money

Paper or plastic?

I was Whole Foods the other day getting dark chocolate covered almonds- a superfood – both the dark chocolate and the almonds combined. Here’s my bag of almonds.

Next to me was a lady getting some sort of nuts.

The way it’s set up, the items are all in bins and you take what you want in a paper bag, write down the code number and use the code number to pay when you check out. It’s charged by the pound or the ounce, or the miniscule ounce, according to the lady.

Here are the bins, you take one of the paper bags and do your thing. But this lady was struggling with one of those green plastic bags used for fruits and vegetables, which are not rigid, once you figure out how to get them open – and don’t really work well for the candy and nuts dropping from the bins.

I said to the lady, “Here are the paper bags, it’s easier to use these.”

Her reply had everyone in the vicinity who heard the conversation, stop in their tracks. She said, “The plastic bags are lighter.”

I stood there for a minute and said, “What do they save you, a tenth of a penny?” People laughed and the lady huffed off.

I know times are tough and things are expensive, but I would assume anyone shopping in Whole Foods could afford the extra tenth of a penny that might be the difference in the bag weights.

It got me thinking – are we paying for the bags when we weigh the candy and nuts? And then I slapped myself out of it, the lady almost had me thinking like her, “How could I save a tenth of a penny by avoiding all bags?”

Anyway, I just found the whole incident funny. I wasn’t trying to make fun of the lady. But she was a Karen if ever I saw one. A silent Karen because I’m the one who started talking to her, she was quiet and doing her own thing.

Oh right, she said as she huffed off, “It’s easier to eat from the plastic bags than the paper ones.”

Whatever.

Till next time . . .

Subscribe via email to my blog and cartoons here – the cartoons will arrive each Friday plus occasional short blog posts are sent during the week.

‘Economic Boycott’ today

Today, February 28, there is a 24-hour economic blackout. Consumers and activists are protesting corporate greed and DEI rollbacks. So we aren’t supposed to participate in things today.

We aren’t supposed to spend money anywhere if possible, so I’m wondering about our weekly lunch that some of us do on Fridays.

Most of these boycotts don’t make sense in that the money will just be spent the next day. for instance if you need gas for our cars, which I actually do, we can just buy it the day before or after. And the same with groceries and things like that.

I guess the silence is what it’s about – sort of like the pandemic, when there was no one out or on the streets. “Enjoy the Silence,” as Depeche Mode says.

The whole thing is to mainly to boycott the high cost of living. It shows the economic power of everyday people.

So fast food, gas and major retailers are on the list to boycott for the day, which again, will only have the items purchased the day after. But the idea is to have no one in these establishments to prove a point.

If we must spend, it’s recommended that we only support small local business, none of the big stores and places, so maybe my lunch at a local restaurant can still happen.

We’ll see.

Receive an email each time I publish this blog (for free) by clicking here

Fast Food Drive-Thru Experiences

Some guy posted this picture online and said he started going to Chipotle instead of Wendy’s because Wendy’s did away with their taco chips and made them into little “pebbles” and he likes to scoop up the taco salad with the chips. I feel the same way. The ruined the whole taco salad by doing this. Trying to save money I guess but losing customers in the process.

Speaking of Wendy’s, I think the people who work the drive-thru windows at Wendy’s and Burger King think I am either cheap or poor.

I don’t really pay attention to the cost of things when it comes to lunch, especially at a drive thru. But for some reason, it always appears that way at these two places.

At Wendy’s I always get the taco salad, but may not anymore now that the chips are pebbles, but anyway, I know now with tax is $9.08, but in the past, I didn’t pay attention, I just paid.

One of the ladies at the drive-thru is the manager and one day she gave me a coupon for $2.00 off a salad. I didn’t go back for a while, but the coupon sat on my console in the car. When I finally went back, I remembered it and I gave it to another lady at the window.

My eyes are bad, I need new contact lenses and there no way I could read the expiration date, so I asked her if it was still valid. She said it wasn’t, and I said, ok, fine.

But the manager said to give me the discount, so they did.

She must have assumed I gave her the coupon knowing it was expired, but that wasn’t the case.

I only say that because the next time I went, when I got to the window, I asked them how much it was. I really didn’t know, I didn’t remember, and I don’t keep track.

The manager was at the window, and she said, “Come on, you know how much it is. You just want a discount!”

Ha, I was embarrassed, because that was not the case. I honestly didn’t remember what it cost, and I didn’t hear them when they told me through the speaker. I didn’t even know you could ask for a discount, which she didn’t give me anyway.

I’ve been back many times since then, so that didn’t stop me, but I don’t like the new way they do the taco salads now and they sort of did away with the taco chips, which I liked to use as a spoon to scoop up the salad with the chili, so I may not go back.

One thing I do there, and I seem to do it at Burger King, too, is that I’m counting out bills and coins as if they are my last bit of money. But I do it to get rid of the overflowing coins in my ashtray in the car and also to get rid of the singles I seem to accumulate.

Now at Burger King. For some reason, every time I go, which is not often, I count out the change – bills and coins – to the exact amount, same as at Wendy’s, and I’m usually struggling with it as I get to the window to pay.

And here it is always the same lady who I deal with, and she remembers me, because if I don’t go for a while, she comments on it and says, “You haven’t been her for a while.”

I also only order one thing – some sort of burger or a chicken sandwich. I stopped getting fries and a drink, so it looks like I can only afford the one sandwich, although that one sandwich costs more than their $5.00 meal deal, so there is that.

But when I get the meal, I end up eating the fries mindlessly as I’m driving and I feel I don’t need to eat fries especially since I’m not really enjoying them and just gobbling them down, and I don’t drink soda and don’t like any of their other drinks, so I decided to just get the one burger or chicken sandwich.

I know none of this matters, but I find it funny and sort of embarrassing at the same time.

Receive an email each time I publish this blog by clicking here