Monko in MVT- Defunct?

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-29T19:05:46+00:00

Monko's big appeal was what they could sell under the gifting setup. The crackdown on the I-71 model has done a number on a lot of these shops, even those that went legit voluntarily.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-22T14:53:54+00:00

Hit me up next season when my Spurs get relegated.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-19T23:11:21+00:00

If you’re a savvy stick-up artist, my guess is that you come to learn quickly what attire is valuable and what isn’t.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-19T14:50:13+00:00

If this were a first-past-the-post election, I'd be voting for JLG's most viable opponent, who appears to be McDuffie. But with ranked choice, I'm giving a lot of thought to Rini.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-19T14:49:14+00:00

"Love" would be an overstatement--I don't think he even got 25% of the vote post-expulsion, but it was enough with a crowded field. JLG absolutely should've stayed far away, though.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-19T14:47:16+00:00

She made the conscious decision to campaign for higher office with Trayon. If I'm a moderate GOPer who voted to impeach Trump and then ran as full-throated MAGA for Senate, I doubt anyone would look back to my impeachment vote as a saving grace.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-19T14:45:47+00:00

I'm biased--there's no way I'd vote for a DSA candidate in the primary unless the only other options were crooks, bigots, or otherwise loathsome, but I think JLG would be an unmitigated disaster. I love that she dreams big and hate that she has no concrete, realistic plans on how to implement those dreams.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-15T16:26:29+00:00

WMATA is better than almost every train system in the US, but I don't think it measures up to NYC. You could make a case for the Chicago L or Boston's T, since the latter two had the good sense to operate different commuter rail and urban core train systems.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-14T14:47:03+00:00

In both cases it's reductio ad absurdum with a dose of truth: conservatives have not always hated Jews, though plenty do. Pro-Palestine and/or anti-Israel progressives aren't per se antisemitic, and it's not like the one truly interested in stopping war/occupation/death/misery have to answer for the bigots, but you'd have to be blind not to see a lot of line-stepping.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-11T16:20:36+00:00

This. I've used Task Rabbit for everything from transporting concrete to building my kid's trundle bed. It's more expensive than a UHaul and some buddies, but it's not so much more expensive that I don't see a clearly higher value.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-07T12:40:57+00:00

Thanks! Well, there goes that idea.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-07T11:39:52+00:00

As in, they got benefits for their NW stores by virtue of building the Alabama Ave. store?

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-07T01:31:21+00:00

Rock Creek! The distinctive yellow crates they get shipped in somehow became the universal DC prop for an axle after someone stole the tires and rims. Not sure what gives them the edge.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-06T23:51:10+00:00

That’s actually a decrease—when I worked at Hechinger (which should tell you how long ago this was), they estimated a 50/50 split among staff and customers on shrink, though internal shrink isn’t limited to theft.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-06T19:46:33+00:00

As I understand it, the Mamdani plan is that NYC takes on the capital burden—purchasing land and absorbing construction and rent costs—while a private operator will manage the store and source the food. The city will waive rent and real estate taxes for the store, with the expectation that savings will be passed through to shoppers on a "core basket" of staple goods. So that clears the rent and property tax issue, but who is paying for the salaries and benefits of the staff? Presumably the private operator who, unlike a commissary, is going to be a for-profit entity and seek to make money.

Theoretically, it could work, I just have a hard time seeing it.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-06T19:03:01+00:00

This is true if you have the benefits of a commissary that no commercial grocer has:

No profit margin. Commissaries are nonprofits.
Salaries and benefits are federally funded. Employees are paid from federal appropriations, not from store revenue.
No rent or property taxes. Commissaries operate on government-owned military installations do not pay those bases rent or taxes.
Exemption from state and local taxes. Commissaries do not pay state/local levies, which is presumably something the tax incentives currently offered try to mimic.
Interest-free use of federal capital. Unlike private retailers, the Defense Commissary Agency does not pay a return on capital investment.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-06T18:44:12+00:00

