Grocery Store Spring Cleaning

I went to my local Dan's foods yesterday to pick up some essentials and was met with an experience I had never considered: How does a grocery store re-organize without anyone knowing it?  The answer is: they don't.  Everyone knows it when a grocery store re-organizes.  Crates packed with food items were piled in walk ways, entire aisles were empty of product, and product piled in the center of the aisle waited to be re-shelved in it's new location.  I was mostly confused, then annoyed, then the little girl inside of me felt very helpless!

I had 6 things I needed to get and was then planning to be out of the door.  I got three of those things without help, but then needed an employee to guide me around the store to find each of the three others.  I think that Dan's had known how this re-org might affect their business, so they had trained their employees to be five times as friendly while the merchandise was being moved and re-assembled.  Everyone was really nice... in fact, I kindof want to change my shopping day to Tuesdays to see if everyone is that nice all of the time.

One experience that summarizes the whole event was my effort to buy paper towels.  They sat in a pile 7 feet high and 15 feet long in the middle of an aisle whose racks were completely empty.  There was nowhere that prices could be labeled, so I went for whatever cheap brand usually was the least expensive while still meeting my needs.  It doesn't help that I am somewhat morally opposed to the concept of paper towels and have never bought any of my own free will before in my life.  My husband wanted them, and I was trying to be a good spouse.

The brand I needed was in the middle.  When I took it out, not only did the pile begin to crumble, but a piece of a metal rack started sliding at a dangerous angle that would eventually collide with my head.  As I was trying to re-balance the goods, a nice employee with a 7-year accomplishment pin offered to help.  When I inquired about prices, he said, "We'll just say it's $2.00."  Me, not knowing what paper towels usually cost, and not wanting to get a price dictation from a person who didn't check the price per ounce, stated "but this tag stapeled on another one says $1.39."  "$1.50 then."  It still didn't make sense to me, but I decided to let it go.  He was a nice man, and I already felt pretty powerless.

It wasn't until I got home that I realized that a 6 pack of extra large paper towels usually cost $8.00.  I feel bad.  I should have been more gracious and thankful to a man who was giving me a $6.00 discount.

Leave it to me to stiff a generous person for an extra 50 cents.

Lets all shop at the Dan's on Highland and Fort Union this week to make up for me being dumb.