The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world is
to be in reality what we would appear to be.
Socrates
AT LAST! Toilet Paper For Sale...
This is going to be an unusual fusion edition of my daily post. I normally would include this segment in my journal edition (J), which I have posted twice this week. (Note, by the way, I'm no longer promoting my specialty posts (journal, social media edit, rants, commentaries, etc.) in my daily miscellany post. I will sometimes promote my commentaries on Twitter. So you might want to check my month-to-date post listing on the right border of the blog page for any post you've missed.)I've been known to work on journal posts over multiple days; occasionally I'll post a long segment solo, but typically I might bank a segment until one or more other segments come to mind. So given the fact I rarely publish multiple specialty posts on the same day, I might normally bank this segment and wait for inspiration for another segment over the coming few days. Why am I making an exception this time? Because toilet paper scarcity has been in the news, and this time we aren't talking Venezuela.
Given the size of the town I'm living in, it's surprising we have as many supermarkets as we have. Probably most of my grocery shopping is at Walmart, but I love the orderly, spotless German supermarkets like Aldi and Lidl (with healthy fare, premium private label products, grass-fed meats, and nicely priced quality produce) and then there's the sheer variety of ShopRite. It's difficult to explain in context, but for instance I had a taste for low-carb chickpea pasta, (Sam's Club used to carry a variety.) Well, Shop Rite sells leading vendor Banza products, plus a few other alternative pasta products, e.g., lentil pasta, ancient grains, etc. It also sold a lot of attractively priced grass-fed Australian beef products, e.g., ground beef at $4/lb and occasionally steaks under $10/lb. (I didn't see any today; I don't know if there is a coronavirus-related supply issue.) You have to know your prices before you shop there and take advantage of sales. For example, I can usually buy the same canned soup $1/can cheaper at Walmart at regular prices, but occasionally they'll be on sale. Also, their seafood department blows the other supermarkets out of the water. As the son of Massachusetts-born parents, I've loved clam boils since childhood. In fact, I think there's a photo in a family album where a container of clams fell down on me on a drive home, with a couple of clams laying on my head; I'm dreading the first time I bring a lady home to meet Mom, because I'm sure to be embarrassed. So I have bought my fill of mussels and clams from ShopRite, and they also often have decent prices on live lobsters.
They also try harder for my business with multiple emails a week featuring specials and services (like home delivery available), and I love the fact they were the first company in my area to mail digital shopping receipts. (I noticed Sam's Club also now offers the same during checkout.) During the coronavirus crisis, they've offered to text items that are out of supply, etc. I had just read a post where they mentioned breaking a daily sales record during the crisis. They mentioned they get regular deliveries of toilet paper but it goes very quickly, even with purchase limits. So with my technical job interviews on hold so far during the crisis, I decided to go to ShopRite this afternoon after publishing my latest journal post. I almost immediately headed for the paper goods aisle and saw it stripped bare like Walmart's was over the weekend. DAMN! All I saw in the aisle were some napkins and face tissues in stock.
But obviously the story doesn't end there, given my post title. They sometimes have free-standing product displays, like bottled water. I almost ran into a display of single small rolls of toilet paper near a pile of bottled water packs. Not cheap, but an eco-friendly label of recycled paper toilet paper for $1/roll. Limit of 4; I took 2.
There was still drama left, of course. Any reader of my blogs probably knows I love self-checkout lanes. I had a problem with ringing up the toilet paper--no barcode on the packaging. So the young saleslady attendant had to do an override and then the freakiest thing happened; the second roll completely disappeared after she rang it up. While she was still there and she knew it! (She let me go back for the second roll.) I don't know what happened to the original. It wasn't near the kiosk, my cart or my shopping bag. Did a nearby shopper steal it? I may be a cheap bastard, but she had to either reverse the entry or let me replace the roll I was being charged for.
So that should be enough with my remaining rolls over the next few weeks. Hopefully this retarded hoarding activity has peaked and we get to a more normal shopping experience soon.
