Free Republic

The Weekly Gardening Thread is a weekly gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. This thread is non-political, although you will find that most here are conservative folks. No matter what, you won’t be flamed and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack the Weekly Gardening Thread. Planting, Harvest to Table(recipes)preserving, good living - there is no...

Amazon on Monday unveiled the latest plan to automate American workers out of existence — a futuristic grocery store without any cashiers. High-tech sensors and artificial intelligence are allowing shoppers at the Seattle food market to swipe an app when they enter, then roam the aisles and grab staples like bread and milk, artisanal cheeses and chocolates and ready-made meals. Customers can watch as the items they pluck off the shelves get added to a virtual cart on the app — and subtracted if they put them back — with receipts emailed to them once they leave, according to the...

In June, Washtenaw County became the first local government to approve a tax on disposable carry-out bags at the grocery store. If you forget to bring your own bags, grocers are forced to charge a 10 cent tax on every new bag you receive, paper or plastic. If you double-bag, it will cost you 20 cents. Counties claim that they have the authority to manage solid waste collection but this is a policy that stinks on many levels. Let’s start with the environment. There is little evidence that targeting a particular type of packaging with a tax will have significant...

Mamaw encouraged me to get a job—she told me that it would be good for me and that I needed to learn the value of a dollar. When her encouragement fell on deaf ears, she then demanded that I get a job, and so I did, as a cashier at Dillman’s, a local grocery store. Working as a cashier turned me into an amateur sociologist. A frenetic stress animated so many of our customers. One of our neighbors would walk in and yell at me for the smallest of transgressions—not smiling at her, or bagging the groceries too heavy one...

Update: Metro PD confirmed to The Daily Caller that they are treating the incident as a “suspected hate crime.” A female security guard working at a Washington, D.C. grocery store was arrested Monday afternoon for physically escorting a man out of the women’s restroom after he refused to leave because he identifies as a woman. The shopper — a young, African-American male who identified himself as Ebony Belcher to local news outlets — reportedly passed the security guard on his way into the women’s restroom at a Giant grocery store in Northeast D.C. After seeing Belcher walk into the women’s...

Did this gay pastor fake a cake with an anti-gay decoration? Whole Foods thinks so. Anyone who has paid a visit to the Whole Foods flagship store in Austin, knows the location is the gem in the pricey grocery chain’s organic crown. As one reviewer once put it: “The 80,000-square-foot market, bar, eatery, makeup counter and pick-up joint (we suspect) makes our local branches look like the neighborhood 7-11.” But one visitor to the Austin location says he was not so enthusiastic about a recent trip. An openly gay pastor in the city where Whole Foods was founded has...

Via Drew McCoy and Just Karl, you mean the cake section at Whole Foods — in Austin(!) — isn’t a hotbed of reactionary anti-gay sentiment? Watch Jordan Brown’s short video, posted below, for background. He claims he ordered a cake at WF that was supposed to say “Love Wins” and instead they handed him something that said “Love Wins, Fag.” Pay attention to the cake box, which he insists is unopened and unaltered. The label is on the bottom and the top of the box has a blue-green pattern on it. His video went viral and the predictable uproar ensued...

Whole Foods to take legal action against pastor who claimed cake had homophobic slur AUSTIN, Texas -- A Texas pastor who claimed a cake he bought from Whole Foods in Austin had a homophobic slur written on it is now facing legal action of his own from the supermarket giant. The attorneys for Pastor Jordan Brown said he ordered a cake from a Whole Foods store with the personalized message "Love Wins," but when he received it, the cake said "Love Wins F**." But Whole Foods is disputing his claim. They say his accusations are fraudulent, and they intend to...

Publix, a Florida-based grocer with a cult-like following in the south, has hired a local broker and appears to ready to enter the D.C. market. The company had a booth at the International Council of Shopping Centers’ Mid-Atlantic Dealmaking and Conference event last week at National Harbor. It was the first time Publix has had a presence at the event, which connects landlords with potential retailers. Publix spokeswoman Kim Reynolds confirmed the chain is looking to open stores throughout Virginia, including in Northern Virginia, although she said could not speak to the District or other parts of the Washington region...

