Menards

I was picking up some parts and supplies at Menards in Richfield today when I heard the pianist on the second floor playing cheerful, apparently classical music.

It seems incongruous, at first blush, for a retail box store selling billions of items at the lowest price to common people, to hire a pianist to play live for us on Sunday afternoon. The store owner's clumsy attempt to be cultured and classy conflict with and grates against the plebeian  goods and services offered by Menards. That is my first reaction.

Then I reconsidered it. Why could not Menards lead the way for a new cultural trend in America?  They could advertise for local talents to come to the store two afternoons a week, to share what these individuators are up to. The entertainers could paint, write, philosophize, lecture on some subatomic particle that they have conceived to exist, or demonstrate how their latest invention works.

With venues for demonstrating their art and creativity with the public, our cultural life would be much enriched and strengthened. That would be a most positive change, and Menards could lead the way.