marius

Polenta, what you said about Walmart not being personalized or distinguished ... I think that is it, exactly! One way people here express that idea is by saying a place like Walmart "has no soul." And, come to think of it, plastic seems that way - no depth of character, no soul.

Just last night the spouse and I were watching a 1950's movie and there was a scene where the milkman showed up at people's homes, leaving bottles of milk. Both of us remember those days.

Everyone had a special "cooler" that was kept on the front porch and the milkman would simply leave the milk in the cooler. The milk came in glass bottles and the lid was a heavy paper. We LOVED those milk bottles, however when the milk was gone, you had to return the bottles to the cooler so the milkman could pick them up to get used again.

Many food items were packaged in glass back then and some of the glass jars were quite pretty. I have an old square jar my grandma gave me and I use it for flower arrangements: always get comliments on that jar! Also, jam and jelly jars were decorated and you would use them as juice glasses when the jelly or jam was gone. Still have a few juice glasses from those days and I use them almost daily. They are quite pretty.

polenta

Same happened here. I can still remember milk bottles with cardboard covers that could be taken out so easily. Times have changed sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.

Baldur

One of the stores that Baldur has gotten very fond of is IKEA. At first my impression was that everything there would be too modern for my taste but I was wrong.
That atmosphere is pleasant, if it were closer to my home I would go there just to have lunch in the cafeteria.
I love their kitchenware especially.

Dragon

IKEA is my absolute favortist (10 points for a great made up word) store ever. If we had one in Red Deer I would never been heard from again, unless, of course, you came to visit me there. I would be curled up in the 'Decorating in under 300 square feet' display watching a fake TV or perhaps enjoying a Poang chair. I'm sure I could live on their cafeteria's incredible $2 breakfasts and Lingenberry soda's.

mouse

Polenta
When I was younger (a long time ago), Pharmacies sold medicine & health related items, drug stores also sold these things but most of them also had a soda fountain & ice cream bar. Gradually over the years they kind of merged and began adding any number of items to be sold from magazines to food items to cameras.

mouse

Polents
a question. What is "white light" at McDonald's ? Here McDonald's is not self serve. You place your order, it is filled and placed on a tray if you are eating in or in a bag if it is "take out" . The food is not bad tasting . They have begun to add other items such as various salads But it is repetitious.

polenta

Mouse, the food at Mc Donald's is tasty but junk, empty calories. For me it's self-service because you don't have a waiter. You must stand in line, then take your tray yourself and the worst!!!!! they don't give you a good fork and knife.(All this at least here) Also there could be times when if it's very crowded, you can't get a table. Where can you eat? On the floor? But as I said before, it's tasty, not so expensive and they have standardized servings which is incredibly good!!!! All this happens here, it might be different elsewhere.
As for the white light, what I mean is they usually have those lights coming from "tubes" (sorry I don't know the name) and not light bulbs. For me the lights, the quality of the furniture, the self-service etc are an invitation to BUY, EAT and GO. Yes, it's an advantage , it's fast. And as I said before children are very fond of these places and they celebrate their birthdays there.

Dragon

I think polenta means flourescent lighting, and she's right, they're not very inviting.

polenta

http://blog.pucp.edu.pe/media/1926/20081205-Tubos_36_y_40_W.jpg

I hope this address works. Electric tubes like these. I've known them all my life. They give out a white, very uncomfortable light.

Dragon

Yep, those are flourescent lights.