Store Signs: Learning and Shopping fun

If you shop in our Allegany store, you probably have grown familiar with our many small signs that give historical information about various products.

I was asked this weekend why I put them up. Well, for starters I think they are fun. And shopping should be fun. Sure they are trivial, but who cares. I love history and I am sure some (many?) of you do as well. And even if the signs just add a little bit to your shopping experience, I am happy.

But more than that, I think the signs help to build interest in history. Which may help some student, or lead someone to read more about it. And as new research shows, if you do not use your brain, you will lose some of its ability. So you can think of shopping at Park and Shop as good for your mental health :)

Ok, off my soap-box...But I will start putting some of the signs in the blog. That way if you shop at our other stores (where the managers are a bit less interested in history ;) ) you can still see what Allegany is doing!

So here you go, a few examples of signs we now have hinging in the store:

By the salt
Salt played an important role in the US Civil War. By 1863 the Union had captured or cut off the Confederate deposits around the Chesapeake and Louisiana, and destroyed salt works in Florida, North Carolina, and Virginia. For the Union, their main salt production came from Syracuse and Michigan.
The People's Chronology, James Trager, p. 494

By Pineapple:
Did you know? George Washington liked pineapple! He first had it when he took his sick brother to Barbados. It quickly become one of his favorite fruits.

more soon...

:) jimmy