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Socialist Grocery


A colorful comic in ten panels titled “Socialist Grocery” at the top depicts the aftermath of a power outage at the store on the coldest day of the year, with employees told to gather outside in the parking lot while they waited for the electric company to fix the problem.

Panel 1: Sebastian narrates, “So, on the busiest day of the year, January second, our power suddenly went out.” The scene shows the front of the socialist grocery with people milling outside. Panel 2: Sebastian continues, “We were instructed to stand in the freezing cold parking lot until PECO arrived. Which took many hours.” The scene shows a sign board with three signs taped to it: top sign-“Power’s out. Be back in 1 hour.” Middle sign-“Okay be back in 3 hours.” Bottom sign-“Okay maybe tomorrow.” Panel 3: The next scene shows a red-haired woman manager her arms open talking to the crowd of workers, whose heads you see from the back at the bottom of the frame. She is telling them, “But the good news is, if you have a car, you can go stay warm in your car! Go Ahead!” Panel 4: And in the next frame, when it’s clear that the 20-something workers have not moved an inch, she says, looking sheepish, “…Nobody owns a car?” Panel 5: Then, in the next scene, Sebastian raises a hand and says, “Wait, so what if PECO comes and says they can’t turn the power back on until tomorrow?” And the voice of the manager (not seen) says, “You’ll go inside and wipe shelves and spoil expired food!” Panel 6: Continuing on, the scene shows a worker face to face with the manager, asking the question, “So – go back to work with no light or heat?” Panel 7: And in the next panel, the manager says, “Uh – yes. Which might actually be legal!” Panel 8: She smiles and follows up with this: “Don’t worry – we’ve got your back. The managers got Dunkin.” The scene shows a person looking sheepish and carrying a box of Dunkin. Panel 9: “AND bagels from some other place!” Scene shows a person looking sheepish and carrying a box of bagels. Panel 10: A voice from an unseen worker shouts, “What? No pizza? We should have pizza!” Echoed by another worker, who says “Yeah, c’mon, no pizza?” In the scene, the manager who looks perplexed says, “…I thought we weren’t supposed to do that anymore…”

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