Wednesday, November 15, 2006

I promise this is the last thing about grocery shopping I'll ever write!

And no more complaining, either. I'm just really really annoyed, because for awhile everything was really good in my life because my favorite grocery store was also the one three blocks away from my house. But then at about the time they opened the MetroMart, everything turned to shit at this Pick'n'Save. A friend of mine was checking out something, and didn't have her discount card, and she asked the check-out person to use hers, which they would always do before, and the check-out person said they weren't allowed to do that anymore since the store got bought by Roundy's. A new rule.

I don't know anything about Roundy's as a company (actually, I haven't looked into it because I don't WANT to find out something like they're big republican supporters and homophobic racists, or anything that would compel me NOT to shop there, because I don't have a car, and it's convenient). I know they are a HUGE company that owns like 150 grocery stores, and a lot of their Roundy's generic products are in these stores, at pretty good prices. But anyway, the thing I DO know is this grocery store went downhill fast.

I all but stopped shopping there, but I like that they're open at 6am, so I have someplace to walk to early and buy something before I start working on my memoirs. Lately, I've noticed that whenever I use that discount card, the check-out person seems really annoyed. I know that the check-out job must be a crappy job at times, and I don't expect them to be friendly or anything, and I always try to be polite and helpful and smile and everything. But also, those discount card things have always kind of bugged me because it allows the store to post really cheap prices that you don't necessarily get-- you have to have the card-- so I went along with it, and I have one. But why were they now accepting them so begrudgingly?

SO on this particular day I happened to buy a bunch of things that were WAY cheaper with the sale price with the discount card. I then decided to do a little experiment-- I would go through the check-out and not offer my card and see if the check-out person asked for it, like they always used to do. My purchases came to like thirty dollars, and sure enough, she didn’t ask me if I had a discount card. Before paying, I looked at her-- it was early in the morning, sure, but there wasn’t a line. There was barely anyone in the store. I handed her the card, and she entered it, then my bill came to like twenty-five dollars--five dollars less! She looked mildly annoyed. What was going on? I'm not saying that it's some kind of scam, or that it's some policy of Roundy's to try to rip people off. I don't know. All I know is that I'm annoyed. Oh well, I should get off my ass and go a little farther to the privately owned stores anyway. At least then maybe I could get some decent produce.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I fully agree with you it seems that the original pick n save has given up ready to retire. Almost saying I'm tired don't bother me go bug my more healthy vibrant cousin down the street.

Anonymous said...

YOu people need to stop using the grocery store altogher. If you hunt and prepare your own food you will rid your self from the depency of corporate america and all the evil connected to that world. It is not necessary you eat meat, but I do. Still, you can trap, trade, hunt, capture, and barter.

Anonymous said...

OK! I agree about that store! I was looking for something, looking down the aisles for signs to tell me what section I was in, and all I saw were these signs that said "natural and organic" placed randomly down the aisles here and there, no matter what food was there!

Ray Speen said...

Not feeling strong enough to face the possibility one more rockin' christmas song putting me over the edge in a public place, I decided to pick up some supplies early on sunday morning xmas eve at the picknsav near my house. The place was hopping! Maybe with like-minded people-- but especially at the liquor store next door, people stocking up with LARGE amounts of beer and liquor, fixing to drink their way through this heinous holiday. I decided to bake something with cranberrys-- but NO CRANBERRIES at this store! So instead I settled for KozyShak rice pudding, and then headed over to the freezer ailse for tater tots! A real low point! That's when I notiice that an ENTIRE AISLE of this store is taken up by FROZEN PIZZA-- and even part of the next aisle! Anyway, now depressed more than ever, I had to stand and WAIT before I could remove my bag of roundy's frozen tater tots because a COUPLE were MAKING OUT right there in the aisle in front of the frozen tater tots. I don't know, maybe they were people who have made out like EVERYWHERE, in the lobby of the Pfister, chuch, greyhound toilet, at a hockey game-- and they were running out of new things. "How about in front of the frozen tater tots at the picknsav?" Well, okay, it shouldn't have depressed me, but... okay... I guess in the perspective of people congratuating themselves all over the place for their accomplishment in WRITING and even hiring publicists to do it, and people driving their CARS (the big and ostentatious ones) and talking on cell phones wherever you go!-- this was not so bad. I guess it was even kind of sweet. Boy, I sure feel better now that I could write about it. THank you GOD for inventing these blog things! That's my x-mas prayer. I'm going to go heat up some of those tater tots now and think about those people kissing while I eat them!