Wednesday, January 25, 2023

The Busiest Woman in Country Mart

Monetary rewards are not the only thing scratchers bestow upon Val! I have enough stories resulting from my recent big win to last a week. The biggest problem is the order in which to tell you. Such a hardship for a daily blogger to have...

I took my $500 winner to Country Mart on Monday, hoping to cash it in and apply towards my casino bankroll for an upcoming three-day Oklahoma trip. It was at my regular Country Mart time, between 3:00 and 4:00. I was shocked to see a LINE at the service desk! More on those denizens in an upcoming story.

Not wanting to stand in line in a limited space, I wheeled my cart/walker through the store to complete my shopping first. Of course I needed bananas. Then some butter, sour cream, shredded mozzarella and parmesan, egg noodles, alfredo sauce--REEEEE! Cue the scratchy phonograph needle!

The sauce shelf had a bare spot. Around the alfredo sauce. I DID see two jars of the store brand generic alfredo sauce. The pink price tag under them revealed that it was one of the week's specials, with a discount of about 60 cents. I picked up a jar to check the date. I ALWAYS do that in Country Mart, due to an unfortunate cheese incident when shopping for my grandma's gift basket many years ago.

The expiration date on that jar of alfredo sauce was 2020! I don't even remember the month, because I was so shocked by the year. I put it back on the shelf, and picked up the other jar. Also 2020! Welp! Val doesn't spend her easily-won cash on expired goods. I moved over and checked the brand name alfredo sauce. Yes. There was one good until 2024. So I put it in my cart/walker.

As I was balancing Alfredo on top of my purse in the child seat of my cart/walker, an employee walked past. She was obviously looking for something along the pickle aisle across from the sauces, muttering to herself. I recognized her as one of the two workers who had been at the service desk when I came in.

"Did you know this alfredo sauce expired in 2020?"

"What? That can't be right!"

"I just put it back, because I'm not taking a chance and paying for it. I guess other people thought the same, since those are the only two jars of it left on the shelf."

She stepped over and looked at the jar where I pointed. Picked it up and turned it around.

"There must be some other explanation, but I can't see what it would be. I'll take this and show the boss lady."

Off she went, with the two advanced-age jars tucked into the crook of her elbow. After I moved deeper into the aisles and added some cream of mushroom soup, a 12-pack of Charmin Ultra, and a bag of frozen boneless skinless chicken breasts to my cart/walker, I encountered That Gal up front by the checkouts. She had just mopped up something liquidy and placed a SLIP AT YOUR OWN RISK yellow sign on it.

I lifted up my pants legs and tiptoed through it to get in line. That Gal appeared behind the deli counter as I was checking out. From there I lost sight of her while putting the bags in my cart and going to the service desk. There's more to THAT STORY, too, coming up soon. But to jump the gun, let the record show that the next time I saw That Gal, she was coming through the front doors pushing 20 carts!

6 comments:

  1. I am guessing she dropped the sauce?

    Leslie

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    1. I don't think so. It was a large clear puddle (shallow, after mopping) with kind of a vinegar smell. The old lady next in line was telling her old man husband what aisle to find something, and he seemed confused when he left to get it. I did NOT get in their line, thinking it might take a while for him to come back.

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  2. I'm wondering who spotted that expiry date and then marked them down for quick sale as well as how many customers saw the sale price and bought those jars without checking the expiry date.

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    1. There was a lot of empty space on that shelf. I doubt they ALL expired in 2020. When I buy the Kraft Mayonnaise on sale, I can find good dates on the jars in the back, while the jars in the front are only good for a month. When I spent a few months working at Casey's, we all had an aisle to clean and arrange, and were told to put the oldest items in front.

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  3. That is how it's done, oldest dates in front, with a sticker on each jar "Marked down for quick sale", but expired dates had to be removed from the shelf. Most often the marked down items would be in a trolley near the front of the store.

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    1. I wouldn't be surprised if the Boss Lady told the Busiest Woman in Country Mart to put those two jars back on the shelf! They will do what they can get away with.

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