Most by now expect small errors in The Commercial Appeal, knowing how much of it is produced out of Memphis. But when the paper got the University of Memphis sports mascot wrong in a headline … there were strong feelings.
Kroger’s Dill?
Posted to Facebook by Kroger
Kroger made a big dill about National Pickle Day last week, enough so that some worried their social media had been hacked.
Las Toxicas?
Posted to Google by Hector Gomez
For the second time this year, Memphis Reddit users wondered just what in the heck happens inside the Las Toxicas … bar? club? restaurant? … on Summer at I-240.
Some of the answers included a “Hooteras” (a “Mexican-style Hooters place,” according to u/LadPro), a dance hall, strip club, bar, and a “thinly veiled brothel,” said u/alex32593.
A Google video (above) from March apparently shows the Las Toxicas dance floor in full swing. In it, patrons two-step respectfully to ranchera.
Andrew Arbogast's Arbo's Cheese Dip and two new dips will soon be in Kroger stores. (Credit: Michael Donahue)
More good news for Arbo’s Cheese Dip fans.
The popular locally-made cheese dip — as well as two upcoming new flavors — will be available in Kroger stores in late October or early November.
They will be available in 100 Kroger stores across five states — Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Alabama — says Andrew Arbogast, 37. They will be in Kroger stores in Memphis, Collierville, Germantown, Bartlett, Cordova, and Lakeland.
For now, the dips won’t be in every Kroger store in Memphis, but they will be in the Midtown and Poplar Plaza stores, and on Kirby Parkway and Truse Parkway.
“It feels like a huge accomplishment,” Arbogast says. “I say that now knowing how much work went into it. I had some local success and I thought that would be enough to get it into Kroger in the local section.”
Now, stores have to get approval from corporate to stock local items, he says.
“Things changed right before the pandemic,” he says.
So getting into Kroger was an “eight to 10 month process.”
But, luckily, Arbogast got to know people in Kroger’s Delta and Nashville divisions. They “were basically my champions in the corporate office.”
He also got to know Craig Gliva, a Kroger category manager, who has been his mentor through the whole process.
Arbogast throught about coming up with some non-dip-related products to offer Kroger, but Gliva told him, “It has to be a passionate venture for you. If you’re just trying to add on things that don’t align with what you are doing, those things tend to fall fast. What you should do is focus on your cheese dip brand.”
Arbogast debuted his Arbo’s Cheese Dip on May 15, 2021 at High Point Grocery. He brought 12 cases, which is 144 tubs, and it sold out that weekend, he says.
A year later, Arbo’s Cheese Dip is now in 300 stores in the Mid-South.
On August 15th, the dips will be available in major Texas cities. They will be sold at H-E-B Grocery Co.’s Central Market stores.
Arbogast will introduce the two new flavors — Queso Blanco and Spicy Original — in August.
“I’m going to release the two new flavors in some local stores here in the next three weeks,” he says, “maybe sooner.”
Fino’s From the Hill, Grind City Brewing Co., Oxbeau, and Doc’s Food & Spirits will be the first locations to carry the new dips, Arbogast says.
Do you remember April? It seems like an age ago, but it was just three or so weeks ago. Time flies when you’re watching society descend into authoritarian madness.
Anyway, it seems that April 2022 was when the QAnon “groomer” panic really took center stage in the national media landscape, largely propelled by Republican-led criticisms against then-nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson. Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene accused three Republican senators of being “pro-pedophile” for the crime of announcing they would vote to confirm Jackson. I hate to give that human garbage fire any oxygen, but unfortunately it’s necessary to illuminate my point.
This is how the radical right-wing branch has taken over the Republican party — anyone who doesn’t follow marching orders is not only ostracized but becomes the target of a smear campaign that needs no grounding in fact. (Now we’re getting to that “point” I mentioned earlier.) The current groomer panic has little to nothing to do with protecting children. I admit that most Republican voters do want to protect the innocent; that’s what makes this alarm bell such a powerful motivator. But the people weaponizing the word are operating from a place of political calculation, not a desire to keep kids safe.
Last week, a report by third-party investigator group Guidepost Solutions outlining the Southern Baptist Convention’s mishandling of sex abuse allegations made nary a ripple in the media landscape.
The report says that survivors of abuse shared allegations but were met with “resistance, stonewalling, and even outright hostility.” There are local examples, including Bellevue Baptist Church’s current pastor failing to immediately fire an offender, according to a Houston Chronicle report in 2019.
