So it isn't enough that Super Stop and Shop has built yet another chain store monstrosity in New Paltz. Now they have the audacity to actually hire one of those mobile billboards every weekend and drive all over the area just to let the community and weekenders know they are there. Twice now I have this converted box truck with a billboard on it sitting at the entrance to Minnewaska on a weekend. Chasing CU Market out of the Ames Plaza wasn't bad enough. Now they have to assault our senses with this useless barrage of advertisement. How could some idiot head manager decide that wasting gas on this endeavor is a good idea. I urge everyone...locals and visitors alike, to steer clear of this abomination in New Paltz. We had a perfectly lovely market in that plaza, but it could never compete with 2 huge chain food marts. The box store conversion of America is affecting New Paltz too. But you can do the right thing and not frequent that store. Let them know that their advertising on the ridge is totally unacceptable.

RR

I agree! And I already don't like StopnShop...

Buy at the local farmers markets... they don't ship fruit in from all around the globe! Buying locally is actually better for the environment than buying organic! After all of the fuel used to ship the product all over the globe... And supporting the local enonomy is great on many levels!

So if you can afford the extra ten or twenty cents per pound on produce, hit up your farmers market for fresher and GREENER goods!

I can't decide what to laugh at or feel sad about here.

Rob- Where was your outrage in the 70's, 80's, and 90's when the former big-box-department stores of Bradless, Barkers, and Ames occupied that space? Were they stifling the local economy as well?

Where is your outrage at the assault on your senses of the useless barrage of advertising that occurs every time one of your neighbors rents one of the trucks from home depot and drives past your house to deliver the materials to his/her house? Or when a building supply company sends their own truck to make a delivery with their name and logo written all over it. Or how about those contractors who have their company names painted all over their cars/trucks? Or when the Mohonk Preserve Truck goes down into New Paltz for supplies -advertising it all over? Do you get angry with that useless barrage of advertising?

I'm surprised they haven't gotten a set of a skylights to park out in front of the store at night to announce their grand opening yet, like has been the rage for several years.

Dillbag- I love to buy my apples at the Palladino farm in Milton, fresh apricots in Port Ewen, Pears in Modena, Strawberries at the Rivermeade Farm in Keene Valley. But, you know what, I'm shit out of luck going to my local farm markets when it's time to buy some chicken breast, a few cans of tuna, a jar of mayonaise, a container of dill weed, or a bag of dill flavored potato chips. I like to eat oranges, squeeze lime into my gin and tonic, and on occasion, I like shredded coconut in my magic square bars and I just don't see many of them growing in the Hudson Valley.

I suppose the answer is that we would feel better about ourselves if a little guy opened up a specialty shop in downtown New Paltz who specialized in canned meat products and then we could go next door and buy some herbs (pronounce the h) out of a store owned by a little guy who specializes in herbs and spices. We might even like him because he's all earthy and cool and burns inscents? insence? incense? in his store.

I think the right way for us to live is to cast away our technology based lives, become subsistence farmers, and base our economy on bartering our produce for services.

I'm for sale, and I'm pretty darn cheap too!

Yea, WTF? If New Paltz's strip of stupid hippie shops wasn't enough, there's never a decent supermarket. The old one sucked, the new one sucks. The clone of the new one probably sucks too - I'll post my opinion in some months when I visit my parents for Xmas.

I'm for sale, and I'm pretty darn cheap too!

For you it was a condo in Hawaii, how cheap is that?

Rob, I have to disagree with you at least in part here. Now, I'm not a fulltime resident, but I've spent weeks and months at a time there - and I just loathed the grocery options.

Yes, I support a local market, and they do have their place in an economy. But they can't - and shouldn't! - offer the breadth of options for a lot of basic cooking staples that I need. Big boxes are death, yes, but big grocery is quite different.

I don't mind picking up locally farmed stuff at local marts - I like doing that! - but I do mind having no choice but to buy macrobiotic, certified organic flour at $9 a pound, or fancy imported gourmet olive oil for $10 because there is no other selection or competition available. I've resented every cent I spent at Shop Rite, that place is the pits. New Paltz needs and deserves the competition between major grocers.

I completely agree with you about the advertising, though.

Strat....all those other advertising gimicks you mentioned are incidental to an actual purpose. Delivering a product,contractor driving to and from jobsite. Mobile billboards serve no purpose other than to drive around so you can see them....not to deliver anything or transport workers, etc. I'm sure you can see the difference. The fact is that there was a perfectly good supermarket in that shopping center that was locally owned. They did not carry JUST macrobiotic organic 9 dollar a pound stuff. They had some of it, but they also had normal things, a great produce market that was better than most big chain produce sections, and a wonderful assortment of Asian food items. The simple fact that it was locally owned and it was GOOD is what I am pissed about. But they didn't stand a chance against corporations who can afford to grease the wheels of zoning and environmental controls with their big pockets. It's a sad day when when good stores get wiped out in the Tsunami of American homogeny. It's happening right here.....right under your freakin noses, and people just say....well they are cheaper, so I buy from them. Of course they are cheaper, they have the buying power to control the market, buying in bulk to supply all their stores and leaving the Mom and Pop stores gasping for air when they want to order a couple of cases of soda or whatever. It's within everyones power to make a difference.
By the way...you are not out of luck when you want to buy some chicken breast, or a jar of mayonnaise. Jacks Deli in New Paltz and My Market (I think that's the name of it) both carry a decent variety of meat, both organic and mass produced.
I'm not saying I am the perfect consumer, but I try to be when I can. I try to buy from local stores when possible. Sometimes it isn't and you have no choice, but it's your day to day actions that make a difference.

RR

P.S. I wasn't living here in the 70's, 80's and 90's. I was too busy playing with GI Joe figures in the 70's...too busy banging my head and getting stoned in the 80's and too busy trying ot figure out what to do with my life in the 90's. Now I am a bit wiser.

Well today there is a large panel truck in the NP area with an 8x14 ft ad on each side for Clif bars. It was parked in the 30 min scenic overlook in the AM, and then in the Trapps lot after lunch. It touts the "Natural Energy Tour" or something like that, but is the gaudiest marketing vehicle I've seen this side of the Las Vegas strrip.

If they'd had given me a couple free bars then I might not find it so objectionable, but I got nada. ;-)