consistently in all of their store.
If Ukrops does sell out, Richmond will be the loser. We will lose something that make us unique, and who ever comes in will not give back to the community as much as Ukrops does now. People will not realize how good they are until they are gone.
July 18th, 2009 at 5:38 pm
Amen! Same reason I don’t patronize First Market Bank. When I first moved to Richmond everybody was all “You gotta go to Ukrops.” So I tried it. Thought the baggers following you out were creepy and they had no Smirnoff. Never went back.
July 19th, 2009 at 6:03 am
All I’m sayin’ is…change is good!
July 19th, 2009 at 11:28 pm
We don’t have any of those kind of stores up here in Canada….well not where I live anyways. Small, very small, private stores may put up their beliefs but no banners or anything like that.
the worship signs wouldn’t bother me, I kind of agree with Jason on that respect.
I think we are bombarded by all sorts of propaganda daily and compared to so many other beliefs being forced on us as a society I have NO problem with the “worship” sign….having said that I am a believer but not of the mind to force things down ones throat. It just seems that sometimes the non-threatening Christian propaganda unfortunately gets the same treatment as the hate messages that unfortunately come from the church as well.
July 20th, 2009 at 11:29 am
Too bad you feel quilt. Yes, religion often prevents us from doing really fun things in our lives. I guess that is why folks so often find the need to start a new sect, that is, so they continue to do whatever they feel they need to do without any consequence. Now, having said that, I stopped shopping at Ukrops for the most part due to the lowering of their customer service standards and the fact I did not care for the taste of their meat products.
Yes, they are big contributors to the community but I make my contributions directly. I also try to support local merchants who support our schools and charities. Since I do not plan to learn Mandarin or Spanish at this late date in my life, I also try to support products made or grown locally.
After all, somebody has got to be on the hook for taxes…
July 20th, 2009 at 12:06 pm
The “Let’s all go worship” banner does not bother me. Being Christian, even reaching out with innocuous Christian phrases, doesn’t bother me. Being closed on Sunday is actually something I respect. I do know people who are still pissed about Mr. Ukrop bullying local radio stations to take Howard Stern off the air. Also, the Ukrops tend to be involved in a lot of the “cockroach caucus” insider politics that align property developers, Chamber of Commerce flaks, politicians in search of cream, and other establishment types that don’t like public input into their shady dealings.
July 20th, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Does anyone remeber the stink some religious groups made a few years ago when Marylin Manson came to town for a show? I suppose as a young church goer I was probably more atune to the horror some on the religious right felt at Mr. Mansons mere existince, but the point was and still is that it was silly for people to get so upset about a rock concert, right? Well that was the way I felt, and I feel the same way about Ukrops or Chic-Fil-A or whatever else is irritating people with blatant religious underpinings; if it bothers you then don’t spend your money on it, and if you are in the majority eventually the thing that bothered you will disapear (which may indeed be the case with Ukrops).
July 20th, 2009 at 11:53 pm
Back in the late 70’s, early 80’s, when I was a kid, Ukrops always felt strange to me in a Leave it to Beaver kind of way. Having just moved from the stench of Portsmouth, Mom loved Ukrops, it was clean & safe, she would run into her friends, the Kirk Cameronesque check out boys would smile and tell crazy tales about the high school golf team. Dad on the other hand was an A&P kind of man. He would let me get one of those rubber balls(next to the flip-flops) and bounce it down the dirty aisles. He’d grab some eastern North Carolina generic brand pork products, a six pack of PBR, a pack of Merits yellow and we were out of there. The A&P (modern day Food Lion) was simply more real, you’d come home with a story to tell – usually about toothless people and green stamps. The last story I came home with from Ukrops was about how I reached my target heart rate pacing the store looking for the beer aisle. If it were’nt for Dots, I think they would have gone down years ago, hope someone keeps that alive.
July 21st, 2009 at 1:09 am
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July 21st, 2009 at 5:50 am
Here’s a rather good read on fear of death and religion (or the lack of same).
NOTHING TO BE FRIGHTENED OF
by Julian Barnes
Please bring your bluebooks. There will be a quiz next class.
October 20th, 2009 at 12:18 am
I agree, this is a great post.A successful blog needs unique, useful content that interests the readers.
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