ASHEVILLE- “I did have a clever grocery pun to lead this article with.
But unfortunately I left my grocery pun list at home.”
The above is just one example of what grocery retorts print reporter Jackson Little still has left in his back pocket and there is plenty of grocery retorts left to make as far as he is concerned.
Armed with a tape recorder, a Moleskine notebook, and an unwavering need to report the truth about produce prices, Little has abandoned his college newspaper dream of covering US presidential elections for reporting the news people actually care about.
“Sure the threat of a government shutdown due to infighting in Congress is important to report,” said Little.
“But what would people do with their lives if they didn’t know about Trader Joe’s Two Buck Chuck or Cookie Butter? Can you imagine what it would be like to survive a government shutdown without several cases of cheap wine?”
Little felt quite proud of his recent story about Trader Joe’s that appeared in yesterday’s edition of the Citizen-Times.
“Yesterday’s story was not your ordinary ‘a grocery store is opening’ story,” said Little.
“Those types of stories are just one big ad for the grocery store. No I strive for hard-hitting journalism. So I took to Facebook to ask my friends what they thought about Trader Joe’s opening and I included some of their opinions in my story. Let me tell you not all of the comments were positive, but hey I’m just doing my job reporting the truth.”
Little is already thinking of twists for stories when grocery store chains Publix and Fresh Market open up in Asheville as well.
“I’m thinking I’m going to go with how Publix as a company tries to be edgy and dangerous,” said Little.
“Replacing the ‘c’ with a ‘x’ is a pretty hip way to spell your company’s name. That will probably be the first half and then to keep the readers attention I’ll probably throw in some terms like ‘grocery wars’ and leave them with a question like ‘is this the beginning of the end for Ingles?”
