James's Weblog

(Note that this might not make much sense to anyone who hasn’t lived in New England.)

When I was growing up in Massachusetts, I used to hate going to Building #19 with my mom. Building #19 is a chain of stores in New England that sells heavily discounted items; it sells overstock, clearance items, damaged goods, and liquidated inventory from failed stores. It even sells food that’s a bit past the sell-by date. It basically sells a lot of junk, and you never really know what you’re going to find at any individual Building #19 store. It is not comparable to any stores I’ve seen in California. Dollar stores don’t come close.

I didn’t like it as a kid since it had few toys, if any (possibly that’s because Child World/Children’s Palace was still in business and in the area at the time), although they seem to have a somewhat better selection now. Over my past few visits to Massachusetts, though, I’ve developed a new appreciation for the stores. Each store is full of cartoons drawn by Mat Brown and Bill White (who even run a Building #19 cartooning class) utilizing a distinctive style of self-deprecating humor. I confess that I think the illustrated Building #19 advertisements influenced me (particularly the lettering style).

I was at one today, and an announcement over the PA system interrupted the store music with the message:

Building #19: Where else can you get a free cup of coffee? If you find a freer cup of coffee anywhere in New England, we’ll reward you with a second cup and immediately lower our price.