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Luke's Local Blog
Four Blocks from Paradise
This August, Dead & Company are playing Golden Gate Park, four blocks from our Inner Sunset store on 9th Avenue.
The same music that shaped my understanding of joy, community, and what it means to be present will be echoing through the neighborhood where we've built our newest store. The same songs I learned on my brothers' bedroom floor, the same recordings I obsessed over as a teenager, the same tape that was playing when Charlie and I took our first ride in the Tacoma. Everything comes full circle in the place where we're trying to prove that grocery stores can still be neighborhood cornerstones.
Why My Truck Only Plays Tapes
The tape wall in our 9th Avenue store exists because we've been struggling to find the right balance of structure and freedom with our music selection. We never wanted one set playlist, but with four stores, having no guidelines turned what should be an enjoyable part of the job into a source of conflict. Who gets to choose? What happens when someone complains?
The answer came from an unexpected place: a recent purchase of a 2004 Tacoma with the original tape deck still working.
