Tuesday chat

 That's a crazy amount of rain!! Is there a lot of flooding going on down there?

I am glad you got a doc's appt. I hope it doesn't turn out to be anything serious.

Jackie, that is too funny about the hunky delivery guys ;p

I went grocery shopping last night and something dawned on me. Do you realize that we do everything that relates to customer service ourselves now with the exception of unloading their delivery trucks? We ring up our own groceries, bag them ourselves, take them out to our cars and put away the shopping carts. What's left? Soon they will do away with the store itself and just have refrigerated semi trucks in a parking lot with no employees. And prices are crazy expensive. Have a question about something? Forget it. There's hardly any workers. They don't even price mark stuff anymore either. It's annoying.

Jewlieee

 That's a crazy amount of rain!! Is there a lot of flooding going on down there?

There is minor flooding regularly - meaning some roads aren't passable after the daily storm(s) come through and there have been isolated serious flooding issues with creeks turned into rivers. In the Western part of the state they have had a lot of road washouts as the water comes from the mountains. If TS Chantal does hit here it will be really bad though. Everything is saturated, the reservoirs are very high, and trees are coming down daily because the ground - mostly clay- is so soft.

We had a brief but very violent storm plow through this afternoon - we lost some serious limbs off the trees, veggie garden uprooted etc. I inspected the fig tree which was uprooted a while back and the heavy staking that DH put in saved it but two of the stakes - these are large, deeply embedded pieces of wood, were moved about 6 inches. DH has repositioned them now and we hope for the best. The winds were horrific early and this is the most damage our yard has seen. 3 houses away lost two trees in today's mini-storm. Shaking my head. Its a hell of a pattern and there doesn't seem to be any end in sight.

Julie I was sad to find out this morning that my favorite grocery store - Harris Teeter - was bought by Kroger. I hate our local Krogers but Harris Teeter is all the things you say you don't have any more. The nicest people work there and they are all schooled in customer service. They have (at my local one) 2 handicapped men that bag for you and want desperately to help you to your car. They are the sweetest guys and are always kind of sad when you say you can get to the car yourself LOL It is super clean and so easy. Apparently loads of people feel the same as me - it was all over their FB page to "please not let them change the stores"

Sadly, we all know it will change

Jewlieee

We ring up our own groceries, bag them ourselves, take them out to our cars and put away the shopping carts. What's left?

All these things are done by clean-cut, cheerful, friendly staff (of all ages) who often engage in genuinely pleasant conversation, not just mumbling "How are ya?"  If you need something, they take you to the aisle directly.  If they don't have something, they'll try to order it. DH (as an "amateur chef";) often needs unusual ingredients, and they almost always accommodate him.  If he gets a cut of meat for some special recipe, the butcher remembers the next time he's there to ask how the dish turned out. 

Is our grocery bill insane for household of two?  Abso-friggin-lutely.  But, when I go into other stores on occasion, I get so annoyed by the lack of service, lack of store cleanliness and organization, etc., that I tell myself it's worth the extra cost. 

I got interrupted while typing my post and didn't see your post, Karen.  Wow, the weather does sound unsettling there!  I have to say when we've had terrible storms with extremely high winds and rain (our stormy season is in the winter), I find that kind of weather pattern to be scarier than the Nor'easters we had growing up in CT.  Something about really hight wind . . . and seeing things like limbs and trees down.  Yikes. 

Your store sounds a lot like the one I described.  There are about a dozen of them in the surrounding area (they're IGA stores), but they're owned by one family, and they have a serious commitment to community service, not just customer service.  I always feel bad if I decline the help to my car, too.  Our former neighbor's son worked there years ago, and at that time, they required the high school kids to maintain a certain grade point average in order to work there.  Not sure if that's true anymore.  They also paid the young kids more than other stores did.

Karen, first, I hope you feel better quickly!  I can't believe Harris Teeter was sold. I wonder if the Kroger chain also bought Shaws up here--they have changed a lot this summer. Your rain total is insane!! It reminds me of the floods down there in 1999. I was living in central NC and I adopted Frisby the day after the hurricane hit the coast (the flooding came in the days after). We hosted a friend and her cat who was evacuated from the Greenville area--the flooding was insane toward the east part of the state and whole towns were wiped out. To say there wasn't a dull moment with a new dog, a visiting cat and a springer spaniel would be the understatement! (Frisby didn't understand houses and furniture at all at first--she thought she was supposed to walk across the top of the crate....)

Julie, you're right about service--it's hard to get here at the major grocery stores. Tracy, I wish we had a full grocery store with that level of service. I will say our little independent butcher store is great. Everything is cut to order exactly the way you want it, and hamburger is freshly ground several times a day. They'll make the exact blend you want, and they have hand written recipes hanging up. (I tried one--it was fabulous!) The prices aren't much more than the chain store and the quality is so good.

Jackie, I can't believe the guys wouldn't do pictures! That's just not right!

The heat finally broke here--yeah! I'll sleep well tonight.

Kate, didn't you mention in another post not too long ago that you lived in Texas at one time?  You mentioned NC in this thread . . . I didn't realize you'd lived in so many different parts of the country.  For some reason, I was thinking you'd always lived in RI. 

My husband would LOVE the type of little butcher store you describe.  I love the idea of the hand-written recipes on the wall!  

A truck carrying a huge number of chickens (in cages) tipped over downtown today and many chickens were killed or injured.  The witnesses said it was terrible.  The poor things were probably already stressed riding on the back of a truck.  These are the stories that make me want to be a vegetarian so I don't have to participate in that industry.  I wish pasta weren't so unhealthy, because I'd eat it every day.  But I don't like enough veggies and beans, and DH is a big meat-eater, and he does most of the cooking!