What can I say about Ocean State Job Lot that I didn’t say before? Probably not much, but maybe it bears repeating. Like many other bargain stores, you can find decent products that have been marked down because of minor manufacturing flaws, merchant’s overstock, inventory liquidation sales, etc., etc. You don’t always see the same stuff twice there, but for many of the products – especially foodstuffs – you can count on finding them there. It’s not a place where you’ll find better home products than at Home Depot, you’re not likely to find Uggs bopots there either. But food? Food they got.

Recent Ocean State Job Lot news includes a new store opening in Orange, Connecticut. Since the store has 96 or so stores throughout the Northeast, I know many of them are not actually in The Ocean State, which use to bother me until I realized you couldn’t fit 96 stores into Rhode island, not unless you moved all the people to Massachusetts and Connecticut anyway. And these days, almost any store opening is a positive economic sign, even if it’s a store associated with people looking to economize on food and household items… ie; the poor.

No wonder then that there’s resistance up in Somerville, MA. A projected Ocean State Job Lot is trying to set up shop on Winter Hill and is finding many people who think it will bring down the tone of the neighborhood… in Somerville, MA. I’ve lived in Somerville, MA and I think a better version of the Dollar Store is exactly what the area needs. They sell real food at Ocean State Job Lot. They sell off-brand chips and Slim Jims at the Dollar Store.

This morning, my family had pancakes made from “Bob’s Red Mill Stone Ground Wheat Flour” and Maple Syrup, both of which we bought at Ocean State Job Lot. Dollar Store breakfasts look like sugary donut-wads that would scare a Twinkie into losing its cream-filling. Besides, with Ocean State Job Lot’s internet coupon system, we save even more money on decent food.

Not all of us can shop at Whole Foods Market. Those of us with families are looking to save where ever we can. If you have a problem with Ocean State Job Lot, you must not like the idea of the poor having food.