Somerville, Massachusetts met news of a royal visit with outrage over reduced access to a local grocery store
Somerville residents were mostly worried it'd be hard to get to Market Basket during William and Kate's visit to the city
Aux Features Somerville
Following the death of Queen Elizabeth II, there was a brief moment in time when it seemed like everyone actually really did like the British royal family. Since then, King Charles being himself and the monarchy’s continued inability to hide its racism has helped put things back in perspective, helpfully reminding people around the globe that the monarchy is terrible.
Consider, for instance, that a royal visit to Somerville, Massachusetts was met by the city’s residents not with awed reverence and widespread excitement, but with outrage over how Prince William and Princess Kate’s stop would make traffic surrounding Market Basket, a local grocery store, a nightmare.
The Boston Globe’s Spencer Buell wrote on Wednesday evening that “not all Somerville residents are excited” about the couple’s visit. William and Kate were in the area to visit Greentown Labs, a climate-focused startup incubator, which is “just a few doors down” from Market Basket. This, along with accompanying road closures, “left locals fearful that traffic would be snarled on side streets and their beloved Market Basket would be inaccessible.”
Buell checked in on a Somerville Reddit to find residents commenting on news of the royal visit with stuff like, “Bunch of freeloaders. Get a real job!” and, “I have shit to do on Thursday. Can these fucking grifters just not?”
City Councilor Jefferson Thomas Scott was quoted as saying that “news of the visit—and the accompanying road closures—caught him off guard.” He tweeted that he wasn’t informed of the disruption “until I read it in the press,” and that he “didn’t invite these people” in the first place.
Despite this not-too-warm welcome, William and Kate appear to have emerged from the city—and a potential renewal of Revolutionary War hostilities—unscathed. They’ve now continued on their way, left Somerville of their own free will, and somehow avoided being thrown into the harbor in the process. That they were booed at a Celtics game seems, in comparison, like they got off lightly.
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27 Comments
It’s Market Basket.
Yes, Market Garden is…something very different.
British Invasion 2!
An Inbred Future King Too Far…
Jeeeeesus. Big “Wegners” energy.
I even have more respect for the kardashians than these fuckin people. At least the kardashians werent born into fame, they had to actually DO some stuff, get a tv show, etc.
Yes, having Robert Kardashian and Caitlyn Jenner as parents/stepparents played no role in their eventual success.
Its not the same, think about it a minute.
Yeah it mightve helped, but hey weren’t appointed that fame AT BIRTH. It wasnt supported BY THE GOVERNMENT.
Take it up with the Brits. I spent a year there and some of my friends refused to toast the queen but others had a real soft spot for the institution. Not my business.I will admit that between William (who grew up in the media’s glare and was forced to be a public symbol of his entire country grieving his mother’s early death AND, not for nothing, has gone bald with admirable dignity) and Kim (who rocketed to fame via a sex tape and now produces reality TV, skin care products, and tights) I have more of a soft spot for William.That said, I don’t know either of them personally, it’s likely that neither of them could imagine what the day-to-day of my life is like (and tbf vice versa) and I probably wouldn’t enjoy getting a beer with either of them.
“Can these fucking grifters just not?”I gotta get that tattooed somewhere.
That is incredibly on-brand for Slumerville.
Somerville: Where every 60+ year old townie owns a $2M triple decker
Why is this here? I get why it’s news in Boston (well not in Boston but nearby, no, not Tufts), but why here? The tweets shared have a few hundred likes and combined about a hundred retweets. The Reddit post has 47 comments after 3 days. Is there genuinely that little going on that this warrants a GJ,I?
“Is there genuinely that little going on that this warrants a GJ,I?”
Also, which part of this warrants a GJ, I at all?
J,I
I was actually about to say now this is how you do a pointless article. It doesn’t really have any relevance to most of us, but it was funny and not just a boring waste of space, so I was happy!Plus I too wish these fucking grifters would just not.
“Can these fucking grifters just not?”
Applicable to so many things, bravo!Also didn’t we fight a whole ass war so these British twits wouldn’t snarl up our traffic?**That may or may not be why we fought the War of 1812…I mean, I’m not a damn history teacher.
I used to live a few blocks from that Market Basket and you know what? It’s great. It’s affordable, there’s sawdust on the floor for some reason, and I like the vibe as much as I like any grocery store. That is to say it’s much better than the Royals who presumably have NO sawdust on their floors. I don’t know why his article is here, but it brings me delight. Somerville love, baby.
That store can be so busy I can see how it can be tough if you have to modify your plans to shop there. I went once on a Saturday and there were no parking spots and absolutely no grocery carts available.
Maybe this’ll be what brings down the Monarchy. Not a bloody revolution or an act of Parliament; just enough people speaking up “We just don’t want you gucking up our lives! Just go away! We got other better white asses to kiss.”
Them benign outraged is just so stupid. Like this entire community had weeks, probably MONTHS of notice this was going to happen. How hard is it to just go the day before, it’s not like it was some random unannounced visit.
I’m not disagreeing that the outrage is overblown, but it also wouldn’t surprise me if the exact itinerary was only set days or a couple weeks ahead of time. Even VIP visits that aren’t that exciting (congressional reps. or cabinet secretary visits, say) are tentative until the last minute and usually are too full so something often falls off the schedule or suddenly becomes 30 minutes instead of 90.
You could be right, though I would assume a foreign dignitary like prince William and Kate would be fully planned out ahead of time, in a similar way to a presidential visit would be. Unlike a congressional rep visit I would assume there would be much more security and the like for a foreign dignitary.
90% of people are completely incapable of planning anything more than a few minutes in advance. Thanksgiving comes around the same time every year, and every year the day before Thanksgiving everyone is in the grocery store frantically grabbing all the butter and sugar they can find.Here in the South, we’ll have a hurricane forecast to hit in two days, and instead of using some of the stuff all people who live in the path of hurricanes definitely always have prepared in case a hurricane comes through Hurricane Alley, they’re out mobbing the store for five loaves of bread and ten gallons of milk, a long term investment strategy for bartering in the post-apocalyptic future to come. If and when that hurricane misses, and another one is scheduled to hit a week later, they will throw everything out and line up to purchase everything all over again.
Your not wrong about people being horrid and planning in advance. But still even with a few days notice you still have time to get what you need. And it’s not like that was the ONLY grocery store in the area, even though it may be the favorite.
“That they were booed at a Celtics game…”I was saying Boo-Windsor.