Hjw
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posted on July 30, 2001 10:31:12 AM
Meya
Great! Now that may be my favorite thing to look at. ROTFLOL!!!
Helen
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jt-2007
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posted on July 30, 2001 02:12:02 PM
Terri, were you being serious about the manager being fired, and drilling the new manager?
Well...ummm...yeah. It wasn't actually a "drill" femme. It was more in the way of friendly chit-chat while scanning my stuff and on the way to the car. Several others in line joined in, we welcomed him to our town. I want him to remember me so I don't ever need to bring my pocketbook to the store again...you know? At least 4 store clerks have been to my house for one reason or another. Some several times. A couple of them delivered shipping supplies, one came to get plants from my water garden, two others to get some kid's clothes. I routinely find people in a parking lot who want to cut firewood, etc. I serve lemonade to the woodcutters on my back deck. That's "social" isn't it. People are pretty friendly mostly.
Donny, we do the things you describe but we always do them with just us and the kids since we are both free to anytime. We always try to plan things when NO ONE else is off work. We take vacation in March and go to Wal-mart on Monday morning. We are long time friends with a couple but they have 6 kids so doing anything is a real ordeal and they live about 45 minutes away. (Thankfully when we went on our honeymoon they only had ONE kid at the time so it wasn't really THAT bad. *roll eyes*) We went boating with them on July 3rd (note NOT the 4th). Was ok. We are hermits by choice. If it requires me to put on a bra or shoes...I will have to think about it. We both like to DO stuff so when we go somewhere (to anyone's house, etc.) we are BOTH bored! I like people to come here. We have a lot of stuff to do at our house.
Helen, evidently you have a problem with me. Shall I put you on ignore?
Oops...gotta' go the meter reader is here with ebay merchandise to sell.
Ching$$ Ching$$
T
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Meya
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posted on July 30, 2001 02:21:37 PM
A friend of mine just returned from NYC and sent us a Web Cam greeting. When I viewed it, I found this:
http://www.earthcam.com/metrocams/
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donny
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posted on July 30, 2001 02:32:51 PM
"Donny, we do the things you describe..."
Ack!! No, that wasn't me describing those things, that was Gravid.
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Hjw
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posted on July 30, 2001 02:50:37 PM
Meya
That's really cool!
Helen
Terri,
Do whatever you like.  I will continue to respond to the topic, however, since I generally read all threads.
Helen
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toke
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posted on July 30, 2001 02:53:10 PM
Here's one for when you just want to mellow out and contemplate the true meaning of life:
What Basset Hounds Do All Day
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snowyegret
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posted on July 30, 2001 03:00:00 PM
Toke, bassets do nothing.
Except maybe drool on the floor....
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toke
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posted on July 30, 2001 03:06:38 PM
I dunno...I think Charlie and Gordon would dispute that. They are very, very busy sleeping. And, of course, making sure those special places are even more than squeaky clean...
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Hjw
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posted on July 30, 2001 03:07:25 PM
I just wish that I could go to the grocery store without my pocketbook.
Helen
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spazmodeus
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posted on July 30, 2001 03:08:01 PM
I'd like to hear more about how the store manager lost his job. To sever a man's livelihood because he didn't offer to carry a customer's bags seems extreme, even for the South.
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snowyegret
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posted on July 30, 2001 03:12:27 PM
True, sleeping is tough work. 
I should be working so hard instead of cleaning rugs. And typing.
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jt-2007
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posted on July 30, 2001 05:29:01 PM
Well Spaz, you see this particular store chain makes friendly service their thing. So even the managers check you out and bag and shelve stuff and take your stuff to the car when they aren't tied up. When I walk in this store, no less than 4 people yell, "Hi! How are you today?" But then they got this new manager who was busy "managing" instead of working. He would maybe run the register but if no bag boy was available he would look around dumbly and say "I will need to find a bag boy for you" and just stand there though nothing required his attention. Other times he just stood with his coffee cup watching everyone else work even if he could check people out or unbox lettuice. Managers at that store just do not do that. They are models for the other employees. As I understand it even the chain's owner bags groceries with the rest everyday at the largest store in the city. They want to know every regular customer (even at the stores in the city) by name...or at least by face. This guy was actually an ASSISTANT/NIGHT manager. I am used to chatting with the actual store manager at my trunk for 5 or 10 minutes every other day. He is keeping me upto date on his home building project and we discuss the news. They other guy made my milk and bread trips HIGHLY disappointing and DULL.
It's an excellent store (though the selection is sadly limited). The other manager just didn't "fit" the "manager model". No one liked him because he had an attitude. He did get a week to improve but it evidently didn't work. I like the new guy.
I could make pictures of all the friendly people in my town and tell you who they are.
Some facts about my area... just north of me (6 miles) the community grew by over 50% in one year. It isn't a town yet though it has a name. My land and home have more than doubled in value in the 6 years that we have owned it. Ours is a small older town. Either people live and shop in town, or they build a big new house in a cow pasture on the outskirts as they flee the city, commute to the city to work, and shop there. So LOTS of people live in the area and don't know eachother...and everyone in the town knows everyone else. I live barely outside the city limits. In the actual town there are 613 residents of only 262 individual families. The town has one cop car. (I am "county" so we have abundantly the sheriff's department.) The area population in the county is MUCH higher than in the actual town. Not much to see in town besides a HUGE new post office with one employee.
T
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Hjw
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posted on July 30, 2001 06:21:29 PM
Terri
<quote>
"I could make pictures of all the friendly people in my town and tell you who they are."
<end quote>
That would be so thoughtful, Terri. You could take some pictures of my relatives who live across the road from you and publish them on the world wide web! Don't forget to take one of the pond. LoL
I just found a book that you might enjoy. I have very few religious books but this one is really interesting. It's not very long and doesn't require a lot of concentration...not like a philosophy book.
