Wednesday Walk: Bullseye
Wednesday Walk: Bullseye
A Muppet from the podcast, Target closes a cool store, and a podcast preview
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As is typical every Wednesday, I’m bring you a smattering of topics that I hope will make you a bit more curious about the world around you and give you something to think about later. I call these Wednesday Walks, as it’s the type of conversation we might have walking down a path in the woods. Shall we take a stroll?
A Furry Dream
I’ve got to be honest with you, writing this newsletter seems to get progressively harder each week given all that is happening in the world right now. Frankly, sometimes it can be hard to manage all of the normal responsibilities of daily life knowing that simply having a safe life is a privilege and one that not everyone has right now.
In some ways, being a parent drives normalcy more than anything else. Were it not for my kids, I’m not sure that I would be as aware of the changing of the seasons at the moment or the rituals of everyday life.
But with young kids who are still at that magical age before the real world has intruded too heavily into their consciousness, I feel a need to still be present and to engage with the traditions and patterns that bring them comfort and joy.
As I wrote about on Sunday, we spent some time this weekend at Sesame Place enjoying their Halloween festivities. I’ll admit, it was nice to be around fall decorations and crisp fall air. It’s become a tradition to go down to Pennsylvania to enjoy the park in autumn and I could tell that my children reveled in it.
While we were in the park, we stumbled upon a new meet and greet that we hadn’t seen before.
For those not in the know, that’s Gonger, a relatively new muppet to join the cast. This was our first time in two years visiting Sesame Place that we’ve encountered Gonger in the park, and it was extra exciting because I had featured Warrick Brownlow-Pike, the UK-based puppeteer who brings Gonger to life, as a guest on the podcast a few years ago.
Gonger started life as an unnamed character on the Sesame Workshop produced show The Furchester Hotel, which aired on the BBC. Warrick took over duties for the pink ball of fur during the second block of shows and immediately brought life and personality to the background character.
When Furchester was coming to an end, he shot a pilot on his phone where Gonger would visit food trucks and cook inside of them. The idea ended up getting picked up and becoming a regular feature on Sesame Street.
Gonger became a surprise hit and was suddenly featured in merchandise alongside classic characters like Elmo and Big Bird. He’s a character that can be met in theme parks, and one that had quite a line at that!
For me, getting to meet Gonger in real life after hearing Warrick’s journey on the podcast was moving. It was a reminder that the seeds we sow today may blossom into something big and unexpected. We can’t always predict when that will happen or what form the new plant will take, but it’s a reminder to keep going.
Good things are coming for all of us. The process may not be how we expect it to go and the end result may not look how we imagine it today, but we have to believe that sticking with it will pay off.
Off Target
I talk a lot about my retail experience at Toys R Us in this newsletter, as that time spanned five years of my life and included stints at six different stores in three states. I talk less about my time at Target, mostly because it was very short lived. I helped open a new store in Revere, MA and worked there for about six months. It was my first job with a health insurance policy separate from my parent’s plan, but was otherwise unremarkable.
I was a bit surprised to see this local news story from Portland, OR about several Targets closing on my YouTube feed last week:
Apparently, Target recently announced the closure of nine stores across four states. Three of the affected store closures are in Portland, with the others in urban neighborhoods in New York, the Bay Area, and Seattle. The retailer is citing theft as a major reason for the closures.
Even in my time at Target nearly two decades ago, theft was a concern. I had made friends with the store security guards and they used to let me hang out in their office. It resembled the control room of a broadcast studio more than something in a retail store (perhaps that’s why I was drawn to it). There was a literal wall of monitors showing cameras covering every area of the store- many of which could be remote controlled right from the security console. There were cameras at each register that were tied to the register software, so a simple transaction number from a receipt could pull up video footage of that entire purchase from multiple angles.
Still, from the sounds of that local news story, theft is no longer just petty thieves trying to line their own pockets, but it may also be the work of organized crime rings. Rather than try to fight against that, Target has decided to declare defeat in the selected markets.
It’s been interesting to see suburban retailers adapt to city life. We have several examples in Boston that have the branding of a big box store but don’t necessarily have the same feeling of the main brand. Maybe the culture of the suburbs simply doesn’t translate to a city store, at least without major adaptations that it seems Target either didn’t make or couldn’t make.
Perhaps the saddest piece of the news is that one of the stores that closed is also one of the most innovative stores that Target has opened in recent memory. The location on Southeast Powell in Portland was a former bowling alley that incorporated bowling elements into the design of the store. It opened in 2018 and KATU has a nice gallery of images from the store’s opening. I never made it to the store personally, though it was unique.
As you probably know, I have a lot of nostalgia for these national brands, but I also think we’re in a place where we need to curb our consumption in a big way.
There are clearly systemic issues underpinning the uptick in retail theft that need to be solved. The saddest part in all of this though is that these neighborhoods are losing the services that a store like Target provides, including selling groceries, medicine, and pharmacy items. Hopefully there are local options that can fill the void and the architecture of that former bowling alley can again be repurposed to honor its history while also building something new.
New Podcast Alert
I am very excited for the latest episode of the podcast. I talked to playwright Larissa FastHorse, believed to be the first Native American female writer to have a play open on Broadway. We had an amazing conversation about what it takes to make theater more inclusive and how we talk about difficult parts of history.
The podcast will be out tomorrow on all platforms, but as a reminder, paying members of Willoughby Hills always get early access to the podcast and help support the work I’m doing on this newsletter.
If you’re interested in hearing Larissa’s interview right now or you’ve been meaning to support for a while and haven’t done it yet, I’m offering 20% off of annual plans for anyone who has read this far down in today’s issue. Upgrade today!
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Other Wednesday Walks
If you’ve missed past issues of this newsletter, they are available to read here.