The future of...

...dressing rooms.

No good deed goes unpunished

Yesterday, as promised, I went to the store to pay for the item they mistakenly did not charge me for the day before. I picked up a few items, including another jug of canola oil. As I approached the checkouts, I scanned the cashiers and was happy to see that the very attractive one was working the express lane.

After I paid for everything, I said to her in a hushed voice "You're going to think I'm crazy, but yesterday I bought one of these (grabbing the oil) and they didn't scan it at all, so take this one back." She said "I do think you're crazy...you could have given it to me." At that point, I noticed the lady bagging her stuff ahead of me had slowed her actions and dropped her mouth open in apparent agreement with the cashier's assessment of my mental condition.

Smiling, I said (to the cashier) "The next time someone forgets to charge me for jewellery, I'll give it to you."

In retrospect, I think the girl in her early 20's would prefer to get oil from this 54 year old. Also, in retrospect, I never should have evoked conversation with the girl. Better to maintain the fantasy of a perfect female specimen than to shatter it by finding she's prone to dishonesty. And finally, in retrospect, the beautiful girl I used to have a "pleasant" customer/employee relationship with, now thinks I'm an old weirdo. At least I can sleep well at night. Alone, but well. I don't think that Karma sh*t works.

17th century sanitary conditions in 2009?

One thing that always gets my ire up is when the almighty dollar is put ahead of people's health, safety or well-being. In recent days, there has been a media circus surrounding the closing of a supermarket by Toronto health department officials due to a "heavy infestation of mice" and evidence of a rat infestation, also.

News reports indicate that after a store customer complained to Toronto Public Health, "a large number of rodent droppings in display, food preparation and storage areas" were witnessed by health inspectors. The store, part of one of the largest food chains in Canada, released the following statement:

"The store is currently undergoing an intense sanitization process. Our food safety team is on-site and assessing all products for any potential compromise to packaging. Loblaws vows to remove any products at risk and to review pest control processes. We are committed to providing customers with a clean and safe store environment. We are taking swift action to resolve the situation."

It begs the following questions:

Where was the "intense sanitization process" before they got caught for this gross violation?

Where was the commitment to "review pest control processes"?

The most damning thing is that clearly many employees were aware of the severity of the problem with droppings all over the place and yet no one chose to do anything about it. As far as I'm concerned, the promises to rectify the situation are as empty as I hope the store will be for the foreseeable future. The health and safety of Loblaw's own customers, the ones filling the store's coffers, were blatantly and totally disregarded. The good ship Trust has sailed, Mr. Weston.

If you won't do the right thing for you customers, at least do it for the future of your employees. And if not for them, then for your own future bottom line and quite possibly your own job. If you haven't already, I suggest you initiate a complete and thorough inspection and review of possible infestation at each and every Loblaws store. In the end, it may be cheaper than doing nothing. Even if it isn't, consider it the cost of getting a good night's sleep. One can only hope that it did not come easy the last few days.

Listen to yo mama

As a card-carrying purebred Italian, I have always made my own pasta sauce from scratch. Last week, I either suffered a stroke or someone put a spell on me or something and I did a very uncharacteristic thing: I bought a jar of prepared sauce. My mom might disown me if she finds out. The relatives might stone me or shun me--ok, I'm alright with being shunned.

Let me explain. I had decided to try to reduce my grocery bill, so I started buying things that are on sale. Most of the items are things that I buy anyway--it's just that I have always bought them regardless of whether they were on sale or not. For the most part, it's been working out extremely well. Then I saw that I could pick up a jar of Ragu pasta sauce for $1, a fraction of what it costs me to make sauce from scratch--and without the work!

Long story short...it was little better than pouring ketchup on my spaghetti--yeccchhhh. Ragu puts the rag in Ragu. Even covering my bowl with a generous helping of Parmesan cheese wasn't enough to redeem the dish. Unfortunately, I am also Catholic and live by the rule that wasting food is a sin, so I had to suffer through three separate times eating the vile sauce. Mama mia!...was right again.

Global warming

I was standing at the supermarket checkout yesterday and they had a a small ad taped to the scale where it is just below the height of most people's chin. It was hard not to notice it. It was a plea for charity. Specifically, it said "Could you still ignore it if it were this obvious?" Below that, was a picture of a sad looking boy of perhaps eight years old sporting a t-shirt which read "I'm Hungry". Apparently, I could not and I reached into my pocket and gave the requested Toonie (Canadian $2 coin) to the cashier.

Before I had advanced to the point of the sign, I had noticed that the girl in the queue ahead of me was buying quite a few tins of cat food, and it sparked the affection I will always hold for felines since I had 13 beautiful years with my own cat before I had to put him down due to health problems. Anyway, as I started to put my items into my eco sac, I noticed a cat food tin, so I quickly looked up and out the door and could see the girl who bought them, and gathering up my stuff, I rushed out and caught up with her as she was getting into her car. I handed over the tin and as she thanked me, I told her we can't have hungry cats meowing all over the countryside.

As I continued on my way home (walking distance from the store), I noticed that despite the nip in the October air, the two events left me feeling a little warmer than I was on my way to the store. I would like to take this opportunity to challenge you all to go out of your way in the next day or two and perform a random act of kindness, no matter how small. This kind of global warming is good for the planet.

Watch out for grab and run artists

A seagull in Marinette , Wisconson has developed the habit of stealing Doritos from a neighbourhood convenience store. The seagull waits until the Manager isn't looking, and then walks into the store and grabs a snack-size bag of cheese Doritos. Once outside, the bag gets ripped open and shared by other birds.

The seagull's shoplifting started weeks earlier when he first swooped into the store in and helped himself to a bag of Doritos. Since then, he's become a regular. He always takes the same type of chips.

The Manager thinks it's great because people are coming to watch the feathered thief make the daily grab and run, and it's been good for business, especially since customers have begun paying for the seagull's stolen bags of Doritos because they think it's so funny. However, the Manager did say, "This is Wisconsin, and if that seagull starts to grab a 6-pack of beer to go along with the Doritos, I may have to put a stop to it."