The title is The Adventures of the Black Girl in Her Search For God by Bernard Shaw. If you haven't already read it, just let me know and I'll send it to you.
Helen
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spazmodeus
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posted on July 30, 2001 06:48:28 PM
Thanks for the elaboration, terri. I'm curious, though, was the fired assistant manager a white man?
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jt-2007
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posted on July 30, 2001 06:52:19 PM
No spaz. He was black. There is only only white employee and she is a clerk.
T
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Hjw
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posted on July 30, 2001 07:20:39 PM
Poor guy...I'm really sorry to hear that he lost his job because he was trying to manage the store. I don't think that he was hired to chat and carry groceries to cars.
Helen
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spazmodeus
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posted on July 30, 2001 07:28:52 PM
I had a feeling, terri. I just couldn't picture a white guy being fired for not bowing and scraping to the clientele, or for "managing" instead of acting like a servant.
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saabsister
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posted on July 30, 2001 07:33:38 PM
Helen, we "city girls" have to carry our own groceries, don't we? Actually, I can't stand the chatty clerks in the express lane. Just take my money, bag my groceries, and let me out of there! ( And ,no, I'm not a rude customer. I say "please" and "thank you", but I don't have a lot of time to chitchat at the grocery store. I don't think the checkers like to be instructed by management to make a lot of small talk anyway.)
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Hjw
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posted on July 30, 2001 07:52:11 PM
saabsister
Going to the grocery store is not a social event for me...just want to get the hell out of there as fast as possible with as few words as possible.
And when I can't carry milk and bread to the car, I'll think it's time to shoot myself.
LoL
Helen
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gravid
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posted on July 30, 2001 07:56:43 PM
Yes I can see it is a lot different culture.
We don't get or expect anywhere near that level of persoanl attention. Indead it would probably scare a lot of people here because they would think the person might be taking an unusual interest in them and worry about being stalked.
In fact most people here would be afraid to hire day labor onto their property casually without knowing a bit about the persons background. Although where you are you might know a little bit about most everyone in town pretty easy, but here it would be hard to find out.
Where I shop if the manager did packing and carrying he would be fired for wasting his valuable time when they hire people at a fourth of his wage to do those things. He might be talking with you but he would watching the kids do the other stuff while he talked to you. The floor manager under him is expected to chat up the customers also but they dress nice and don't get all dirty and sweatry doing manual labor. Different system of business that is all. They don't do that anymore than the manager at the bank would elbow the teller aside and do her job cashing your check. It would be a slap in the face here if they told him to bag. He would probably walk.
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Hjw
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posted on July 30, 2001 08:29:24 PM
Terri mentioned that this manager was fired because he had an "attitude". I think that Spaz is right. This black manager refused to bow and scrape and be a servant and so he was fired. He tried to be a manager but they wanted a bag boy.
Helen
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jt-2007
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posted on July 30, 2001 09:07:51 PM
Well then if that is the case, blame it on the black stoe manager and the black owner. *shrug* I just want groceries and a social life.
T
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KatyD
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posted on July 30, 2001 09:23:23 PM
Oh for heaven's sake. Not everything is a case of racism. He was black. Big deal. Without living in Teri's town, and shopping at that store, and being familiar with the principals, I don't think any casual chatboard reader has enough facts to ascribe this guy's firing to racism. Sheesh!
KatyD
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hepburn
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posted on July 30, 2001 09:36:20 PM
Hey terri...I wanna come and hang out at your pond. Got an extra guest room for me and hubby? I have never been "south". Do you cook southern vittles? Im getting hungry thinking about it.
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bunnicula
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posted on July 30, 2001 09:59:23 PM
Criminently! It's amazing how quickly people try to drag race into everything. If a store has a customer service policy that means even managers must help bag groceries & carry them out if no one else is available, then it wouldn't matter if the manager who failed to do so was black or white--that is the store's policy.
I live in Southern California and shop at 2 or 3 local grocery stores and in all of them I have seen the managers pitching in when there is a shortage of boxboys/girls. And they come in all colors around here.
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jt-2007
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posted on July 30, 2001 10:27:01 PM
Somehow I am not surprised that there are not cries of reverse racism here (which would be just as unfounded in this chain in my opinion). This ONE store has about 15-17 employees and ONE is white from owner to bag boy. They own 5 stores. I have no idea of the overall statistics for all their stores but I think in most stores it would be similar. They treat all customers equally...rich, poor, black, white. That's what I see.
The Texaco on the other hand is a different story. They have about 15 employees, only one white, and there have been serious problems there with both the white employee and customers.
Hepburn, are you serious? I have lots of room. I would LOVE for you to come. I especially LOVE people who have never been South. OH GOODIE! Just tell me how to contact you and we will work out the details. Where do you live? I will start cooking right now.
T
[ edited by jt on Jul 30, 2001 11:06 PM ]
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hepburn
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posted on July 30, 2001 11:05:30 PM
Yes terri, I am serious (just dont know when...maybe when it isnt so dang hot down there). Where exactly are you anyway? You can email me at [email protected].
Told hubby I wanna go somewhere...he used to live in Kentucky when a kid, and misses southern cooking. Im going to bed, so I will check my email tomorrow.
G'night.
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jt-2007
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posted on July 30, 2001 11:09:02 PM
Will do.
T
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hepburn
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posted on July 30, 2001 11:13:44 PM
Back again real quick...just wanted to assure you that Im not a weirdo. Well, some people think I am, but dont worry...Im only weird to those who dont know me.
I'll tell you more when you email me.
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Hjw
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posted on July 31, 2001 04:21:28 AM
Helen
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