TJs Rocked the Groupon

The 11th hour before TJ's Groupon expired.

So I show up at TJ’s at 4:00 last Thursday—the last day of validity of the $50 Groupon that I had scored for $25 and had been taped to my fridge for several months—and the place was an absolute mob scene. Naturally. This is my penance for waiting until the 11th hour. Point taken. Luckily, I’m hardwired to not mind waiting. In this case (as in most) patience paid off, and I emerged an hour later with a mother lode of scallops, shrimp, and salmon. I just told co-owner Jon Alexis, who was working the counter like an ace, to package me up a $65 medley of whatever was left in the case.

As he meted out my order, he told me that they had sold $150,000 worth of Groupons on their one-day offering.  Great news for TJ’s, but not such good news for the 4-foot tall bubbie in front of me who had to stand in line for 40 minutes to pick up her passover gefilte fish, fish heads, and bones—and who didn’t seem to understand what all the hub-bub was about. But, to Jon’s credit, he was as adept at appeasing her as he was in telegraphing the fact that to the rest of us that everyone would have to wait their turn. No one skipped the line; no one got special treatment.

jump to continue reading… Continue reading "TJs Rocked the Groupon"