Screenshot : Rich Silverwood

We like Green Top Grocery’s style, dude. The Bloomington, Illinois, grocery market has gone a wee bit viral this week after starting a Big Lebowski-themed promotion: 10% off milk products (including non-dairy milk) if you shop in a bathrobe. It’s a reference to the film’s iconic opening scene in which The Dude (Jeff Bridges) goes to Ralphs in a bathrobe to buy half-and-half, a crucial ingredient for his beloved White Russians.




“We had one woman who drove an hour to come and buy milk in her bathrobe,” Michael Talley, the marketing coordinator at the market, told WGLP, Illinois State University’s NPR affiliate. “And she doesn’t even drink milk. She just wanted to be part of it.” That’s a level of commitment that I simply do not understand, but I’m still impressed.

Since the promotion’s gone viral, the store’s decided to host a Dude Abides Robe Contest this weekend. From Friday through Sunday (February 28 through March 1), shoppers can come to Green Top in their finest/most ridiculous robes, take a photo and upload it to Facebook (and tag Green Top, duh). On Monday Green Top will pick its favorite robe (it’s just like, their opinion, man) and the wearer will win a $50 gift card to the store and, most important of all, “the ultimate Bloomington-Normal bragging rights.” That’s right, you’ll be absolute royalty in this central Illinois college town. Can you even imagine?


According to ISU NPR, a local bar will also be hosting a Dude Abides Road Party; White Russians will be just $3.50. With a drink special like that, you’re about to enter a world of pain.