It’s heinous. It’s wrong that trust should be taken advantage of, that children are hurt, and that the protection of the organization is prioritized over the safety and support of victims. I’m sickened and saddened, and I cannot even imagine the hurt that the victims suffered. I also cannot help but notice that, when faced with real documented examples of the thing they claim to hate the most, there is relative silence from the right. The Guidepost Solutions report recommends the creation of an “Offender Information System” database. Here we have an actionable plan to help prevent further abuse. Why isn’t MTG tweeting about it? More recommendations are expected to be announced at a national meeting scheduled for June 14th-15th in Anaheim, California, so maybe people are waiting to see what happens. Then again, waiting for more information doesn’t seem to be in the wheelhouse for these folks.
If the allegations against the SBC are a little too charged, consider this. The same week, a Kroger store in nearby Southaven, Mississippi, was hit with more than $13,000 in fines over unsafe conditions and child labor violations. “Investigators have found the store allowed three minor-aged workers, all 16- and 17-years old, to load a trash compactor with the keys in the machine to allow operation,” writes reporter Bob Bakken for the DeSoto County News. “The Labor Department investigators also found the employer allowed a 15-year-old employee to work more than three hours on a school day and more than 18 hours during a school week, all violations of the federal child labor standards.”
It seems to me that church and business are often held up as being above reproach, so these real-world instances of child abuse and endangerment don’t fit an established narrative. Neither do they provide fodder for future mud-slinging against Democrats.
The week before, 192 out of 208 House Republicans voted against H.R. 7790, the Infant Formula Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2022, which would provide “$28 million in emergency supplemental appropriations to address the shortage of infant formula in the United States.” The bill passed, at least in the House, but with little help from the party of forced birth.
The groomer panic isn’t about protecting children. If it were, we would take abuse allegations and child labor violations seriously. If it were, the vote for the Infant Formula Supplemental Appropriations Act would have been unanimous, and the expanded child tax credit, which expired in December, would have already been renewed.
People will be hurt. Children and teens will continue to be put in danger, while misdirected malice will express itself as violence against the LGBTQ+ community. Words have weight, and no one should be treated as a pawn in a political game.
So please, think before you hop on the panic bandwagon.
An activist sings over megaphone. (Credit: Maya Smith).
A crowd shut down an East Memphis Kroger fuel station Thursday calling for justice for Alvin Motley Jr. who was shot and killed by a security guard there earlier this month.
Activists, attorneys, and family members rallied in the gas station’s parking lot near Kirby and Poplar.
“This gas station is closed for business,” activist LJ Abraham, shouted on a megaphone. “If you buy gas here today, you support racism.”
Activist LJ Abraham urges customers not to use Kroger gas pumps. (Credit: Maya Smith).
Abraham said Kroger is limiting the information they are providing and has not taken responsibility for its role in Motley’s killing.
“They hired the security firm, therefore they hold some responsibility in the killing of Mr. Motley, but they will not speak to that,” Abraham said. “The least they can do is come out and offer a sincere apology. But then what else can they do moving forward to take care of this family?”
Others parked their cars at the fuel station, playing music from their speakers. Cardboard signs reading “Music for Motley” were displayed in windshields.
Rally-goers used orange traffic cones to stop customers from entering the gas station.
Pastor Peris Lester said Motley was killed for loud music, but “today we are calling for louder justice.”
Carl Adams, Motley’s cousin, said what happened to Motley was a “cold-blooded murder.”
Motley’s cousin, Cara Adams, demands justice. (Credit: Maya Smith)
Dr. Robert Motley Jr., another cousin of Motley, said there needs to be policies in place so that other families “don’t have to suffer the way we have suffered.”
Motley was allegedly fatally shot by former Horn Lake police officer Gregory Livingston following a verbal altercation over loud music, police say. Livingston was charged with second degree murder and is currently in jail on a $1.8 million bond.
Nashville District Attorney General Glenn Funk was appointed special prosecutor in the case.
Kroger has since cut ties with Allied Universal Security, the third-party company for which Livingston worked.
Earlier Thursday a memorial service was held for Motley at Mt. Olive Cathedral CME Church. Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the Motley family, called for the footage of Motley’s shooting to be released to the public.
“When it’s a Black person lying dead on the ground and it’s a white person that killed him, we start getting all these reasons why we can’t be transparent,” Crump said.
The footage was shown to the Motley family and attorneys Thursday morning, but Crump said there is no justification for it not to be released publicly.
“It is heart wrenching when you watch how unnecessary, how unjustifiable, and how shocking it was that this Allied Security guard shot this unarmed Black man who had a can of beer in his hand and a cigarette in the other,” Crump said. “What could be so dangerous about a Black man holding a beer can and taking a puff of a cigarette?”
