Lou Pickney's Online Commentary
Second Floor Store
Sunday
September 25, 2005
On Friday I went by the new Target on Dale Mabry (near I-275) for the very first time, and I have to say that it was an unusual experience. Why? Because, as a stand alone store, it was located on the second floor of the property on which it stood.
The concept might sound confusing, but the reason makes sense: real estate is at a premium at its location, which was the former home of a massive twin tower office building (which was connected at the top by a one-floor go-between that was located maybe 15 stories up in the sky). That structure was razed about a year and a half or so ago to make room for the new development, as if Dale Mabry needed more traffic. It made room for the Target, along with a Toys R Us and a Home Depot (the Home Depot has been invaluable for us at the new Bubba The Love Sponge studio location for buying paint, construction supplies, etc.)
There is sufficient parking for the Toys R Us (sorry, there's no backwards R on my keyboard) and the Home Depot, but the Target sits to the other side of where the traffic comes in from Dale Mabry (the Green River Road of Tampa, to put it in Evansville terms, which means that probably only Ryan Priest gets that reference). It's not just Target on that property; I think there's some pet superstore there as well, but I just went to the Target. Anyway, the first floor is all parking, then the second floor in some parking... and then the entrance to the Target. I know that my description is not quite clear, but you'll just have to roll with me on this one.
|  | I recommend the "Clean Linen" scented Lysol.
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The Target itself was very nice, with what you'd expect in a brand new store. Compared with the relatively dirty (and ALWAYS crowded) Wal-Mart across the street, I was impressed with what Target had to offer. Plus, I didn't feel like I needed to speak Spanish to be able to communicate with the help there. It's great that Wal-Mart has help that can speak Spanish, but the capacity for the staff to speak ENGLISH is important to me as a shopper.
One thing I found by chance at Target was a spray-can of Lysol that didn't have that notorious Lysol evil reek. Killing germs is great, but the putrid, lemon mixed with pepper spray effect of regular Lysol was never a favorite of mine. But the new stuff... that's good times.
I've been bitching all day to whomever will listen about how Bright House doesn't carry ESPN U, the relatively new channel from ESPN devoted to college sports. USF (South Florida), which is based right here in Tampa, upset #9 ranked Louisville on Saturday night in the Big East debut for both schools. The game was aired on, guess what, ESPN U. I e-mailed Bright House several weeks ago asking about ESPN U, but their response was that there wasn't enough demand for it. Not enough demand? This upcoming Saturday it's Miami vs. USF -- and that game, also, is on ESPN U. Let's see, no NFL Direct Ticket, no NFL Network (I understand with those since that's an NFL thing)... but no ESPN U? Hallmark, WE, BET Jazz, EWTN (Catholic), Lifetime Movies, FitTV, Style, CNBC: World, Disney Toones, Lifetime: Real Women (as opposed to the fake women on the regular Lifetime channel?), DIY (Do It Yourself), etc. all waste space on my digital cable, but they can't put ESPN U on there? That makes me want to switch to DirecTV. Now.
Of course, I'm sure there are those who don't like sports who feel the same way about, say, ESPN Classic, but that's too bad. If it were up to me, I'd have every Fox Sports Net in the country and jettison about half of the crap channels wasting bandwidth on the system right now. Why is that not possible? Have a sports lovers' cable package... I guess it makes too much sense.
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