Tuesday, March 2, 2010

I'm not part of the dog & pony show............

I try to take one kid out with me when I am going to run some errands.

1. It's hard to get one on one time with 4 kids. The woman with 18 or 19 kids on TV cannot possibly spend any quality time with all of those children. I am not judging her I am just stating a fact. She may not feel its her duty to entertain her children.

Personally I am of that notion myself. I am not my children's dog and pony show. When my feet hit the floor I don't do a tap dance all the way to the kitchen to fix a bowl of cereal and top it off with a, "What fun thing can I do for you now and do you want some
cherries on top?"





This is not me.


However, I don't want my kids to remember me constantly busy, filling my time with everything except one on one time getting to know them a little better.

2. If I need some help then I have an extra pair of hands.

3. I can get about 100 more things done in a shorter amount of time if I just have one or two kids with me vs. all four of them.

This leads me to my last couple times out with Z which are usually on Tuesdays. I try to schedule all of our appointments on Tuesdays. That is our blow off day this year. Tuesday is my skip school we have a million things to do today.....most weeks.

So last Tuesday Z and I did some shopping at the Kroger in Harriman after some appointments. It was so cold outside I had told him we'd stop at Starbucks and grab a coffee if he liked. He was all, "Great!" I could see the gears in his mind clicking, thinking about our White Chocolate Mocha with the caramel drizzle and three vanilla bean scones.

As told, we did stop at Starbucks. It's our tradition before we actually drink the White Chocolate Mocha with the caramel drizzle(that Taryn Keely got me hooked on), you have to take the lid off and stick your finger in the whipped cream laden in caramel sauce. You then must scoop out a big fingertip full of the goodness and eat it, roll your eyes back in your head at it's deliciousness, and swear to each other how delicious it is. This is a tradition that May is aware of also. The three of us have a caramel drizzle fraternity.

We cannot drink the actual drink until this ritual has been preformed.

On this particular Tuesday Z and I both could not wait till we had gotten into the car to begin this ritual. Eye contact was made, between us in unspoken words the bags were to be dropped, whipped cream with caramel rituals should commence immediately. So right there at the coffee counter in Kroger we dropped our bags, pulled the lids off and began the fingertip scooping.

The Starbucks lady, just stared, then asked, "You guys like that whipped cream?"

A & Z- "mmmm, hhmmmm", head shaking the yes answer, "and the caramel drizzle..."

....the Starbucks goddess turns, grabs two small cups fills them to capacity with Starbucks whipped cream and lays on the caramel drizzle for days, she hands each of us a cup with two small spoons.

Z and I are in caramel drizzle heaven brain fog, with our mouths set the open position.......we think we are seeing a mirage. But in an effort to prove ourselves wrong our arms reach for the cups of whipped cream and caramel drizzle in great hopes that what we are seeing is truth.......IT IS!

Huge smiling and lapping of delicious goodness commenced, gratitude galore went to the Starbucks lady and she was happy that we were so happy.

Ms. Starbucks relayed to us she was just doing her job. We loved Ms. Starbucks that morning. Her surprise gift took us both by storm. After telling her what a Starbucks goddess she was & that we hoped her generosity would be returned to her that day by others.......we adored her hard all the way home because her willingness to make us happy was such an unexpected gift.

Now, dig on this...........in Earth Fare market the following week, after taking Z to get a $7 hair cut at Great Clips, we stopped in to see what kinds of cool fruits & vegetables they may have. Such as blood oranges or purple carrots. Kroger doesn't usually carry these types of produce. Not that I buy them all the time, but it is fun to seek and try some new things in small amounts for the heck of it.