Crump said there was no reason for Motley to be killed.
“What is it about Black men that is so fearful to white America that they shoot first and ask questions later?” Crump said. “We have to continue to push for transformative justice. And the only way to get transformative justice is to have truth and transparency.”
Members of Motley’s family also urged for the video to be released. Cara Adams, Motley’s cousin, called Motley’s shooting “the worst act of white terrorism against a Black life that I have ever seen” after watching the video.
“Situations like that are a modernized version of white terrorists who would go and lynch a Black man on the street,” Adams said. “It’s that same disdain, same distaste, same hate that’s deep-rooted in this country in a very systemic and systematic way.”
Cars playing music filled the gas station’s parking lot. (Credit: Maya Smith)
Adams said through tears when the video is released, people will be able to feel “how little a Black life matters in this country.”
“The video really affirmed to me that in this country it’s a crime to be a Black man or a Black woman,” Adams said.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump demands that the Kroger security guard who fatally shot a Black man over the weekend be held accountable.
Alvin Motley was shot and killed by a security guard at an East Memphis Kroger fuel station Saturday after a dispute over loud music. A day after the shooting, the shooter, Gregory Livingston was charged with second degree murder.
Crump, who has been retained to represent the Motley family, said at a press conference Tuesday the death of Motley was preventable. Playing music should not be something that’s fatal, Crump said.
“Another unarmed Black person was killed because he was profiled, because of the color of his skin,” Crump said. “How many more times will we have to face these tragedies — these senseless unjustifiable tragedies that leave our children in the morgue and families with holes in their hearts?”
Crump also added it is Kroger’s responsibility to hire security guards who respect Black customers.
Crump called for people all over America to go to Kroger and play music for Motley to let Kroger know “our music should not prove fatalities for our children.”
President of the Memphis NAACP chapter Van Turner was also at Tuesday’s press conference. Turner called the shooting a “cold-blooded murder.”
He invited those in attendance to “say his name.”
“Let’s make sure that name means something in this community,” Turner said. “We have to let this family know that we aren’t going to forget Alvin Motley. His murder will not be in vain.”
Turner said Livingston and Kroger need to be held accountable.
“We’re here today to resurrect justice,” Turner said. “We’re here to resurrect justice for this family and for Black people who have been dying in this country since we stepped foot on these shores unjustly.”
Senator Katrina Robinson, also present, said Motley’s death was a result of systemic racism.
“Black people, we have to stop meeting like this,” Robinson said. “One may look at this incident and think that it’s isolated. Nothing about this is isolated. This is a result of systemic racism bleeding all the way down from a Kroger security guard.”
Kroger released a statement on Motley’s death Tuesday.
“We are deeply saddened, extremely angry and horrified by this senseless violence,” the statement reads. “Our hearts are with the Motley family. This tragic incident involved a third-party contractor onsite to provide security services at our Poplar Avenue Fuel Center. We ask all third-party contractors to respect and honor our core values which include respect, diversity, and inclusion. We want to thank the Memphis Police Department for their swift action. The only outcome we seek is justice.”
Instagram user Eric Huber is recreating Rust Hall, the iconic building central to the former Memphis College of Art campus, in Minecraft. The whys of this project don’t matter at all. It’s simple internet genius.
Posted to Instagram by @erichber
Krogerin’
A Nextdoor Kroger bash is still burning after user Patti Ward complained last week that, after 30 years of shopping at the Union Avenue location, she’ll “never again” shop there.
The post racked up 229 comments. The discussion ranged from whether or not the issue was an issue at all, Big Brother, other Kroger locations, other stores, missing Seessel’s, and a proposed 30-day ban on bashing Kroger on Union. The post followed a March 15th post from Rita Baker calling the Union Kroger “the worst grocery store on the planet.”
Explainin’
This week YouTuber Memphis Newz broke down the confusion over rapper Pooh Shiesty’s recent diss of South Memphis, his own neighborhood.
“Sometimes when a rapper gets big, their neighborhood will turn against them,” Memphis Newz said. “A lot of the time, it’s the rapper’s fault because they’ll be doing some hoe-ass shit.”
MEMernet: Flight, Porch & Parlor, and Getting Tanked at Kroger (4)
Taking Flight
Digital stories spilled out into the streets of Memphis as protesters bullhorned and blocked streets near Flight Restaurant and Wine Bar and Porch & Parlor after a barrage of allegations were made online against the restaurants and their owners.
Facebook posts surfaced last week with allegations that Flight managers had instructed workers to seat African-American diners in an upstairs dining room so they would not be seen from the street in the downstairs dining room. The posts caught fire and soon were blazing on other social channels like Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit.
