Belle Foods & Chapter 11

It was ten o'clock at night. Cars drove around the parking lot looking for a place near the Food World door. None was available.

When was this? Around 1980. So what happened? Mainly Walmart--the local consumer can purchase groceries, pet vitamins, and a new lever for the toilet all in the same place. What's not to like? Actually, our friend O.B. and some others can tell us plenty that's not to like, but for many consumers, it's a way to save money and time in one quick shopping trip.

Did Belle Foods know what it was getting into when it purchased the once famous Bruno chain that included local Food World markets? Apparently not. While Chapter 11 is designed to let a company reorganize as it pays off debts, it appears there are already offers coming in for the Belle Food stores in south Alabama. Here in the Shoals? None that we're aware of.

Does this bode well for Foodlands, Big Stars, or similar markets? So far, most of these smaller stores have managed to hang in there, but the past few years have seen a decline in the offerings at Foodland bakeries and in their meat department.

It seems it may be an Aldi, Walmart, and Publix world--none of them local or even from Alabama. To those inclined to lament these changes, perhaps you could type out a list of remedies using your Word Perfect or Lotus 123 software?

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A nine year-old child died yesterday. She was a passenger in a truck driven by a 16 year-old. Not only was this child not buckled in as required by Alabama law, she was sitting in the lap of a passenger who, along with the driver, survived.

We're often asked to give our opinion on such deaths, probably because we've previously criticized parents who let young children either operate or ride on four-wheelers. The nine-year old had no idea of the danger she was in. The 16 year-old should have known the law, but obviously didn't care. He should now care and be reading his insurance policy very carefully. We can tell him right now it won't pay for even half of what the child's parents will sue for.

Parents, why let your child put himself/herself in such a position? You don't have to answer--we already know your response.

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Apparently, the murder of Jessica Broadfoot wasn't Homajean Grisham III's first violent rodeo:

Grisham on Probation

Shoalanda

D.K. Is Happy Tonight!

Our fellow blog member D.K. is extremely happy tonight after Bama's super win over Notre Dame. Our facetious comment of yesterday was taken the wrong way by some--No, none of us here was rooting for the Irish.

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Is Goody's coming to the Sav-A-Lot Shopping Center in Muscle Shoals? If Pounders Realty has its way, the middle-of-the-road department store will be joining its sister store in the town's core shopping area.

Besides Burke's Discount, the company owns Beall's and Peeble's Department Stores. There's currently one Goody's in Russellville, and three Burke's in the area. Their gift cards are welcome at any of their stores, making for a great retail experience. Here's hoping Muscle Shoals gets this plum.

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Speaking of retail, how's Publix doing? We hear their main draw is the weekly buy-one-get-one-free offers. When making your shopping list, don't forget Belle Foods; the Alabama owned chain seems to get better each week.

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Know what this is?

According to this eBay listing, it's an illegal gambling chip from an establishment run by Pride and Dewitt Dawson. If you find it interesting, it can be yours for only 9.95.



Shoalanda

Childcare at Florence Blvd. Belle Foods/More E-Mail

I saw your recent Blog about Belle Foods and certainly appreciate all the press we can get. While we are an Alabama company, we do not have the big budgets of a Publix to flood the airways about who we are. I noticed in your blog, that you were uncertain if any of the Shoals stores would be getting a Belle Jr. Childcare area. I wanted to let you know that the Florence store on Florence Blvd in fact did receive a Belle Jr.

If you ever have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at your convenience.

Thanks so much!

Paul McLaughlin

Advertising and Public Relations Coordinator

800 Lakeshore Parkway

Birmingham, AL. 35211

SS: We're hearing nothing but great things about Belle Foods in the area. We're especially glad to know child care is available. We wish you great luck in bringing quality foods to the Shoals.

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Please don't use my name. I have a young friend who works at a Shoals plant that has something like 40 work release from Decatur, and maybe some from Hamilton. One of the Decatur prisoners offered my friend 15 cc's of morphine for 8.00. My friend just laughed, but how's the best way to report this?

SS: First I would look at it logically. Where would a man in work release get morphine? I'm pretty sure we can rule out prison medical facilities since there are none at Decatur, and even in Hamilton we would doubt any serious narcotics are present. When a prisoner in Hamilton becomes that ill, he's paroled to family, as we understand it.

Of course, the prisoner could have purchased it...somewhere. We're pretty sure he would have paid more than 8.00. We checked the street value for 15 cc's of morphine and are disturbed at what we found. We're going to guess what the man had for sale was 15 mg. of morphine in tablet form. They seem to sell in large cities for 7.00 a pop.

If the man has only one for sale, just be glad he didn't have more...and just hope none of them is drugged up on the job and endangering your friend and others. We understand drug tests are given monthly and randomly at work release, so I would not be too concerned. If you want to report this incident (or if any readers want to report this), here's the contact info:

Alabama Department of Corrections Contacts

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We're going to add some opinion to the the above e-mail question. If you randomly picked 40 individuals off the street, odds are you would find at least one who, if not dealing in illicit drugs, is engaging in some sort of illicit activity. For those who oppose work release at any level, this is a prime example that such employees are no worse than those pulled from a free world job pool and are often much better. 



Shoalanda

Belle Foods: Competition for Publix?

Many Shoals residents can't wait for Publix to open its doors to the promised land of fresh and exotic groceries, but newcomer Belle Foods is determined to make a dent in their market. Between Halloween and Thanksgiving, three local markets will be rebranded Belle Foods. Belle purchased the parent company of Bruno's, Southern Market, Food World, and Piggly Wiggly (select franchises).

Expect to see Florence and Muscle Shoals Food Worlds not only turn purple and green, Belle's trademark colors, but to completely overhaul the limited selections the chain had come to be known for the past few years. Some Belle stores even furnish a staffed nursery where mothers can drop their little ones while they shop; no word yet on the availability of that option in the Shoals. We hope Belle Foods lives up to its press--certainly many of us don't look forward to a weekly trek onto the parkway and its ubiquitous traffic signals just to purchase groceries.

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Two sets of rumors, but no one seems to know even who's on first. There are apparently no plans for Halloween festivities at the Weeden Home this year. We will revert to calling Sweetwater Plantation, or what's left of it, by its common name since owner Susan Leigh Smithson has completely disbanded the committee that had been in charge of these events for the past two years. Readers have asked if there are pending lawsuits. While there may be, we have found no record of any filed in Lauderdale County. If any readers have updates, please send them our way.

A second set of questions concerns the shooting of Jesse Rainey at Crooked Oak. We're sure rumors abound for many reasons; it seems no two news sources are reporting the same facts in the case. Even the number of youths present (8 or 9) at the unsupervised house party is in question. We have a contact in the Colbert County Sheriff's office and will post an update as soon as we can verify some of the information we've received.

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Shoalanda