Jitney Jungle may be gone today but it is still fondly remembered by many. Recollection Road produced a splendid little video about Mississippi's favorite grocery store that brings back the memories. Enjoy the trip down memory lane.
What a bit of nostalgia. My favorite story involves Mr. Holman going undercover. He loved to visit his stores on Saturday afternoons when they were at their busiest in shorts, t-shirt, hat, and sunglasses just to see how things were going. Mr. Holman was well aware of how the store managers would keep tabs on upper management's whereabouts so he would do things like inspect the 24-hour stores at 5 AM just to see what kind of shape they were really in. Heaven help the poor store manager who walked in the door at 6:30 only to find Mr. Holman waiting on him. If you came in around lunchtime and saw nothing but assholes and elbows moving, you knew Mr Holman paid one of his early-morning visits to the store.
While poor service may define grocery stores today, Jitney Jungle believed in training and customer service before there was a Chick-Fil-A. Cashiers spent a week in training at the main office with Ms. Fox. She was the typical grandmotherly Southern belle: a bulldozer disguised as a powder puff. Once they graduated to their store, they had to watch a cashier for another day and then operate the cash register with the front-end manager watching over their shoulder during the entire shift before they were turned loose on the customers.
Ms. Fox drilled into the cashiers the Jitney way: Greet the customer, ask her if she found everything she needed, and count her change back to her. Ms. Fox visited the stores to "audit" the cashiers. She graded the cashiers using her little checklist of do's and don'ts. The audit also included interviewing five customers immediately after you checked them out. She was fair but make no mistake, there was no pencil-whipping on her clipboard. It was a far cry from grocery stores today where poorly-trained cashiers barely speak to the customers, when they speak at all.
As the video shows, all good things come to an end and so did Jitney Jungle. The entire culture changed once the bankers took over as it often does when such things happen. Winn Dixie was simply the nail in the coffin. Thanks to Recollection Road for a walk down memory lane.
39 comments:
My first job was stocking shelves and bagging groceries at a JJ. This was back in the day before scanners when the cashiers had to ring up each item manually, so checkout and bagging was a 2-person operation. Furthermore, customers, especially women folk and elderly, were not expected to push a grocery buggy full of groceries to the car by themselves. The bag boy pushed the buggy to the car and transferred the groceries to the car.
And we had those big brown paper bags that, we later learned, were bad for the environment because they were made from trees. We had to use plastic bags henceforth. We later learned that plastic was bad because it didn't bio-degrade.
We had a jitney in Richland which is now a medical mall. I remember picking out a movie to rent while my mom grocery shopped. I also remember her taking us children to county market in Pearl often because she said their groceries were cheaper. Ahhhhhhh the 80s and early 90s!
Been watching his videos for a year or more. Really enjoy them. He puts a lot of research in them and does a great job. Was shocked when the Jitney video popped up on YouTube the other day since we shopped Jitney back in the day.
Old farts reminiscing......
@ 11:12
simpler times
Kingfish, what I’m about to tell you is true: Nobody cares.
I remember being a very small girl, tagging behind my mom in the Jitney parking lot (yes, escorted by a lovely bag boy pushing our cart). I had just learned to read, and there was a sign that said “No tipping!” I thought it was to warn the bag boys not to tip the cart over, and I wondered why that was even necessary…like, why would they dump our groceries onto the pavement? Years later, I realized that the store had a policiy against tipping the helpers, for whatever reason.
@11:23
Then why did you click on the story? You cared enough to click on the story and comment. If you are lucky enough to live long enough, there will be things about your childhood or early adulthood that you enjoy seeing again - even though the young ones will mock you; just as you are doing now.
I worked at Jitney #47 at the Rez. Mr Hollman lived down the road and would always come in. Our manager was Mr. Nash. He would ride over to Kroger and pick up stuff for customers that Jitney didn't stock so they wouldn't have to drive. We had to take everybody's groceries out to their car no matter what.
To answer 11:23....I CARE!!! Many of us, especially those of us who grew up on Belhaven with Jitney 14 as an integral part of our lives, appreciate Kingfish allowing us to reminisce about the times when life was more simple and genuine. We could use more of these reminders to encourage us to emulate those days in these times of chaos and confusion!!
These kids are supposed to know computers better than us dumb boomers, but they don't seem to know they are not forced to read this blog. Odd.
Kingfish, what I’m about to tell you is true: Nobody cares.
What a tacky thing to say.
@12:00
OK boomer
Why do you and gen X types worship shopping as if consumerism were a religion?
Yes all young people know that you sold the future so you could buy foreign made crap on credit at shopping malls!
Explain how the future was sold, grasshopper. You're probably pissed off your old man spent your inheritance. Get your lazy ass up and make your own way.
@ 12:12
I am not exactly sure what “gen” I fall in as I am 40, but I can tell you this….. boomers worked way harder and were much more humble than you little lazy, entitled pricks.
And that “consumerism” you look upon with scorn…..that’s what WE CALL enjoying the things you worked your ass off for. “Keepin it 100” you socialist douche
@ 12:40 You made my day. I was going to say a similar thing but you saved me the time and said it better that i would have.
I would like to second the douche calling to 12:12 He is likely in his moms basement wondering why he has nothing.
I often see that “good life” piled up for sale when I visit your homes during estate sales while your wives are selling your mountains of crap to pay the bills because you didn’t quite save enough to survive and support her past 70.
Who has a basement in Mississippi? Stupid boomers.
Just like I said, your old man spent your inheritance.
