Bananas -- I Have A Lot To Say About Bananas

We get

LOTS

of bananas delivered.

They are pretty, aren't they?

And we sell them 10 cents cheaper per pound

than the nearest grocery store!

A Surprise!!

Of the MOST HUGE sort!!

It's a rare sighting

of the

former

Grocery Czar!
VERNE'S BROTHER!

 In spite of his abdication
he is still in charge of
certain fermented beverages.

He was hanging around all morning
doing Czar-like things in the office.
Most Mysterious.

Wishful Thinking

See? Someone even thoughtfully supplied a connection to...

The Power Box

Spy Cam

Seasonal Selections

We are unloading ice deliveries again.
George asked me to make this sign last summer.
I tried to make it really nice
becuase I like him.

George is in charge of ice.

He puts on his heavy coat,

his green and black plaid wool cap,

 his gloves
and if someone is there to hear him he says,

"Time to count the ice cubes."

And into the walk-in he goes.

It is cold in there.
(You probably don't remember that George is Dan's father
and the original Dan's son.
George is semi-retired
so that means he only works about 60 hours a week now.)

We also have an ice machine.

It is by the green door so you have seen it lots of times,

you just didn't know you were looking at it.

Story of my life, right?

 (Click here to see it and please notice the huge scoop and scales partially hidden behind the door.)

Anyway, teenage boys have to bag up the 10 lb. ice bags

and then stock this cooler with them.
Ice is Taxable Grocery.
You have to know that if you are cashiering.

The 5 lb. bags come in the sleeves we get from

Associated Grocers of New England.

I will tell you about them sometime.

AG deliveries used to be very fun.

Now they are just -- 

in the Brave New James-less Post-Verne World --

annoying.

Soul Economy

You would not believe the number of expired power bars I found on the power bar shelf.

BUT... GUESS WHAT??

All the expired jello was SOLD!

I SWEAR!!

Not one box was left in the Half Price Gulag.

Cookie Cam: Up The Rabbit Hole

What it is like to be a Banana Box Lid full of cookies:

There is a lot of waiting involved.

The Story of Black James, the Necromancer

This is the cookie eating place.
It is right below the Jello Condos.

I inherited this place from James.
But James didn't eat cookies here --
 he drank vodka.

When he left I cleaned up after him and found several of his bottles. One was a 750 ml size and it was half full. Verne's brother took that one home.

I used to keep a guest crate here but when Verne left I took it away. Verne and I would hide out here together and do cool stuff like taste test the fake maple syrups and try to carve stuff into the wooden posts.

Boys are fun.

Anyway, I saved one of the vodka bottles so I would have something to remind me of James and all the fun times we had together.
This is how it looks now:

Last November it looked like this:

 but someone disappeared my cardboard intervention.

I think it was George.

 This is James and his diamond earring:

I inherited the cereal aisle from James. I still miss him.

James inherited the cereal aisle from Larry.

Larry worked at the store for 54 years.

He retired shortly after I started working at The Store.

Larry used to hang around the produce room telling me stories,

like the one about his dog named Heck.

I never took a pic of Larry.

I hadn't gotten that bored yet.

Cookie Cam: Through The Green Door

Cookie Cam went rogue.

Cookie Cam!

OMG!! I LOVE Cookie Cam!!!

Ye Olde Groceree Carte Recentle Repairede With Plexiglasse

The Cart.

It gives me a warm cozy feeling.

In the old days I assume it was used with those old boxes
for shopping by customers.

Now we use the boxes for hauling recycle bottles down to the cellar
and groceries up from the cellar.
And we use the cart for pushing around
anything that is push-around-able.

This is under the bottle bell, across from the blue bench.

See the Moving Ramp? Doesn't it just scream "COME ON DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE!!" at you?

The Moving Ramp: Unedited Footage

Contains:
One Handed Pole-ing,
Falling Cookies,
Gloom,
and
Shaking.
BUT --
it demonstrates how I get cookies upstairs.

Verne says hi

This was Tuesday, the day after his 21st birthday.

I was up in the office making out the Specialty Order.

He celebrated legal drinking quite heavily.

As did his brother before him.

(Not that it ever stopped him BEFORE he was 21.)

Did you know his brother was Grocery Czar before me?

Did you know I used to work for their mother as a baker?

And Cookie Delivery Driver?

She told me GREAT stories about them.

That was back when they were in high school.

So when my daughter started 9th grade the first thing I told her was,

"STAY AWAY FROM THOSE VERNE BROTHERS!!!"

But really, they are two great boys.

"OK, fine, take my picture."

"KNOCK IT OFF ALREADY!!"

Dan took this one becuase he got sick of me.

(He stopped by again Wednesday

and told me he was STILL recovering.)

The Jello Underground

Where the Jello Revolutionary Front waits...

Jello Condos.

... to liberate Jello Patriots in captivity.

Coconut Cream Is Back

YAY!

And Shelly can come get her pudding anytime.

Secret Plot To Sell Expired Jello Exposed

Grocery Czar Scrutinized

Accusations Made

Invective Hurled

Ok, so it's true.

