I was astounded to see a Starbucks kiosk upon walking into the N. Asheville Ingles yesterday. It looks like a 21st century spaceship set down in a 1960s era grocery store. Three days before, there were card tables laden with sale items and large bags of candy where now stands a shiny dark wood and deep green altar to the great god java.
Within blocks of my morphing grocery store, a local Ace Hardware franchise that’s been there for years is about to be taken over by Walgreen’s. Another fancy drug store sits where once was a charming, slightly decrepit doughnut shop. A giant CVS has replaced the Auto Parts store (we seem to be needing lots o’ drugs here in N. Asheville–6 phamacies within about 4 blocks).
All this “renovation” has occurred within a mile of my home within the past four years. Some change is good, I think, but this change is too much, too soon. Too many small local businesses are going under to big box retailers.
Despite the fact that we live in the PNAV (posh North Asheville villa–that’s a joke, btw), I’m not sure I want North Asheville to become more posh than it already is. I want it to retain its funkiness, its rough edges, its local flavor.
But I’ve been pegged. Because as much as I’d like to avoid Starbucks, I know I’ll be there, buying a skim latte, before purchasing my bananas, popsicles, and pasta.
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EM, I’m not sure how a kiosk inside a grocery store is changing the face of North Ashvegas. And you say that too many local businesses are going under to big box retailers, but where’s the evidence to back that up? You’ve still got your Citizens Hardware and your independent toy store and such.
North Asheville has always been posh. You’ve got a golf course and country club within two miles of your pnav, for goodness sakes. You’ve got a Lakeshore Drive, with required lake (it’s Beaver Lake, but hey, it’s still more than we’ve got here in Worst Asheville). When Ingles started remodeling their stores into the bigger, more posh grocery villas, guess which one they did first? That’s right - your Merrimon Ingles. You’ve got the Food Museum, otherwise known as the Fresh Market, where food prices rival the prices of some small pieces of well-crafted artwork.
Need I go on? There’s plenty of local funkiness to go ’round. And now you can have it all with a sip of your favorite Starbucks brew.
Enjoy.
Sorry to stray off topic for a moment, but if you guys have not seen this, you have to! W.I.F.E. sent it this morning with a request for something better than this for our Christmas next year!
http://brahm2.com/images/gadget.htm
“One of us…one of us…one of us…”
mmmmm latta
The massive TajMaTeeter a couple miles from my new home has a Starbucks inside it - and yes, I have on a couple occasions made a purchase there before taking my grocery cart. Big news is that this huge store is not big enough (they even have an entire Kosher section), so they are building another one right behind it, with another Starbucks I am sure.
Asheville is still so much more funky than Gboro.
Ah yes! Come over to the dark side of the force. Begin drinking lattes and carmel machiattos.
ash… not to put too fine a point on it, but citizen’s hardware moved to woodfin. woodfin has an asheville zip code, but it’s not exactly asheville. (of course, when i lived in woodfin i used to tell everyone that i lived in north asheville, especially during “diapergate”.)
My point, Ash darlin’, is that the incremental changes resulting in a face lift that’s a bit too tight for my liking.
And Ace is now in Woodfin, which means I have to burn fossil fuels to get there, which peeves me.
And the Food Museum’s prices seem downright reasonable compared to Greenlife’s.
I wish we had a Starbucks in my “Taj-ma-Teeter’! You can never have too much caffeine.:)
Putting a Starbucks in a grocery store has to be one of the top marketing strategies ever. No one likes grocery shopping, so why not give them a caffeinated boost while they’re there? But maybe that’s just my Caramel Macchiato addiction talking….
EM - I was reading a book and it mentioned Ashville and I thought of YOU. Now don’t you feel special. Although the book made no mention of drug stores or Moneybucks (I can rant about the prices but I still fork over my money for the addicting heavenly goodness of a mocha) so the book must be more than 4 years old. But back to my main point, I attribute all things Ashville with you, now that makes you famous in my book.
Hi Anne!
I tried to send this to you in e-mail but it bounced for some reason, so here is the text:
Since you folks are the ones I most care about who can’t read locked
entries of my online journal, here is what Laurie and I have in mind for
the next few days:
Tomorrow we’ll be traveling up to Northern Virginia; we hope to arrive in
Ashburn by late afternoon - early evening, and will be staying with Walt
and Tamara. I should also be checking my e-mail there at least once a day.
New Year’s Eve we’ll be with W&T.
The evening of January 2nd will be our Meetup dinner–we don’t have an
exact location or restaurant yet, but it will probably be in Old Town
Alexandria. So far we’ve got about ten people who plan to be there,
including Laurie and me.
Other than that it looks like our plans are still up in the air and very
flexible.
Just let me know if you think you might be able and willing to join us
while we’re up there!
Danny
Sorry I missed you last night - hope the writing went well. I would love to hear more about the bumper sticker on your van - forgot what it was exactly, but it was about saving Merrimon Ave.
And as for getting to see so many movies nowadays - it’s because I have yet to create a decent social life in Gboro! What else is there for me to do
Hi, I just stumbled onto your blog from Neil’s. I used to love Asheville. When I lived in the South, we would go there for vacays in the summer. It’s so pretty. It’s way prettier than horrible hell-hole Jacksonville, NC where I lived for 5 months. Anyway, good luck with the starbucks. There will probably be 3 more by next week. They tend to breed like rabbits.
If only the groceries would put cup holders in the carts, though.
We seem to have been of like minds. There may yet be hope. See my (tiny) blog.
experiment23.blogspot.com