Tuesday, September 21, 2004
imagine
Imagine that you live in a smallish (pop: 15k or so) town in Oregon. Imagine that there is only one supermarket in town, and that it is owned by one of the 3 largest supermarket chains in the country.
Imagine that the market raises prices on lots of staple items but offers customers the chance to pay reduced prices if they fill out an application to have their personal consumption habits recorded on that store's computers. Imagine that to get the reduced prices, the customers have to carry around a special card and show that card every time they shop at that market.
Further imagine that the store is filled with harsh florescent lighting, and rows and rows of packaged items, many filled with corn-based products or cottenseed oil.
fyi...Corn is what cattle are fed to fatten them, and is probably partially responsible for the fattening of Americans, not to mention the fact that the corn is all genetically modified (unless the packaging says it's "non-gmo") and the long-term impacts on people have not been demonstrated. Cottonseed oil is a by-product of cotton which is a fiber crop and has extremely heavy pesticide use. Cottonseed oil is actually a product in some pesticides.)
Imagine that in order to save cost (did I mention that the store is part of one of the largest chains in the US?) they rarely have enough employees cashiering so that it takes most customers many minutes to wait in line and purchase their items. The store managers rarely open up additional registers when lines are long.
Imagine that the cashiers often insist on putting your items in plastic bags and that they only use paper if you specifically request it.
Imagine that employees are not cross-trained for different sections of the market so if you attempt to purchase produce at the deli counter, you may be in for a long wait while the cashier tries to figure out what codes to punch in. (This happened when I tried to buy 2 pounds of potatoes.)
Imagine that this store was one of the last around to carry recycled paper products.
Imagine that this store carries plenty of apples and cucumbers waxed for beautiful appearance, but only carries a handful of organic items, usually the same pitiful assortment of non-seasonal items.
Imagine that this chain has had major labor problems in California where they wanted to reduce contributions to health care costs of workers.
Welcome to Forest Grove.
I once was charged $7 for a $3.50 loaf of bread because I didn't have a "club" card. I didn't buy the bread - I walked out in disgust, as I do almost every time I go into this market.
I don't blame the employees - they are all very nice people, just doing their best to get by. I do blame the people who live in this town who don't care enough about what they eat to demand better than what is currently available from the one market in town.
I also blame those who either don't care or don't think about being blackmailed into allowing their personal consumption habits to be monitored by a huge corporation in exchange for paying the prices that many other markets charge without forcing customers to submit to joining the "club".
This is certainly not the only market with these sorts of practices... another market a few minutes down the road in Cornelius is really no better. Since they were purchased a couple of years back by the biggest market chain in the country, customer service and employee satisfaction has noticeably gone downhill, as have market ethics. (I spoke a few months back to an employee who was throwing away - at management's request - bakery items at the end of the day.)
However, many of the people who live in this town are educated people who are raising families. How they can stand being held hostage to this market, I can't understand. Perhaps people are just too busy to care enough to take action about the quality of the food with which they nourish themselves and their children.
If so, this is a common affliction, especially among people who don't shop at natural food stores. When I go into other supermarkets in the Portland area, including big "discount" markets, I often look at the foods in people's shopping carts. Except for the rare few customers who buy whole foods (foods that you use to create a meal), most people fill their carts with packaged and processed foods.
How sad. And what a lack of imagination.
¶ 11:24 AM
Imagine that you live in a smallish (pop: 15k or so) town in Oregon. Imagine that there is only one supermarket in town, and that it is owned by one of the 3 largest supermarket chains in the country.
Imagine that the market raises prices on lots of staple items but offers customers the chance to pay reduced prices if they fill out an application to have their personal consumption habits recorded on that store's computers. Imagine that to get the reduced prices, the customers have to carry around a special card and show that card every time they shop at that market.
Further imagine that the store is filled with harsh florescent lighting, and rows and rows of packaged items, many filled with corn-based products or cottenseed oil.
fyi...Corn is what cattle are fed to fatten them, and is probably partially responsible for the fattening of Americans, not to mention the fact that the corn is all genetically modified (unless the packaging says it's "non-gmo") and the long-term impacts on people have not been demonstrated. Cottonseed oil is a by-product of cotton which is a fiber crop and has extremely heavy pesticide use. Cottonseed oil is actually a product in some pesticides.)
Imagine that in order to save cost (did I mention that the store is part of one of the largest chains in the US?) they rarely have enough employees cashiering so that it takes most customers many minutes to wait in line and purchase their items. The store managers rarely open up additional registers when lines are long.
Imagine that the cashiers often insist on putting your items in plastic bags and that they only use paper if you specifically request it.
Imagine that employees are not cross-trained for different sections of the market so if you attempt to purchase produce at the deli counter, you may be in for a long wait while the cashier tries to figure out what codes to punch in. (This happened when I tried to buy 2 pounds of potatoes.)
Imagine that this store was one of the last around to carry recycled paper products.
Imagine that this store carries plenty of apples and cucumbers waxed for beautiful appearance, but only carries a handful of organic items, usually the same pitiful assortment of non-seasonal items.
Imagine that this chain has had major labor problems in California where they wanted to reduce contributions to health care costs of workers.
Welcome to Forest Grove.
I once was charged $7 for a $3.50 loaf of bread because I didn't have a "club" card. I didn't buy the bread - I walked out in disgust, as I do almost every time I go into this market.
I don't blame the employees - they are all very nice people, just doing their best to get by. I do blame the people who live in this town who don't care enough about what they eat to demand better than what is currently available from the one market in town.
I also blame those who either don't care or don't think about being blackmailed into allowing their personal consumption habits to be monitored by a huge corporation in exchange for paying the prices that many other markets charge without forcing customers to submit to joining the "club".
This is certainly not the only market with these sorts of practices... another market a few minutes down the road in Cornelius is really no better. Since they were purchased a couple of years back by the biggest market chain in the country, customer service and employee satisfaction has noticeably gone downhill, as have market ethics. (I spoke a few months back to an employee who was throwing away - at management's request - bakery items at the end of the day.)
However, many of the people who live in this town are educated people who are raising families. How they can stand being held hostage to this market, I can't understand. Perhaps people are just too busy to care enough to take action about the quality of the food with which they nourish themselves and their children.
If so, this is a common affliction, especially among people who don't shop at natural food stores. When I go into other supermarkets in the Portland area, including big "discount" markets, I often look at the foods in people's shopping carts. Except for the rare few customers who buy whole foods (foods that you use to create a meal), most people fill their carts with packaged and processed foods.
How sad. And what a lack of imagination.
¶ 11:24 AM
