UPDATE

Modest gift card but a written note of apology from the manager and a personal apology from the clerk when she saw me at the deli counter this morning.

First of all she scurried to the back of the department but I guess she finally figured she had to come back to the counter for other customers so she came over and offered her most sincere apologies.

So that is the end of that. I will continue to shop there as that is where I prefer to shop. I do appreciate the positive comments from all of you though. Thanks.

APOLOGY ACCEPTED

I was waiting until I had a chance to get back to the store before I posted the outcome but time has gotten away from me and I haven’t been able to  go in.

I finally spoke with the manager of the store. Don’t know what I am talking about??? Click here to read the story….we will wait for you.

He was very apologetic to say the least. He expressed his dismay that the staff member never came to him to advise him of her ignorant words knowing full well there could be repercussions.

He said they are appreciative of the many years I have been shopping with them.

He asked me when I could come in again as he has a gift card for me. I was going to wait until I had picked it up before posting this but I just haven’t been back to the store recently to get it.

The amount really doesn’t matter (okay 10.00 would be kind of insulting too)but the fact that this staff person would be dealt with is the outcome that I wanted. Fired? No I don’t want that at all. But I do hope she was very embarrassed by her actions and that she will never, ever say something so stupid again, to a customer or anyone else.

LISTEN TO THIS!!!

My brother in law is the producer of this. There will be an album coming out. Have a listen and share, share share.
What do you do when the nightly news is gtting you down? If you're the Michael Wood Band you write a song about it. The first single from the new album "End of the World" is available for free download from bandcamp. We hope you enjoy it, and perhaps share it with your friends.

I MAY START GOING TO GARAGE SALES

I may have to start going to garage sales more.

They are not something I usually bother with knowing that I don’t want your junk any more than you want mine.

Typically I see things like odd ball plates, old romance novels, half of a scrabble set and if I am really lucky a hot water bottle complete with the plug.

I never come across anything like someone here in Vancouver recently did.

They paid a high price for some artwork. About a hundred bucks. That is a lot for garage sale crap.

Except for this crap turns out to be very valuable paintings. One done by artist Frederick Varley who is one of the famous Group of Seven painters. The other by artist Tom Thompson who, although not  a member of the group was one of the inspirations for the group.

Tom Thompson 

Frederick Varley

Imagine finding out you sold off valuable works of art at your own garage sale for cheap. The buyer has put these up for auction and the top one could go for $250,000.00 or higher.

I will have to start going to more garage sales but in the mean time I have to get this special piece authenticated and appraised. What do you think I can get for it at my own garage sale?

STORE UPDATE

Not much to tell regarding the debacle at the grocery store on Saturday.

The form I filled out with my contact info when I first emailed them required a daytime phone number. The company has tried to call me twice but they don’t leave a message so I don’t know who to call back. I work in a secure office and can not answer my phone during the day.

My break times are not set in stone either so I can’t even suggest to them what time to call.

I emailed them again last night to advise them that I can’t take a call during the day and that they should contact me via email.

So far I give them credit for trying to call me. Now let’s see what the outcome will be.

For those of you who have no idea what I am talking about click here to read that post.

WHAT AN INSULT

I have shopped at the same grocery chain for 30 years. The same store even.

Today I went in to do my shopping. Made my way through the produce section picking out all my fruits and vegetables.

The next stop was the deli counter to get a few things. I hadn’t had breakfast and as I often do I asked for a box of the MoJo fries. You know what I mean? The potato wedges. No different than having hash browns…don’t you judge lol.

Anyway, to make it easier for the cashier to scan my little box of eaten fries when I go through the checkout I asked the deli person to put the price sticker on the side because I am going to eat them while I shopped. This way I don’t have to tear the sticker to open the box.

This woman actually said to me “Be careful because they have cameras and they watch”.

WTF? I said “excuse me” to which she replied “oh I didn’t mean you would do it but we are finding the empty boxes all over the store”.

I was so embarrassed. There were other people standing around there who heard this. I shoved them back on the counter and told her to keep them. I wanted more from the deli but I walked away. She is lucky I didn’t throw them at her.

I would have left the store had I not been so far into my shopping trip as I didn’t have the time to start over down the street at their rival store.

People may well eat the potato wedges and leave the box on the shelves unpaid for. They can also drink a carton of chocolate milk and leave that. Open the bag of mixed nuts from the bulk section and munch on those while they shop. Banana? Apple? Sure could.

What an ignorant thing to say.

When the cashier asked me if I had found everything okay I was ready let fly with a nasty comment. Luckily someone I knew came up behind me in the checkout and we started talking. I saved my anger until I got home and sent off a scathing email to the head office.

Glad I could vent here and if I don’t get an appropriate response from their head office I will then be naming names using all my social media connections.

COMMENT SPAM

Within half an hour of changing my comments to a pop up window again, to aid those who said they have trouble commenting, I have received spam. I rarely ever get spam comments but every time I switch it to anything but embedded comments it starts up again.

I am not going to moderate beforehand and I am not going to captcha or stop anonymous comments. I am going back to embedded comments and I am really sorry if you can no longer comment on my blog. I suggest trying a different web browser to see if that makes a difference.

RANDOM MONDAY THOUGHTS

Just some random stuff this morning.

Why was Kiss at the Country Music Awards? I don’t like country but my BB Guy does so he was watching it. I didn’t pay attention at all but then looked up and saw Kiss. And really how do we know that it really was Kiss under all that makeup? They could be fill ins.

Octomom has now applied for welfare. Gee so surprised. What took so long. Shame on her and everyone who helped her breed a herd of children that she had no hope of supporting.

(I was going to post a picture of a litter of puppies here but thought that isn’t fair to the children)

So as many as 40% of big lottery winners wish they had never won the money. Seriously? I promise you I would never be in that group. Money may not buy happiness but are people so unhappy that the release from financial pressures wouldn’t be a huge benefit to their lives?

An estimated one in 88 children in the US has some form of autism spectrum disorder. This is a 78% increase since 2002. Now I understand the increase comes partly from more diagnosis being made and not necessarily all from an increase of the disorder. This should be a high priority for research into the causes.

Technology experts are working on cars that “talk” to each other warning of lane changes and other important things. This is basically driverless driving. I wonder if the other car will swear at the car that is pushing its way over into the occupied lane, maybe sending up a big car middle finger to show that the lane is occupied.

And that is it for me. Thanks for stopping by.