I left expired Jello on the shelf.

But I didn't intend for it to actually sell.
I mean, the reason they expired is 'cause no one bought those flavors,
so it's not like I was going to order MORE

and I thought it looked so pretty --

the full range of flavors side by each, colorful and cheerful.

The only pic I have of OLD Jello. I always meant to take a better one but I never felt like it. Now, flavors are GONE.

It was a REALLY WEIRD day.

====> FIRST,

I had already decided to do a Jello Expose early Friday morning.

====> SECOND,

mid-morning, a lady came up to me holding the last four boxes of

Jello Coconut Cream Cook and Serve Pudding,

which I happened to know were expired.

So I thought, "Uh oh. Duck and cover."

BUT,

she only wanted to know if I was going to order more.

"No," I said, "becuase it expires. No one buys it."

She said, "But I can't get it anywhere else! I BUY IT!"

I told her she was holding -- GASP! -- EXPIRED JELLO.

She knew and didn't care that it was 8 months out of date,

 as long as she could be eating

Jello Coconut Cream Cook and Serve Pudding.

So, I ordered more!

A case for her and a case for me!

YUM!

====> THIRD

 You won't believe this.

Mid-afternoon there was scene at Register One.
A customer was offended at having found -- GASP! -- EXPIRED JELLO
on the shelf and complained to the Cashier On Duty.
Who told Dan.
Who implemented a
Police Action against the Jello State.
He pulled a WHOLE BASKET OF JELLO off my shelf,
called me over,
 and told me about The Expired Jello Incident At Register One.
I told him,
"Sure, there is some expired Jello but NOT THAT MUCH!!"
I hurled invective and examined the Jello in the basket.
In fact, he had READ SOME OF THE THE DATES
I N C O R R E C T L Y !!!

So I got to do the "It's Me I'm Great I'm Right HA HA" Dance.
Which was very satisfying.
But then,
I had to accept that my Jello Display was forever altered,
that it would never reach Peak Flavor Saturation again.
The grief was so overwhelming
I couldn't even bring myself to photograph my ravaged display.
I rearranged things a bit and tried to accept
 The Post-Apocalyptic Jello State.

Notice the box of Jello Chocolate Cook and Serve Pudding acting as a place holder for Jello Coconut Cream Cook and Serve Pudding, which will be arriving Monday.

So what have I learned from all of this?

The sale is giant, not the Jello.

 Never put all your Jello in one basket.

You see before you here, in this basket -- GASP! -- EXPIRED JELLO.

The Grocery Czar

I admit that it is a self-appointed title, but justifiably so.

After all, I am in charge of Pringles, Jello, Spam, Pig's Feet, and Truffles.
And GUM!

Who ELSE could possibly be qualified to be Czar??

The Sap Is NOT Running

It is not sugaring weather anymore.

It didn't last long.

It can come back, though.

When the temperature dips below freezing the sap runs down to the roots of the tree and there it stays through the winter. Then, when the days warm up, the sap runs back up the tree. At night, if the temperature dips again, the sap runs back down to the roots. So every day that the sap runs up the tree is a chance to catch it. Stick a tap in the tree while the sap is running and it drips out the spout. Then, if you want a liter of syrup, you just have to collect about 40 liters of sap and boil it down.

When sugaring weather lasts a long time the price of syrup goes down.

This year it might go way up.

The first new syrup arrived today.

George is in charge of syrup.

He always organizes it here:

He has someone price it then he puts it out on the shelf or stores it under the produce room counter.

We only carry syrup from small producers who live around here.

This is where syrup lives, in aisle 2 with the peanut butter, jelly, honey, salad dressing, juice, and  PRINGLES!! YAY!!

The Solar Panels

Wow, it was a beautiful day yesterday. I sorta noticed. I was in a hard working mood and bustled around putting out all the new Stonewall Kitchen stuff which had come on Thursday. And Nabisco delivered so I had to stow that and then put out all the fresh crackers and cookies. And it was AG order day so I had to hustle around with the ordering gizmo zapping grocery shelf tags so the world would be safe for gum and sugar and flour and cereal and ham hocks. And I had to take a thousand photos of the world. So by 3 pm I was filthy and tired and the beautiful day was only a blip on my radar.

Anyway, here are the solar panels. And the Boot Room is behind those beautiful blue windows.

Hey! Look at this pic! I took it from one of the Boot Room windows last week when I was poking around up there. Back when it was still winter.

All the places I saw box cutters last Friday

My secret hidden one on a top shelf upstairs in the Chip Room. Now I will have to change my hiding place, I suppose.

 Up front by Register 1.

On my personal shelf in the Lost Underground World. Touch it and I will drop you where you stand.

 On the Wine Cellar desk.

On+ the shelf by Sam Daniels.

On+ Rasta Girl's personal shelf in the Lost Underground World.

In+ the Produce Room.

On+ the Grocery Czar's Podium out back across from the Hardware Desk.

In Got Dinner's pocket!

It is a box cutter you can count on.

Animals Taste Good!