Skimming The Cream

The Mister Rogers of food retailing admits major fraud

Dancing milk cartons. Banjo playing robot dogs singing Dixie over the frozen peas. A petting zoo with live geese and goats. Free balloons and ice-cream cones. Employees disguised as ducks waddling down the aisle. Yes, it's just another happy, cornball day at Stew Leonard's, "the world's largest dairy store," according to Ripley's "Believe It or Not." But where is Stew? Why isn't the 63-year-old retailing legend greeting housewives or patting kids on the head or wearing his cow suit? Well, brace yourself, Ripley. The folks who run the animated megamarket in Norwalk, Connecticut, pleaded guilty last week to what is being...

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