MEMernet: Flight, Porch & Parlor, and Getting Tanked at Kroger (2)
On Saturday morning, Flight issued a statement on Facebook addressing the posts, saying that “we are committed to determine their validity.”
“We take all allegations of discriminatory behavior seriously and refuse to tolerate this type of behavior at our restaurant. To the extent that we learn that any of these accusations are true, these employees will be terminated immediately.”
Flight and Porch & Parlor are owned by the same company. Criticism and allegations of both were proliferating all over the Memphis internet over the weekend.
Porch and Parlor's southern plantation patio asthetic is not an accident nor is it Memphis.
— Donate Donate Donate (@cathedralheat) June 12, 2020
MEMernet: Flight, Porch & Parlor, and Getting Tanked at Kroger
Protesters with bullhorns massed outside Flight Saturday evening. On Saturday, protesters taunted diners at Porch & Parlor and blocked the intersection of Cooper and Madison. On Sunday, protesters planned another protest, and a Facebook post noted that “Russ [Graham, co-owner of the restaurants], we want answers and we want them now!”
“Notes of encouragement captured on my afternoon walk.”
Posted to Instagram by natvangundy.
Krogering
Life’s tough RN and it’s easy to complain. It helps! So that’s just what many were doing on Nextdoor last week, especially about trips to Kroger.
“They don’t have the self-check kiosk open, so you can pay and get out fast!” wrote Roy Haithcock. “You have the pleasure of standing in line with 50 other customers.”
“No disinfectant wipes for the shopping carts,” wrote Mary Kohler. “You could barely get through the aisles. I had to wait 25 minutes to check out.”
Sanctity of Life
Reddit user dropped_the_chief wrote, “To the anti-abortion protesters on Poplar in Midtown: Nothing against y’all or your cause, but please respect the sanctity of life and stop gathering in public until the pandemic is over.”
Silver lining?
Memphis rap icon Project Pat said on Instagram, “Bout to save alotta money wit this RONA.” The accompanying video showed him throwing money at strippers on television.
SuperLo Foods is slated to bring life back to a former Orange Mound Kroger that closed last year, opening a new store there by December.
Kroger closed this location at Lamar and Airways and another in South Memphis last year in February, leaving residents in the neighborhood with limited access to a grocery store. But the company announced Monday that it will be donating the former Orange Mound store to SuperLo.
Victor Smith, president of Kroger Delta, said the company has prioritized keeping its promise to the city and Orange Mound.
“Our promise and our purpose to feed the human spirit is what we stand on today as we announce the donation of the former Kroger building in Orange Mound to SuperLo Foods,” Smith said. “We ended the competition between us for a moment to support a city and community we truly love.”
Randy Stepherson, SuperLo’s owner, said the departure of Kroger from the neighborhood made room for another grocer to step in. “The facility is in a good place and in good shape.”
Stepherson said the store will be a full-scale grocer, providing a full selection of fresh produce, meats, frozen food, and dairy products. The store will also house a bakery and deli.
“Access to good food is certainly important,” Stepherson said. “That said, it has to be economically feasible for a business to open a store. In this day and age of large, high-volume, low-margin grocery stores, it is not possible for all areas to have a store within walking distance. There is not enough business for all to survive. That is why most smaller grocery stores have gone away. The consumers took their money to the larger stores.”
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland was there for Monday’s announcement. Strickland said over the past 20 months, he, along with city councilwoman Jamita Swearengen, whose district houses the future store, have been working with Kroger and others in the community to bring a grocery store back to the neighborhood.
“We are making huge strides to better serve the public,” Strickland said. “But it’s events like these that demonstrate our people in our neighborhoods have strong momentum, too. Orange Mound is a community with a rich history, proud neighbors, and great Memphians.”
According to the USDA Food Desert Atlas, the census tract where the SuperLo will open is “a low-income census tract where a number or share of residents is more than one miles from a supermarket.”
Not only will the new store provide residents with access to a grocery store, but it will also bring about 80 full-time and part-time jobs to the neighborhood initially, Stepherson said.
On average, employees will make $13.50 an hour. Full-time employees will receive health insurance that includes family coverage, with SuperLo paying 90 percent of the cost.
For several months, we’ve been working with @JESwearengen@kroger & @SuperloFoods to bring a grocery store back to Orange Mound. I’m pleased to announce that SuperLo will be coming to that community very soon. Thanks to Kroger for donating the bldg (1st time in company history)! pic.twitter.com/EybyyXbQRs
We had become embarrassingly close to addiction with food delivery services, until we stepped back from the brink and realized the consequences, not just monetarily, but socially as well. There was a time in the not-so-distant past when you had two choices of food delivered to your door: Chinese or pizza. No more. Now, the finest restaurants in town will pack it up and zip it right out to you, and your only task is the occasional 15 seconds in the microwave. You don’t even need dinnerware anymore. You can eat it right out of the sectional plastic tray.
