This is my friend Sue. She is part of an Avon walk for Breast Cancer team and her team name is Walking 4 2nd Base. I just love that team name. Anyway, Sue had a pretty out of focus picture on her about me page for the walk so I offered to take a better one for her. I think it came out pretty nice. I have to send her a copy of the image so she can replace the other one.
Sue is a very dedicated walker. While many people are wondering what they are going to wear for their team Sue is out there walking. We belong to the same gym and the difference between us is that she actually goes. Something I really need to do is get back into a routine at the gym. But when I did go I would see Sue go into the group class rooms. She does kick boxing and all the high end work out till you drop programs. Like I said she is much more dedicated than I am. So what I am trying to tell you is that she is committed and needs some support in any way that you can help. If you would like to help please go to Sue’s donation page for the Avon Walk for Breast Cancer.
Today was an interesting one in the world of retail for me. For one thing, did you know that at Stop & Shop (a grocery store around here) milk goes for $4.79 a gallon but at the Hess gas station it goes for $2.99. How is that possible. I will have to ask Stephen The Dog if he would write a letter for me. He is good at writing letters. And he is holding some sort of contest to and giving away a T-shirt.
After I picked up milk at Hess I ran to Stop & Shop for the rest of the groceries. I use their new scanning system where you go in use your stop and shop card to activate a hand help scanner and you go around the store bagging your own buys as you shop. You pick up an item scan it and place it into your bag. When you are done you go to the check out scan a bar code signifying that you are done shopping and then give the scanner and your Stop & Shop card to the check out person.
It is pretty simple to do and I use it all the time. I like the bar code scanner. One day a friend was telling me that it is a bad idea for the store because they have no way of knowing whether someone is being truthful and scanning each item that they put into their cart. I never thought of that. Well, today I was randomly selected for an audit. So there is a system in place. However this was something that the check out person and her supervisor had not seen before so they were unsure of how to proceed. I’m pretty easy going so I let them do their job without getting cranky. The guy two people behind me was losing his mind though. Oh how I wanted to tell that jerk to zip it. It is hard enough doing a job like that without someone being a dick. Just relax, take a deep breath and you will make it through without a problem.
The huffy guy continued to fume so I kindly suggested that they just scan my items normally. I only had 5. They took that suggestion and all was well.
After that I stopped to pick up a veggie pizza from La Strada. I had ordered it before going to Stop & Shop and so it would be ready after I was done. I ordered the veggie but only wanted mushrooms and olives on one half of the pizza rather than on the whole pizza. I said this clearly twice and the person on the phone repeated it back to me correctly. When I got the pizza home there were no mushrooms or olives on the entire pizza. Again I am easy going so I ate the pizza and then called the shop. I wasn’t looking for anything I just wanted to alert the shop that I liked their pizza but they messed up my order. Apparently the person taking the order did not clearly communicate my wishes to the person making the pizza. She apologized and credited me a pizza. I will certainly continue to frequent this establishment because despite their mistake they handled things well to make the customer (me) happy. If only the airlines were so customer oriented.
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hey, thanks for dropping by on my blogs. i was wondering if i could ask you as a pro a question about my blogs? well, i think i’ll just ask.
do you have any advice for me on how to make my blogs more popular? i just set them up and want to make them real popular. i mean i already did what i’ve done so far with my other chilli-blogs but this time i want to do everything right. maybe you have some valuable tips for me. what i’ve done so far is the alexa project, tricia (she’s having some problems with her blogroll host though), several other blogrolls, bumpzee, mybloglog, blogcatalog, blogdune, etc. and i’m trying to make posts everyday. with proper content of course. so maybe you have some tips for me 😉
thanks
chilli
Hi Chili,
Other than content, less is more. What I mean by this is if you spend too much time out drumming up traffic and neglect the content of your blogs you are going to see a poor return. Be consistent on your content, make sure that it is clear concise and consistent. Also on your blogs make them as fast loading as possible. When a user logs on to your blog they should be drawn in by the content and not a large headers. Don’t overextend yourselfon your blogs either. I have 7, that is too many, I am realizing. I don’t do this all the time either. I have a full time job. I got into a few niches because I wanted to make more money, now I want to build a community of people visiting my blogs and commenting each day. So I focus on responding to comments, visiting other blogs, working collaboratively, guest posting and all other sorts of things.