Plus Earth Fare sells other unique cool stuff like, Cherry Vanilla Blue Sky Soda, LOVE IT! They also sell this bath salt that has a peculiar name, Tired old Ass (TOA), that is WONDERFUL! You usually have to buy it online, but Earth Fare carries it sometimes. It's a great soak for my hips and ankles when my arthritis is screaming at me. I don't know what's in the stuff but I am crazy about it. It's a great gag gift for people on mile stone birthdays, well, if they have a sense of humor anyway.Italic

So I grab the last jar of the TOA stick it in our basket, along with the Blue Sky soda, and some Annie Chuns, and we head out to pay. The cashier is not that friendly really, but not rude. He rings, loads the stuff in bags after we discuss which....paper, plastic, or box, best suits my small purchase, of which I could care less, cause I am already dreaming of the Blue Sky soda I am going to down in the car. The glass jar of TOA is not in the plastic bag properly as the bag is loaded into my small basket and I can see it is going to fall out....

A- Zac, Zac, Zac!

Z- (looking all over the basket for the thing I am speaking urgently about, not finding it)

TOA slowly topple-ing out of the basket onto the floor, Z suddenly seeing, trying desperately to savor my much coveted happy hips juice........CRASH!

I know that is the last jar of the salt, it can't be replaced with a new one. Z is thinking, oh crap, I just broke the jar (which he didn't it was a total accident upon loading), The white guy, afro hair, hippie cashier is just standing there in shock.

I am thinking.....Dude! Surely someone has spilled some crap up in here before. It's your fault tree hugger, you loaded it wrong, why are you looking at Zac?? Get yer broom and sweep dumb butt, there is glass on the floor.

A- Do you have a broom?

White guy, afro hair, tree hugger - (moves to get a broom, puts the dust pan down, with no intentions of using it. Starts sweeping)

Little brat Farragut boy dressed in Tommy Hilfiger from head to toe at the age 6 - LOOK WHAT HAPPENED!! HE BROKE IT!!

Z- Oh Mom, I am so sorry...

A- Z, it's okay, it's something that happened, gravity happened....

Afro tree hugger now has a pile swept together and is standing there staring at it, like what next......I am like is this guy for real?

So I go behind the counter pick up the dust pan and put it on the floor in front of his broom.

Light Bulb!

He sweeps the salt and glass into the pan and says, "Yeah, it's good this isn't juice or something."

I am like.....are you high? What is wrong with you?

He does not offer to get me another, even though I know there are no more. He does not say we'll pay for that since it was my error in loading. He does not say anything pleasant to us, not even goodbye or thank you for helping me clean that up, kiss my TOA......nothing.

In the car...

Z- That was horrifying. Gosh, the man looked at me like I was........I don't know........a pile of turds or something.

A- Forget it. Things like this happen it was an accident. I am 100% sure you are not the first person to spill something in the store, and surely it was as much his fault also.

Why is it organic food stores have the most pretentious customer service, when they have the most expensive groceries? I have never been in one single organic health food store, and had the kind of good customer service I have had at Kroger in Harriman & also at the Kroger in Farragut. Does expensive groceries = pretentious attitude?.... cause that is crazy.

I virtually never go in Earth Fare, unless I want some TOA, Blue Sky Soda, Hint water products, California baby, or specific Burts Bees products. Not once, NOT ONCE, have I ever had an encounter with an employee at Earth Fare that was memorable in kindness. I look for it, but it's just not there. I want it to be there, it just isn't.

Repeatedly Kroger had shown me extreme to the good, customer service. They are consistently helpful, courteous, and friendly. I could spout off three more stories of kindness right now that I have encountered at Kroger.

I drive out of my way to shop there because of it.

Good customer service is awesome, and I show gratitude for it!


1 comment:

Linear Heritage of Women said...

I totally agree that Earthfare and other "natural" food stores seem to have this attitude that they are better than everybody else because their stuff is labeled "organic." Personally, I shop at Earthfare for several items, but I have never received good customer service there - which is fine with me, since I don't go there very often. But, I used to date people that were all hippie and stuff and I seriously think they are all spoiled brats that get everything handed to them on a silver plate by their parents. I've been friends with and dated too many "hippies" to think otherwise.

Best to just realize that organic doesn't mean anything magical or special and buying these products certainly doesn't make one more special than anyone else. I bet that's what that afro-hippie guy in Earthfare thinks about himself. Wow, what a winner we have there!