Ironically, I bought a Senseo coffee maker at Target this weekend. The whole time, I was thinking: "Couldn't this cart be larger and steer better?"

There may be a bit of the subversive in FranklinNOW's Alisha Fischer's blog posts. Check out her bullet points of "features" to look forward to at the new Target on Drexel and Hwy. 100:

• Large food market with assortment of prepackaged and frozen foods, beer, wine and liquor
• Large better steering model of shopping carts
  
• Sales and specialty brands
  
• Starbucks and Pizza Hut inside
• Attractive inside and outer decor with large parking lot (and a roundabout on drexel ave!)

Yippee.

Allow me to predict the content of one of the speeches at tomorrow's ribbon cutting:

And, ladies and gentlemen, let's recognize developer Mark Carstensen for his grand vision of Franklin, which treats us to a Target with a large food market with prepackaged and frozen foods, beer, wine and liquor - - um ... right next to a Sendik's grocery store. [Nervous coughs from crowd.]

[Recovering momentum] And let's not forget sales and specialty brands! [Pause for applause; instead we hear the buzz of insects at the nearby mosquito hatchery.]

[Louder] Sales and specialty brands, ladies and gentlemen! [Aside] Is this microphone working?

And, ah... a Starbucks and Pizza Hut right inside so we need not venture outside of the sheltering arms of the big box retail environment and risk patronizing local eateries and coffee shops! [Scattered clapping.]

Let's not forget attractive inside and outer decor with a large parking lot!

And sort-of a roundabout! [Some more nervous coughing.]

And, last but not least - - nothing but the best for Franklin! - - a large, better-steering model of shopping cart! [Finally the gathered throng erupts into applause.]

Comments

[Josh Strupp]

"large better steering model of shopping carts"

That would look AWESOME on a "welcome to Franklin, WI." sign on southbound Hwy100. Someone get working on this please.

[John Michlig]

We are truly blessed.

Who needs sidewalks?

[J. Gravelle]

The left bemoaning the opening of a new Starbucks?

Hopefully Target has built ample hitching posts to accommodate the Seven Horsemen, for surely this is a sign that the apocalypse is upon us...

-jjg
DailyScoff.com

[John Michlig]

It's often not the "what," but the "how" and "where" that matter.

You know - "nuance" and all that "leftist" stuff.

And, fear not, there is AMPLE-PLUS PARKING for cars and Apocalyptic Horsemen alike at the Target strip mall. But leave your bike at home

[Dave Reid]

From the picture I'm wondering if this Target has enough parking? haha It's ridiculous but big boxes plan there parking for something like 10 days a year where they might fill up. Otherwise the rest of the time just big parking lots.

[Liz Stone Abraham]

This all reminds me of the story line from Pixar's WALL-E. Not sure how the writers got it past Disney. (This is just the beginning of the movie, so it won't spoil it.) One giant superstore rules the world and produces so much garbage that humans have to be jettisoned into space for a 700-year supersized, automated luxury cruise while robots on Earth compress the garbage into little cubes and stack them up into garbage towers. On the space cruise, humans over the generations stop walking or moving or interacting directly with each other. They become almost boneless, brainless, and blob-shaped. When I came out of the movie, it was into a gigantic, two-thirds empty parking lot lined with big-box stores. I looked around and noticed that nearly everyone was obese. I shivered even though it was beastly hot. Very JG Ballard/Ray Bradbury. Very creepy.

[Greg]

As long as the stoplights function correctly as to not have the cars stop and go, stop and go on Hwy 100, I'm a happy camper... :-)

With regards to the carts, John, mother knows best when she says a bigger cart is always better.