the vynsane asylum

I can sing the whole ad jingle to this day. We used to get channel 29 from buffalo up here before it was FOX and it had a LOT of local advertising and programming, and there was an ad for what seemed to be an all-black peoples supermarket called "Figmos". It had a really catchy jingle and the ad was classic small-town goofiness, everybody dancing around and singing the jingle and looking like the store was AWESOME

It was probably in Buffalo, don't know if it was a chain or what. I think Ran should remember it, as we are pretty much contemporaries and lived in the same area around the time these ads came out (and since Ran has a habit of dredging up fragmented memories of that era I figure it's time to give back)

Anyone??

i'll ask my sister-in-law... she lives in buffalo. though at the time it was on, she might've been living in south korea...

I remember channel 29. I sort of remember the name "Figmos", but FIGMO is also a slang military acronym. Any youtube links to job my memory?

The only supermarkets I we had were Topp's and Bell's, but my hometown was pretty white. And by that, I mean my elemantary school was all white but 1 or 2 kids that were Vietnamese. Ethnic diversity was weather you were Italian, Polish, German, etc.

Speaking of lame commercials from western New York in the early 80s, I recently found the old Buffalo "Talkin' Proud" ad on Youtube.

no links, no nothing, it's fallen right down the memory hole but I am POSITIVE it existed

I'm sort of limited to what I will search for at work, but I did find this.

Right now, I still have that stupid "Talkin' Proud" song stuck in my head, so I can't think of any other jingle.

I did a quick Google search for Figmos supermarket and found this little info:

In the 80s, Buffalo, NY a black owner opened a supermarket in a closed supermarket in the middle of the ghetto. He called it FIGMOS (Finally I Got My Own Supermarket). Lasted less than a year.When he closed it, he said the reason was the shoplifters robbed him blind.

An all-black grocery store?

I think this needs to tie into our Kwanzaa celebrations somehow.

holy FUCK, had you seen the commercials them factiods would have blown yer minds as they did mine, that is WAY too much DAMN

Had I suspected it was an acronym the ads would have made WAY more sense, thanks for lookin, google didn't help me at all

Never heard of Figmos. Maybe you were watching this Figmos show wen you saw the Lumpy Bumpy best commercial.

anarky wrote:An all-black grocery store?

See also: Piggly Wiggly

Piggly Wiggly's just deep south, though. Not necessarily intended for one particular skin color.