VN AfterTaste

I just visited the grocery outlet. The grocery outlet is a discount store specializing in the selling of overproduced/old/discontinued items. I remember buying Mr. T. cereal there years after the pop culture phenomenon of Mr. T.
Perhaps this is the Mr. T. experience referred to in the band name “The Mr. T. Experience.”

When I was a kid we used to call the grocery outlet where I lived the canned food warehouse. I think that was actually its name at the time. I noticed immediately that they still had a few giant cans of Chinese chicken broth from the last time I was there – which was a very long time ago.

While giant cans from foreign lands are interesting, if not appetizing, the true gold has always been relics from America’s foreign land, the South. I have yet to see a carton of pork brains in milk gravy for sale at any discount store. I must assume these items are popular enough down south that they never end up in discount/markdown distribution. After all, that’s 5000% of your daily cholesterol requirement. I did notice the Southern staples hominy and hominy grits. I bought some of both. Of course, you can buy those anywhere. I have met an unusual number of people who do not just dislike hominy – it actively disgusts them. I do not pretend to understand this phenomenon. It is similar to the reaction I receive when I play many people music by the classic 1980s band Flipper. Revulsion, disgust, and the urge to flee. I don’t know if these two demographics overlap in any statistically meaningful way. I leave that for future study.

I was tempted by the FrankenBerry cereal. How could one not be?

FrankenBerry has everything one could desire in a cereal :

1. It is fronted by a monster

2. The monster in question is pink

3. It is a fortified cereal, thus full of B12

4. The eyes on the box art follow you no matter where you are in the room

These four things represent everything I look for in a cereal. The only reason I passed on this consumerist experience was that the marshmallows are made from gelatin. While I’m neither an animal rights vegan, nor a pure vegan; sugary lumps made from cow’s hooves disgust me. C’est la vie.

Still it is lovely box art. I would not mind putting it on my wall; though the anti-consumer in me would cry out about the cultural advertising/branding.

They also had Grape-Nuts in a vintage box. Their goal here was to approximate the look of a box of grape nuts from a time in the distant past, such as the 1940s. (That’s when radio host Jack Benny used to front for them. To put this in American cultural perspective, that was 4,000 years ago). This approximation was, of course, spoiled by the inclusion of the words “vintage packaging” on the front, as well as the microwave instructions on the back. Still, an attractive package. I was tempted. It was pure design – no pictures, just words and layout. I couldn’t buy it because it didn’t have a price on it. I never, never buy anything that doesn’t have a price on it. I don’t even ask.

It is my understanding that the General Mills brand is in a tizzy. Their reputation has taken a nosedive since they fired their Olympic spokesman Michael Phelps for being photographed smoking marijuana. They tried to protect their reputation by distancing themselves from drugs but only harmed their reputation. Sadly, they have a poor understanding of their marketing demographic.