The food delivery business has popped up like mushrooms in a cow pasture, or maybe Uber. Of course, it’s not just food anymore. Need toothpaste and Dr. Scholl’s insoles? Push a few buttons and someone will rush it right over. Don’t feel like Krogering? There’s an app for that. Where they once made it so inconvenient that you had to drive over there and have someone load up your groceries, they deliver now. In fact, if you hurry, Kroger is having a sale for your July 4th festivities. Nathan’s Skinless Beef Franks are $2.99 a pack, their famous mustard potato salad is $3.99 for three pounds, and American flags have been marked down from 49 cents to 44 cents. The beer is regularly priced, but it eliminates what used to be a rite of passage for young males — the beer run. If beer is too pedestrian, they’ll bring you a nice Sauvignon Blanc for $19.99. This is a dream come true for agoraphobics. Now there really is no need to leave the house.
As with any addiction, there are plenty of enticements to draw you in, like free delivery and daily specials. For a hefty deposit, you can get free delivery in perpetuity. It’s especially fun to track your order. The restaurant will inform you when your driver leaves the store and when he’ll arrive. On some services, a little car will pop up on the screen and you can follow it directly from the eatery to your driveway.
Our first experience was with Meals in Motion, which contains some of our favorites but is limited in their number of restaurants. We quickly signed up for Uber Eats, Bite Squad, and Door Dash. We tried Postmates, but they wanted some ridiculous amount of money in advance to put on your credit card, so they got deleted. Grubhub has yet to arrive on my block. The rest operate in pretty much the same way: Choose a restaurant, give them your credit card, pull up the menu, press a few buttons, and some nice person will drive your food over — tip included, even if you feel like a bag of Krystals. There’s no waiting for a table, no dealing with a harried server, no wondering why the next table got served when they came in after you, and no deciphering the difference between 15 and 20 percent.
As with any new service, you learn some things by trial and error. For instance, in a restaurant, if they overcook your cheeseburger, you can send it back. Delivery offers that same option, but it will take an additional hour to correct it, and by then you’ve decided that you’re hungry enough to go ahead and eat the overcooked burger. It’s the same with the occasional menu mistake. There’s no mistaking beef tacos when that’s what you ordered online, but when they arrive beefless, what are you going to do? The restaurant will give you a credit, but that doesn’t make up for a spoiled meal. If you order something from a favorite restaurant, say, a beef chimichanga, it’s not quite the same as when they bring it fresh from the kitchen.
We didn’t realize how deeply we were descending into the hedonistic lifestyle until the night we had a hankering for some ice cream. We live within short driving distance from two Baskin-Robbins ice cream shops and one of them is a drive-thru, but they were on the list of stores that delivered. We ordered a variety of scoops in a cup, but it took a while. I kept checking my phone for updates while our cream-cravings intensified. When it finally arrived, the check not only included the cost of the ice cream, but a healthy tax, a pre-arranged tip for the driver, and a $5 delivery charge that was supposed to be free. The guilt over our obscene laziness was palpable. We could have gone Krogering and had a couple of gallons sent over for the same price.
There’s an additional reason that we’ve scaled back on dinner delivery, and it’s the same reason we never use self-checkout in a grocery store or any other discount store chain. We figured for every self-checkout lane, a cashier or sacker will lose a job, and although there’s no stopping automation, we can do our part until it replaces the entire workforce. The same goes for restaurants. Eating at home is easy, but it doesn’t quite match going to an actual restaurant, sitting down at a table, and enjoying a meal. Since I’m not trying to promote any individual restaurant, let’s pretend you have a particular favorite, and for the sake of argument we’ll call it “Patrick’s.” It’s a down-home meat-and-three restaurant. Their food is good and reasonably priced, the atmosphere is convivial, and they have an Elvis wall right in the same spot where I used to play gigs when it was a nightclub in a previous incarnation. Delivery is great, but then we wouldn’t get to see our favorite host, Ben Sumner, or the best server in town, Jo Jo Chetter, whom we have followed from her days at Kudzu’s and who can enthrall you with tales of Ireland.
Delivery services create new jobs for drivers and profits for restaurants, but before you order the next time, remember the cooks, servers, busboys, and cashiers who depend on you putting on your pants and making a personal appearance.
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