@ 1:20
As opposed to the “good life” you imagine? Where we all have “less” and we work to support your useless ass while you get a degree in Russian history ? Listen carefully to me, we earned it, what we do with our money is our business. Once we all die you can sit around in your man bun playing a ukulele in “eutopia” but until then
Get bent
From the 40 and over crowd who work for a living
Special thanks to KF for this video.
Nothing wrong with a little history lesson.
I used to live in Belhaven. Eudora Welty ran over my foot one day with her shopping cart in the Jitney 14. Hurt like heck. Another day, I watched her back her car into someone else's car, she was very upset, and I walked with her into the store to talk to the manager about it. I had just eaten a wonderful hamburger for lunch at the drugstore next door to the Jitney and was walking to my car with my chocolate shake when she creamed the other car.
So, yeah, I have some good memories of Jitney Jungle.
I don't feed trolls like 11:12.
His mommy is already heating up his Bagel Bites anyway.
Enjoyed this.
Don't get me wrong, I like Kroger, but there was just something more comforting about shopping at Jitney, Food Center, and Premier. Kroger is OK but it really feels corporate at times. Jitney (Old Canton) and Food Center (I-55) were like explorations.
Jitney Store 72 parking lot was a hang out for all them dumb ass redneck want-a-be students from Madison Central High School.
If Jackson could’ve skipped the 3rd generation of lucky sperm, it’d be thriving. They dismantled everything
I miss Jitney Premier to this day. If JP was still around I would never step foot in a Kroger or (GOD HELP US) a "Super" Wal-Mart.
I loved Jitney Jungle.
I was really sad when the "Super Jitney" on Old Canton Road closed.
Kroger is very nice, but still not the same.
Winn Dixie was a nightmare (behind the scenes). I can say that as I worked there for a while in High School.
"So, yeah, I have some good memories of Jitney Jungle".
Yeah 1:56, all of us that remember (the Jitney) have the same
great memories.
I also have fond memories of the Sunflower Grocery stores.
BTW, Recollection Road is a great channel.
@11:59AM
In the future, whenever you address me, lower your voice. You care on a blog. Try caring in real life. Furthermore, if you believe life was simpler and whatever else you typed then I don’t know what to tell you. Racism, bigotry, poverty, crime, crooked cops, corrupt politicians, drugs, sex offenders and other ills of society existed now and THEN. The fact that you overlook these truth proves that you don’t care.
Lastly, just because you could walk into a ran-down grocery chain in Belhaven hardly changes the fact.
@12:12PM
Stop feeding the trolls, troll.
Thanks for posting.
Yes, better times from a shopping customer experience to a community impact.
Thanks for sharing . I appreciate seeing something that reminds me of pleasant memories from my past. Yep—I’m a boomer that still has his JJ name badge in my collection of degrees, badges, and framed honorable discharge. Working with the public at an early age gave me a great foundation in life lessons. The worst experience was when minimum wage laws were passed and tipping almost stopped except for a few loyal customer who appreciated the extra service. They never got their bread squashed .
I am always puzzled when “Boomers” are so viciously attacked by the later generations. Does it not occur to you numbskulls that not one single baby born between 1946 and 1964 ASKED to be born? We arrived in total innocence, utterly ignorant of the fact that there were going to be way too many of us. If you want to blame someone for the resultant problems, why not direct your ire towards the real culprits: the Boomers’ parents, who knew exactly what they were doing? Most of that generation is dead now, so rail away at ‘em. They won’t hear you.
@ 9:09
These people have been brainwashed to believe that acquiring wealth is somehow selfish and evil. It is embedded in every message they hear. They use buzzwords like “uneducated” to describe people that think differently than they do, because they don’t posses the confidence or competence to rise above group think. I am pretty “educated” in the traditional sense, and in that journey I took a couple of economics classes and I feel sorry for these kids and the world that they are creating. I read once that politics are so important now because the government has too much power. At least you want to be “ruled” by your team. These kids are more than happy to live that way!
As an employer, our country has lost its edge. Everyone could learn from how this company operated. My parents started their construction company in the ‘50’s when there were willing people to work. Try that shit now! Nine out of 10 of my employees come from dysfunctional families whose parents did drugs while they were procreating and had a bunch of mentally strained kids who can’t become productive members of society. Good Lord! I busted out in my trade under my Dad in 1983 right out of high school and I promise you cannot find a young person who can keep up with me. We need a change. I hate to say it but we need people on the edge of starvation in order to turn this nation around to where we were in this video….but where oh where would these kiddies get their drugs? I say it’s time for a major change. There are haves and have nots….then ther should those who can and those who cannot! You don’t work! You don’t eat!!! Now, from a baby boomer, if you little youngsters can hang with me all day, you win but most of you little boys have a vagina!
I, like most readers here, shopped Jitney in various towns. I also miss the Sunflower stores in the Delta.
Can you imagine Mr. Holman stationing a high-school dropout at the front door, yacking on her phone, demanding to see your receipt as you departed?
I always thought the name Jitney Junble came from calling the shopping cart/buggy/basket a "jitney" and pushing your jitney up and down aisles was like being in a food jungle - LOL
Poor service that you mentioned reminds me of the Byram Kroger. What a worthless group running that sh!tshow.
I don't find the Byram Kroger different from any other Kroger, and they have really nice baggers who help me take the groceries to my car. I always tip them $5 for helping me. I'm on a first name basis with the produce manager and I always look at the manager's meat specials (I call it the "used meat" department) before I look at the other meats. I'm old and fill up two carts on my once-a-month shopping expeditions so it's a lot of groceries at one time.
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