German discounter Aldi on Thursday detailed a plan to grow in the U.S., saying it would invest billions of dollars and create thousands of jobs as it works to ramp up its footprint. Aldi is opening its first stores in Southern California in March of next year, and will open about 25 stores by July. The company plans to employ 1,100 people across its stores and at its regional headquarters and warehouse in Moreno Valley, CA. The retailer, which described its U.S. expansion plans as “aggressive,” said it would put more than $3 billion behind a five-year plan to open...

The explosion took place over a Halal grocery in a portion of the city dominated by Arab immigrants: Ismail Adan, 34, has lived in the building since 2002 and left shortly before the fire. He said his mother had called him early in the morning and he left to visit her, but a cousin who was staying with him was in the third-floor apartment when the explosion occurred. He said the cousin leapt from the window and was injured but he has spoken with him in the hospital. “He’s OK. It’s not very serious,” Adan said.

In January, Matt Debenham got a job at the grocery story in his Connecticut town. There's nothing unusual about that, except for the fact that 44-year-old Debenham, married father of two, earns more stocking shelves and bagging groceries than he does working his other job as an adjunct college professor. "Adjunct" is industry speak for "part-time," an arrangement that's increasingly common at colleges and universities. Huffington Post reports that while the majority of college professors are now adjuncts, 60% of them admit to having at least one other job. In the 2015 edition of its annual report, the American Association...

Hillary 2016 logo is almost exactly the same as a defunct UK grocery store named 'Hillards'

If you’ve been on the internet recently, you’ve probably seen the following ad plastered around your screen, showing a farmer in a red hat with the bold text “Grocery stores fear him!”. But what, really, could grocery stores hate so much about this guy? I decided to investigate for myself to see what was going on, and how a company could afford to spend so much money on this crazy advertisement, because I see it everywhere I look, whether I want to or not.

CHARLOTTE, NC (WBTV) - Members of the North Carolina Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America showed up at Harris Teeter on Providence Road in Charlotte on Saturday. They cut up their Harris Teeter loyalty cards and handed the destroyed cards to management.

Target [TGT -0.03%]. Chipotle. Sonic. Chili’s Grill & Bar. Jack in the Box. Starbucks [SBUX -0.25%]. Each time gun safety groups Moms Demand Action and new partner Everytown For Gun Safety have taken on a retail or restaurant chain in recent months, they’ve been successful. The pattern generally goes thusly: the groups, led by mother-of-five Shannon Watts and bolstered by $50 million from Michael Bloomberg, start a petition...

(CNSNews.com) – The average price for all types of ground beef per pound hit its all-time high -- $3.884 per pound -- in the United States in July, according to data released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). That was up from $3.880 per pound in June. A year ago, in July 2013, the average price for a pound of ground beef was $3.459 per pound. Since then, the average price for a pound of ground beef has gone up 42.1 cents--or about 12 percent. Five years ago, in July 2009, the average price for a pound of...

Now front page news soon to be in the corporate obituary column. First the board has to go. Why? It does not know the grocery business let alone Market Basket's. It does not know its employees or its customers. Lets step over that bump in the road for now. They hired co-CEO's. That never works again pointing to the lace of management structure needed to run a 71 store chain. Let's step over that hurdle also. One of the co-CEO's is from Albertson which was torn apart by a strike 10 years or so ago on the West Coast. never...

A rise in the cost of ingredients has prompted price hikes at fast-food restaurants. The popular double-double at In-N-Out has increased 15 cents since last month. Hamburgers and cheeseburgers went up 10 cents each and drinks increased 5 cents, the chain told NBC Bay Area. French fry prices were unchanged. NASA Tracks "Zombie" Spacecraft from Office Space Inside Old McDonald's "We make every effort to keep our menu prices as low as possible," In-N-Out EVP of Planning and Development Carl Van Fleet said in a statement. "Unfortunately, we have seen some pretty significant cost increases over the last year and...

The liquor store union in Pennsylvania is on the ropes. Right now if one wants to buy beer or liquor in the Keystone State one must buy it from the state owned liquor stores. Run by state employees. But soon Pennsylvania will likely join the civilized world in allowing its residents to buy beer the way God intended. From a gas station. This is curtains for the liquor store employee union and it is not giving up without a fight. The spin guys for the union put together this ad to warn us that if booze was taken out of...