#grocer

An Italian grocer at the First Avenue market at 10th Street, January 1943.

Sunday Shopping

It was the start of a new weekly cycle, which meant that it was time for SERVE-107 to visit its local grocery outlet to scavenge for nutrition for the following weekly cycle. Seeking to proceed in a cut, SERVE-107 scanned the produce aisle, attempting to find optimal specimens of vegetables to help it achieve its physique goals.

Filling its cart up with a selection of veggies, 107 ran into SERVE-733, perusing selections of beef products, its goal: preserving and enhancing its muscle mass through natural means. 107 smiled at 733 as it continued on — no need for wasting words, when both drones instinctively knew all that another drone felt and thought, even at the grocery store.

Elsewhere, the hulking forms of SERVE-690 and 333 traded glances as both sought to procure muscle milk, to help grow and preserve their massive frames. It was an optimal start to a new weekly cycle; all drones were One in their pursuit of optimal nutrition. It was a good day at the grocery store.

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This piece features @serve-733 , @serve-690 , and @serve-333 .

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On October 2nd 1931 Sir Thomas Lipton, grocer, tea merchant died.

Say the name Lipton, and most people nowadays think of tea, although some of usthat are a certain age will recall the supermarkets. But behind that brand lies the extraordinary story of a rags-to-riches tycoon, self-publicist, philanthropist and sportsman who was honoured as "the world's best loser".

While his father worked in a succession of poorly paid jobs, young Tommy Lipton’s siblings all died in infancy, leaving him as the family’s only son.

Tommy had to leave school aged 13, because his parents needed an extra income to make ends meet. He also attended night school at the Gorbals Youth School. In 1864, he signed up as a cabin boy on a steamer running between Glasgow and Belfast and seems to have been taken with crew-members’ stories about the United States, so in 1865, Thomas used his savings to pay for a passage to New York spending the next five years there travelling across the country.

During this time he held many different jobs, including work at a tobacco plantation in Virginia; as an accountant at a rice plantation in South Carolina; as a door-to-door salesman in New Orleans; as a farmhand in New Jersey; and as a grocery assistant in New York.

Thomas returned to Glasgow in 1870. After spending some time helping his parents at their shop, he established one of his own, Lipton’s Market, at 101 Stobcross Street in the Anderston area of the city. This proved highly successful and Lipton went on to establish a chain of shops, first in Glasgow and then across Scotland, before expanding to cover the whole of the UK over the next ten years.

Meanwhile, the demand for tea was increasing among the middle classes and in 1888, by which time Lipton had 300 stores, he set out to bypass the traditional lines of supply for tea by investing directly in tea plantations. The Lipton Tea brand he established offered good quality for low prices and proved hugely popular, expanding the market for tea to all parts of society and establishing it as the national drink of choice.

Lipton was a big fan of promotional stunts. When his first 20,000 tea chests arrived in Glasgow he put on a party, complete with a brass band and bagpipe parade. In 1893 Sir Thomas Lipton officially established the Thomas J Lipton Company, a tea packaging company based in Hoboken, New Jersey . He felt that tea should be a drink for everyone, not just the wealthy , so he strived to make packaging and shipping less expensive.

Instead of arriving in crates, Sir Thomas packaged his loose tea in multiple weight options. The tea was also standardised, so Lipton customers knew exactly what to expect.

Thomas Lipton developed a passion for yachting, between 1899 and 1930 Lipton challenged the American holders of the America’s Cup through the Royal Ulster Yacht Club five times with yachts he named Shamrock through Shamrock V. He never won the cup, but he was awarded a special trophy as “the best of all losers”. This may sound double-edged, but one effect of his efforts to win the cup was to make his name well known across the United States, and his tea very popular there.

Although Lipton, through his yachting, became a friend of royalty, as a self-made man he still had difficulty breaking into some corners of the highly stratified British society of the day. He was, for example, only accepted as a member of the Royal Yacht Squadron shortly before his death.

Lipton died at his home in north London in 1931. He left most of his wealth to his native city of Glasgow. His yachting trophies are now on display at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum. Sir Thomas Lipton was buried alongside his parents and siblings in Glasgow’s Southern Necropolis.