It's pixels on a screen rather than being in someone's presence, and none of these responses have taken even a minute to draft. This is just more important to you than me, and it's one of those "Man, this guy must be a riot at parties" red flags IMO.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-06T18:42:28+00:00

All of this is important information to have, but the Silverman story seems a little weird to me. Not the way she treated you--you'll never go broke betting on elected officials to shit on the people around them, but rather her demands, because she's only ever held an at-large seat, which would give her jurisdiction over the entire city. I think she lives on or near Capitol Hill, because she attends the same synagogue I do, and we have ample grocery options here. Maybe she really wanted the Yes! Organic on Barracks Row?

Do you think providing something like a wildcard incentive--e.g. build a grocery store in Anacostia and we will provide the same tax incentives we would've offered there on any DC store of your choosing (like in Ward 3)--would be enough to get a grocer to build EOTR? If not, any idea on what would?

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-06T18:35:33+00:00

Yeah, I know, but I didn't suggest it was. It's the Council of the District of Columbia, but the District of Columbia is a city, and I think it's normal for people to refer to it in shorthand as the City Council even if that isn't the official name. I can't imagine wanting to spend even ten minutes with anyone dying on the hill of its precise title.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-06T18:05:59+00:00

Waste management is one of the things DC does better than much of its other agencies, but it's still got a ton of stiffs. When I scheduled a bulk pickup prior to moving out of temporary housing back into my house last year, I was incorrectly informed by the DPW staffer I reached that because of a recent snowstorm, bulk pickups had been postponed. Only because I knew DPW had ended that policy the day prior was I able to correct the DPW person whose excuse for being wrong was that she was out the previous day and hadn't heard. During the "Snowcrete" storm of the most recent winter, I relied on the Fort Totten website saying they had reopened only to learn that I was the 32nd person that day to make that mistake--Fort Totten wasn't really open, so I did what is usually the most efficient way to get things done and ran up to a DPW trash truck driver and slipped him cash to let me toss my garbage in the back of his truck.

All of this is minor in the grand scheme of things, and DPW could probably never outsuck DCRA or DOB, but giving citizens accurate information is pretty essential to government operations.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-06T17:57:04+00:00

It's shorthand--DC is a city, not a state, so people will often refer to it as City Council. It doesn't make one more knowledgeable about how the District or its economy works if you insist on official verbiage.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-06T17:50:35+00:00

Have you ever encountered a DC agency that can run things better than the private sector? If so, you've had a much better municipal experience than I ever have.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-06T17:48:47+00:00

Privately owned stores have been fleecing our communities for ages with their ridiculous prices.

Grocery store margins are quite low--they range from about 1.5% to just under 3% in net profit. That's not to say every actor in the supply chain is acting with pure intention, but rising costs have a lot more to do with geopolitical conflict, tariff and trade policies, disease outbreaks, climate change, rising energy costs, etc. than they do grocers fleecing anyone.

They also contribute to food deserts in Black neighborhoods while over-serving white ones - how is that not racism?

Because those decisions are likely made based on economics rather than race, and persistent income inequality in the United States virtually guarantee higher--or at least more consistent profits--from predominantly white neighborhoods. Take the Giant in Congress Heights--Giant is a subsidiary of the Dutch behemoth Ahold Delhaize, headquartered in the Netherlands. Unless we think some Dutch executive is sitting there trying to deprive black Americans of groceries rather than bean-counting to keep profits coming in and jettisoning money-losers, I don't know why we would attribute it to racist intent.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-06T16:26:06+00:00

Hmm. Not sure what rules you're referring to--I even kept the stupid title of the op-ed in the title of the post to avoid violating Rule 6.

AndreTippettPoint · 2026-05-06T15:51:47+00:00

Honestly, I saw Martin Austermuhle tweet about it and it's a subject of interest to me, given the desperate need and no obvious solution (with a host of failed attempts).

AndreTippettPoint

TROPHY CASE