Today's Quote: "Don't take life too seriously. You'll never get out of it alive." - Elbert Hubbard
Katmudgeon's KornertmI used to do all my grocery shopping in the Rochelle Park Shop-Rite. I think everyone in Bergen county shops there. I've met people in there that I haven't seen in years. People who don't necessarily live that close to Rochelle Park. People who have grocery stores in their own towns. Yet they all come to the Rochelle Park Shop-Rite. I have a theory
that if you stand in front of the Rochelle Park Shop-Rite long enough, you will meet everyone you know. Even if they live in Australia or Timbuktu.
Did I mention that I hate grocery shopping? I do. The Rochelle Park Shop-Rite used to make grocery shopping a bit more tolerable. They kept the store fairly well-stocked. They had all the brands I wanted in the sizes I wanted. The meat department was pretty good and the prices were reasonable. Lately, I've been leaving there muttering under my breath about one thing or another. This is not a good sign.
A couple of months ago it got harder to find a paper bag in that store. The clerks didn't ask, "Paper or plastic?" anymore. They just dumped everything into those flimsy plastic bags without even hesitating long enough for a customer to say, "I want paper, please."
hate those plastic bags almost as much as I hate grocery shopping. You need twice as many. They are not as recyclable as paper bags. And when you put them in the trunk of your car the contents spill all over the place. I want paper bags - preferably the old thick double bag kind, not these thin puny bags they give you now. I'll take them stuffed inside the plastic bags, if I must, but I really wish the stores would go back to giving us real bags.
So as I said, they're getting scarce. I usually pack my own groceries because that's another thing they don't do right anymore. They throw a pound of ground beef in the bottom, then throw a few cans on top so it gets all squashed down and the plastic wrapping breaks. Hey it's already ground. What's the big deal? Or they'll put a super gigantic size
bottle of detergent in with 3 liters of seltzer. Arnold Schwarzennegger couldn't lift that bag! Or a 6 pack of toilet paper and nothing else. I'll pack my own groceries, thank you very much - but I digress. I was talking about the bags.
If there aren't any paper bags at the end of the check-out counter, I look at the counters on both sides first, then if I don't see any there, I ask for them. A few months ago, I did just that. The clerk rolled her eyes.
"I don't have any," she says.
"Can you get some, please?" I ask. "I prefer paper. Perhaps one of the other cashiers has some."
But that would be too logical, wouldn't it. To ask one of your co-workers if they have extra.
"They don't have any either," she replies, throwing my groceries into yellow plastic bags.
"Well, can you get the manager, please," I ask. "I don't want all my groceries in plastic bags."
She continues to throw my groceries into the plastic bags. "I think he's over in the produce aisle," she says, waving her hand in that direction. My mind is boggled. I, the customer, have to go find the manager in the produce aisle - which means I have to go out of the store, then back in because it's the only way to get there at this point - and ask for bags
- which are supposed to be here in the first place - and then what am I supposed to do? (does that sentence win an award for the ramblingest sentence ever?)
Am I supposed to repack my groceries right there in produce? I think not.
I tell the cashier, "No, you can get the manager." - I'm all out of pleases now, and what do they have those flashing lights for if not to call the manager. In the mean time, I'm warning people trying to get on line behind me, that they probably want to rethink their choice of check-out.
With heavy sigh and a harrumph (people really do harrumph - I've heard them. It's not just something you read in books) - the clerk signals the manager that she has a problem. Moi?
He comes over. "What's the problem?" he asks gruffly. "There are no paper bags," I say. Are you no longer providing them?" ( I really suspect that the stores would like to do exactly that to cut down costs)
"Go get some paper bags," he tells a stock clerk. "Are you happy now?" he asks me in a sarcastic tone.
No actually, I'm not. Due to this incident and a few others - like having no Friskies cat food (my
cats' preferred brand) because "it just went off sale" (This is an excuse?) - I'm doing a lot less grocery shopping in the Rochelle Park Shop-Rite.
I've begun to take much of my food-shopping business up to Whole Foods Market in Ridgewood. Like Nordstroms, this is a high end kind of store, but they have quality products to match the higher prices. They go out of their way to help you and they always ask, "Paper or Plastic?"
The cashiers there still hand you the receipt and the paper money first, then put the coins on top of it which makes it very difficult to put in your wallet without spilling the coins all over the place. But at least they hand it to you nicely, and with a smile, instead of just throwing it in the general direction of your hand while they chat with the cashier at the next check out.