Safeway has opened a fast-casual restaurant in Menlo Park, California. Unlike the delis that have popped up in many supermarkets, Citrine New World Bistro isn't in a Safeway store. Neither is it a way of diversifying out of the grocery business. Rather, it's a way to test Safeway's private-label products on real diners, with an eye toward spotting emerging trends. The menu lists the Safeway brands involved, so the restaurant also serves as advertising.
This venture strikes me as somewhat similar to the Apple Store, which looks like a retailer, just as Citrine looks like a restaurant, but also serves as advertising, turns a product into an experience, and allows customers to ask questions and give the company more feedback than usual channels allow. It's also a pretty environment--not what I associate with Safeway.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on May 27, 2008 • Comments
David Boaz explains.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on May 12, 2008 • Comments
From initial reports, the Chinese earthquake sounds pretty terrible. With magnitude of 7.9, it was 10 times as strong as the 1989 San Francisco quake and, accordingto U.S. Geological Survey stats (but not the LAT), more powerful than the 1906 quake that leveled San Francisco. And San Francisco, in either case, was much less populous than Sichuan province, which has 100 million people.
As bad as it was, however, the Sichuan quake would have been much worse had it occurred a few decades ago, when China was less open and prosperous and, thus, less resilient. As this MSNBC video points out a weaker 1976 quake killed a quarter million people. Back then, the Chinese government tried to suppress news of the quake, a stark contrast to today. Reading between the lins of this LAT report about local concerns, however, it seems Chinese government officials still don't quite know how to channel the charitable giving that inevitably follows such a disaster. But the Red Cross seems like a good start.
On a related note, I found this review of a new book about the 1755 Lisbon quake made famous by Candide interesting.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on May 12, 2008 • Comments
Mike Huckabee is reportedly at the top of John McCain's veep list. (Via Drezner.)
Posted by Virginia Postrel on May 12, 2008 • Comments
With Iron Man an immediate blockbuster, it's appropriate that the Metropolitan Museum of Art's star-filled Costume Institute gala--and, more important, the accompanying exhibit--celebrated superheroes. Having written for The Atlantic on fashion in art museums and the glamour of superheroes, I made a side trip from Washington to New York for the press preview. I wrote a short item about the exhibit and also narrated a slide show. (Thanks to my colleague Jennie Rothenberg Gritz, who produced the slide show.)
The highlight of my museum visit was meeting Michael Chabon, author of the brilliant novel The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay
and of the exhibition catalogue's opening essay.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on May 08, 2008 • Comments
The LAT's My-Thuan Tran answers one of my long-standing questions: How did Vietnamese immigrants come to dominate the nail salon business? It turns out that actress Tippi Hedren--of The Birds fame--was the crucial inspiration.
This 1997 Reason editorial on nail salons as a microcosm of the economy was one of my most popular articles ever.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on May 05, 2008 • Comments
Quite a shirt. [Via The Wine Commonsewer.]
Posted by Virginia Postrel on May 05, 2008 • Comments
I'm looking for a web-savvy graphic designer with an eye for glamour. If that sounds like you, please send me an email at vp-at-dynamist.com.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on April 29, 2008 • Comments
Bill Clinton is "woefully unprepared for 21st-century media," says Chuck Todd, the political director of NBC News. From a Broadcasting & Cable report:
"It's fascinating: Nobody's been a bigger victim of the so-called YouTube moments than Bill Clinton," Todd said....
When Clinton was running for president, Todd said, he and his fellow candidates could misspeak -- and even willfully obfuscate -- with relative impunity.
"It was like a Jedi mind trick with him," he added. "It would take a few days for the media to catch up [and] by then he had moved on."
Posted by Virginia Postrel on April 28, 2008 • Comments
From Thoreau at HighClearing:
If there were a significant population of undecided gray aliens in Pennsylvania, right now Hillary Clinton would be talking fondly about her abduction by aliens and all the life lessons learned on that space ship. She'd be scolding Barack Obama for the way he demeans them. Obama, in turn, would say that he understands their bitterness when the US government has spent decades promising change but instead dissecting their kin in Area 51.
More here.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on April 28, 2008 • Comments