I don’t follow whales. I read them from time to time but don’t link to them because they get enough publicity why give them more. Everyone is a sycophant for JC and SM and PB. Be original. There are so many people regurgitating the ideas from those guys.
And I just started using Entrecard. That works great. I hope this helps.
really nice team name hehe.
i have had patients before (when im still working on the hospital) with breast cancer. and i do put my sympathy over them.
kudos for your friend. continue the good deeds.
Hi Lad,
I love the team name. It is pretty sweet. I applaud anyone who gets out there and actually does something worthwhile to raise money for causes like these.
Are you a doctor or nurse?
I don’t know what’s up with that milk situation. I have the same problem around here, but with eggs. In town they’re nearly $5 a dozen…highway robbery! But if I go 38 miles to the nearest town (yeah, I’m in the boonies) I can get them for about $2. Frustrating!
I ordered ONE pizza once that was half pepperoni and half cheese…when I went to pick it up they had made TWO pizzas, one of each. My dad was paying and didn’t even pay attention so we ended up with both. Geez! I didn’t have the heart to tell them later, it’s a small mom & pop place.
That is a pleasant picture of her! I don’t have anyone to take pictures of me, but myself, my hub always does it wrong..lol I don’t tell him though, ever since I caught him outside trying to get a macro of a flower, I thought it was cute.
About the pizza though, I would have done the same thing, and those grocery scanners, those are very frustrating, I can never go through without having to get some help, seems pointless to me.
Everyone you know has a great smile.
This has nothing to do with anything, but my very first job was working for Stop and Shop. I was a service clerk. I was AWESOME.
Good picture, as usual. Good luck to Sue with the walk and to you with your patience and the gym.
The place was busy so I can understand a mix up. It happens and because they try and run a good business and their pizzas are good I wanted to let them know.
The milk thing has me baffled but Stephen is on the case.
I like the grocery scanners. You get additional discounts on a few items like Cheez-its. Occasionally I let people take my photo but I know what you mean. When you are a photographer being photographed can be tough.
I help get them to smile but yes, you are correct, many great smiles.
I can just imagine the things you did at Stop & Shop as a service clerk. It must have been hilarious.
Thanks Dad,
You might laugh a bit when I say I have patience. However there is a difference between a five minute inconvenience at the supermarket vs my other patience trying situations. I will try and work patience on the latter. And get back to the gym too.
I love Sue’s team name, too, but I would, since I’m a huge baseball fan, as you know. When I get paid later this week, I’ll go over and make a donation.
The wife of the Justice of the Peace/innkeeper up in York Beach, ME, who married Mike and me is a breast cancer survivor; she’d had a double mastectomy several years ago. The disease runs in her family. She’s been cancer-free since, thank goodness. Mike and I are still good friends with this couple, and we’ve stayed at their place many, many times over the years. I always make my breast cancer donations in her honor.
I hate Stop & Shop, we don’t shop there anymore. Market Basket has much better prices, but you don’t have them down there, I don’t think. They’re more in northeastern MA and southern NH. I wonder if Shaw’s/Star Market charges that much for milk, I know that the Market Basket we go to doesn’t.
When I used to shop at S&S, I did try the self-checker things…mostly because the employees at that store are rude and surly and I didn’t feel like dealing with them. Stupid scanners didn’t work half the time, and I’d end up having to deal with said surly employees to help me get scanned.
The heck with it. We shop elsewhere. I wrote a letter of complaint, and they sent me a lousy ten buck gift card. I wonder if I could have gotten more if I’d hired Stephen to write a letter for me.
I like Stop & Shop. That is where I shop. I think that Stephen might have gotten you a couple more bucks since he is a blogging dog after all.
Thanks for donating to Sue’s team. It is a great name too. That is really great of you. I am sure she will appreciate it.