By NICOLAS PILATAlthough the new Smith’s Marketplace does a great service for this small town, there is one caveat that warps ‘What is’ into ‘What should be.’
The new Smith’s rights many of the wrongs that once plagued shopping on the Hill, but one wound is left unclosed. The new Smith’s Marketplace, in all its grandeur, fails to offer Los Alamos shoppers with a satisfactory selection of bear pictures.
Picture this: You have a birthday in the family coming up, and Uncle Bob loves bears. Hey, why don’t you send him a picture of a bear? Unfortunately, Uncle Bob’s love for bears is so strong that the rest of your family had the same idea. Fast forward a few days, and it’s time to buy that bear picture. You hop on over to the new Smith’s, but so does the rest of the family. Soon, you’re in the bear picture aisle, skimming the small selection in order to find the best one. Unfortunately, your family arrives.
“Hey, buyin’ that for Uncle Bob?” asks your brother.
“Yeah, what are you guys doing here?” you reply, uneasily pulling your chosen bear picture from the shelf.
“The same as you!” bellows your father, as he pulls the very same picture from the shelf.
“Dad, I already got that one. You should get a different one,” you say, as you examine the bear pictures to help your father find a good one.
You and your family quickly notice that the rest of the bear pictures are unsatisfactory and would leave a bear connoisseur like Uncle Bob wanting more. This leaves you, the shopper, with two options. You can either send Uncle Bob a subpar bear picture, or you can travel down the hill and give him something he deserves.
The new Smith’s Marketplace does a lot of things right, but if you’re in the position to get some bear pictures, it’s not the store for you.
