If you’re like me, you’re a regular of the Wegmans international foods aisles, where you can buy an array of ingredients from Asia and Italy, areas hard-hit by the Coronavirus. Should you be worried about exposure to the virus through these products? Health officials believe the virus, officially known as COVID-19, is spread from person…
Month: February 2020
Snowflakes and plastic bags
Sometimes it’s the small things, the unforeseeable things, that end political careers. In 1979, it was snow. Chicago Mayor Mike Bilandic, part of the Daley Machine, was defeated by primary challenger Jane Byrne, mainly because he failed to oversee cleanup after storms dumped 20 inches on the city. It was the hassles of daily life,…
Bad deal alert
Wegmans is selling “veggie noodles” in 12-ounce packages for the low, low price of $3.99. Now, there is convenience and there is downright laziness. I can’t blame the stores for offering frozen, pre-cut sweet potatoes, zucchini and squash. Obviously, customers buy them. But you can make your own from fresh vegetables for a fraction of…
Nickel bags
Attention, shoppers. Some of you are bringing in stained, smelly paper bags for reuse. All to save a blessed 5 cents. Really? If you think you’re going to buy groceries at least twenty more times in your life, it’s worth buying a reuseable bag for 99 cents. Redirect your moral outrage to another cause like…
Fortune’s best employers list: does it consider the importance of pay?
Does pride in company performance compensate for low wages? According to the Fortune annual “100 Best Companies to Work For” list, the assumed answer is yes. Wegmans ranked third on the list released yesterday, behind Hilton and Ultimate Software. The family-owned grocery chain has made the list every year during the 23 years Fortune has…
Watch yourself in parking lots
News from Hanover Township, PA: 2 hurt, 8 cars damaged in Wegmans parking lot wreck. A driver apparently suffered a medical episode, lost control and struck seven other parked vehicles, lehighvalleylive.com reports. 2 hurt in 8-vehicle wreck in Wegmans parking lot, fire official says https://t.co/jmXN7qFif6 pic.twitter.com/6oCAcfPimt — lehighvalleylive.com (@lehighvalley) February 16, 2020 This is not…
V is for Valentine
Pardon the pun, but it’s heartening to see men (and it’s mostly men) buying flowers at 4 a.m. No matter the hour, checkout has been one long Rose Bowl parade. People have bought flowers, balloons, chocolates, cards, teddy bears and at least one stuffed giraffe. They have done so without embarrassment or apology. It’s the…
The company store
Wegmans, for all its honorifics as one of the America’s best employers, is a minimum-wage company. It’s not unusual for employees to spend half of their paychecks on groceries, which means the money goes straight back to their employer. I bite my tongue when I see younger workers pay top dollar for high-priced snack foods…
Bedeviled by Tasmanian cherries
I’ve been obsessed with cherries since I was a scabby-kneed kid climbing the gnarly tree in our back yard. All kinds of cherries. Fresh, frozen, dried, preserved. Cherry pies, cherry juice (great with vodka and club soda), chocolate-covered cherries, even maraschino cherries. So I was delighted to discover two unknown cherry products at my store….
Bot invasion
Is this Stop & Shop robot really just looking for spills, or is he monitoring for shoplifters? So, I’m up here in Cambridge, MA & went to a @StopandShop Can someone tell me what in the “SkyNet” hell this thing is following me around the supermarket???? 😳😳 pic.twitter.com/xNPDiX0Sip — Tara Setmayer (@TaraSetmayer) February 11, 2020