The sign is up, the ground was broken, and now the little bear has come out of hibernation

I did visit the new Cub store at 1177 Clarence which opened this morning. I arrived at about 7:30 a.m. and there were about 80 cars in the parking lot. Although they are really hyping the LEED stuff, the store did not seem a lot different than any other Cub Store as far as navigating and shopping are concerned. They were giving quarter-hourly LEED tours, but I did not take one.

One thing I noticed before I could get in is that they have reserved some of the best parking places [similar to the ones for the handicapped] for cars that make 30 mpg. I don’t know how they can enforce that and wondered if it isn’t just a bit elitist, but I went in anyway.

The store will give those of us in the northern and western parts of the East Side another option for shopping, but like Rainbow and the other Cub stores they still sell Hormel pork so people of good heart who are looking for pork will still need to go elsewhere.

I paid the cashier when I left and noticed that the coupons on the back of the register receipt were for places in St. Anthony and New Brighton. I assume that they must have brought over paper rolls designed for the Apache Plaza store and imagine that that will change.

As I was leaving I was given a woven Cub grocery bag with chips, cookies, grape juice, and an unknown substance in a packet [maybe hot chocolate mix or soup mix or cheese sauce mix] which I guess I will have to open to figure out what it is.

I know that the economy is shaky, but people need to eat and based on how the store was doing in its early hours, it seems that this store might be there for quite a while.

Earlier posts: http://ccmusings.blogspot.com/2007/11/revealing-sign.html [11/1/07]
http://ccmusings.blogspot.com/2008/03/phalen-village-cub-groundbreaking.html [3/18/08]