This just in: a photo sent by friend and former Idiots’Books intern Tilly.
Tilly now lives in Portland, and so I’m guessing this shot was taken while gazing at some storefront way out west.
I don’t know the specifics, but I’m happier not to. There’s something so poignant about this photo just as it is. It says so much about us.
First off, we are scrappy, industrious. Why merely discard your heap of broken cookies when you can sweep them into a plastic bag and sell them as a product?
But we are also forthright and straightforward about our intentions. We create clear signage that clearly explains the facts on hands. These cookies are available, but they are not intact.
We are shrewd consumers, always on the lookout for a deal. Broken cookies may not be quite as pleasing as their non-broken brethren, but they taste the same, right? They can still be chewed and swallowed. As long as they are not excessively stale. At this point we notice that the label says nothing about when the cookies were broken and how fresh (or not) they might now be.
We like to have options: scanning further to the right, I see that a smaller-sized option is available to those who might be interested in some broken cookies but not quite interested enough to fork out a full $2.50. Though some of us might see this lesser bag as half full, I tend to think of it as half empty.
And finally, looking past the cookies for a moment (I realize it’s hard to do), the rest of the store seems to be completely empty. A gloomy warehouse of no plenty. As if the apocalypse has come, the other consumables have all been carted off by the eager mobs, and nothing remains but these two bags of cookies, rejected by even the hungriest survivors on account of their being broken.
It was a bold move, creating this particular product. I would like to see the accompanying marketing blitz. Billboards? 30-second TV spots? A Facebook page?
Tilly, let us know if there is more to this story? Or don’t. I’m sure it could never compete with the story in my head.
LOVE THIS!!!!
(Hi Tilly!)
(Hi Jenifer!)
Matthew,
First of all, I’m honored that my photo made it as your photo-of-the-day and was inspiring enough to incite some writing about the meaning of life.
I had stepped off the bus on Foster Avenue, headed east, to pop into an Asian food market. When finished there, I decided to walk the rest of the way to my destination rather than catch another bus. There was too much to observe on foot to get back onto the bus.
It was an odd store indeed and did seem quite empty. I don’t remember much about it though. I was just walking on my way and briefly paused to take the photo.
Now I’m curious to go back and see what other unlikely things they have for sale. And I wonder if anyone has bought the bag of broken fortune cookies yet. If I bought it, I’d want to keep the sign as well.
Can the sign be telling us that we’re buying broken fortunes? If I’d diagrammed more sentences when I young, I’d probably know for sure. But because I was terrible at grammar, I’m going to pretend it’s the fortunes. In my mind, they’re clearly broken, but they still make a kind of sense . . .
Your lucky numbers are b, sigma, and blue.
Tomorrow night, you will
You will live a long
This photo takes me back to our time in Seattle! We used to buy these discount bags of what we called “unfortunate cookies” all the time for snacks at school. There are very popular in the NW, in my experience. Love it!