Vibrance is Outdated Nostalgia Now
In today's episode of Enshitification Daily:
Growing up in Kent, up until they closed about 15 years ago, there was a locally owned and operated grocery store at the top of Smith Hill, called TOP Food and Drug. We used to shop there even though it was a bit out of the way because it was a Kent staple. They had great service and genuinely excellent quality control, so you got what you payed for and supported the local community. There were always people there, you could - and often did - run into someone you knew and struck up a brief conversation. The location, and the store itself, were bright and inviting.
Anyway, in the early 2010s, they closed due to pressure from Safeway, Winco, Target, Albertsons, Fred Meyer, ... In short, too many other grocery stores offering cheaper prices too close to them. Which sucked. And in the interim most of those grocery stores have merged or closed, so we're back where we started just without the landmark. That building has been vacant since, but everyone around here still refers to places around Kent relative to the TOP Foods building. Faded lettering on the side of the building, and that semi-iconic angled canopy still adorn the empty building, with the parking lot nearby completely empty, a stark variance from the rest of the plaza, where a crowd of cars lines up to compete for the nearest parking spaces to Target, and Harbor Freight moved in to offer their inferior wares in the unit next door.
In a recent Kent Reporter, Burlington to open Kent store on East Hill near Target, they've now unveiled that it's finally being filled... By Burlington, offering "deals of up to 60% off other retailers on top-quality branded merchandise for the entire family and home". A petit luxury brand that embraces vacuous consumerism - and based on their other stores, I expect it'll come with the same sterile, department store atmosphere and empty-eyed shoppers too impoverished to buy what's on sale, but nonetheless convinced that they must, lest they become untrendy.
I have fond memories as a child of browsing Top Foods. It wasn't merely about the food, it was about the excitement around it: The fresh seafood on display, a friendly smile on the clerk's face as he chats about the Copper River salmon that only comes in for a few weeks each year. The salad bar, just beside the deli, where you could indulge just enough to half your grocery bill as you sat at a reasonably comfortable cafe table with your shopping cart right beside - planning meals for the week, mouth-watering, occasionally being overheard by another customer who offers their own ideas, or excitedly adopts yours. The checkout clerks who were plentiful enough to spend some time on chitchat while they rang up your cart.
Kent has always had places to spend your money, like any city. But I remember the days where shopping was fun; the selection, the community, the customer service - they all worked together to turn the humble grocery store into a vibrant and integral heart of the local community around it. Everyone needs groceries, so even if the grocery stores suck, they're always going to bustle with activity (or shift to delivery services, equally busy), but it's not like it used to be.
I'm not usually someone who feels much nostalgia. To me, the past is the past, something to learn from, but as the adage goes, you can't step into the same river twice. Learning about this store did strike a nostalgic chord for me -- but I realised it's not beacuse I necessarily feel deeply about Top Foods, it's just that there is no longer that vibrance; everything is mere consumerism devoid of meaning or context beyond "buy things" -- and that sense of place, that vibrant community center, is what I'm nostalgic for.
It's much easier to destroy community and infrastructure than it is to rebuild it, and the contemporary world seems collectively uninterested in even trying. So that's now merely a nostalgic feature of the past. Vibrance is outdated nostalgia now.