Grocery Stores And Courtesy...NOT!

"Anyone who believes the competitive spirit in America is dead has never been in a supermarket when the cashier opens another checkout line." —Ann Landers

Your Turn, NH, a weekly New Hampshire Union Leader feature, gave ink to young Natasha Cole of Hudson, a U-Mass Lowell Student and cashier to speak out to the diseased and afflicted unwashed masses. Cole asks customers to, "Have some courtesy for your cashiers this holiday season," and not to spew her with your collection of germs and bodily juices while shopping at the local grocery store. The points made by Cole are valid. No dispute there. I know nobody who desires to get sick over the holiday season, much less anytime.

I, as a consumer, being forced to use such establishments, am not lost on Cole's underlying sentiments.  In fact, those very establishments that Natasha speaks of have overtly acknowledged the need for such disease consciousness with the installation of sanitary wipe dispensers at the grocery store point of entry. Customers are able to wipe down the shopping cart handle. Waterless hand sanitizer is also often present. But while the topic of exposure minimization would appear to be the thesis, the underpinning thesis  her topic is couched in, is courtesy.  Grocery stores! absolute fodder for social scientists and cultural commentators like me, so I would be remiss pass up such an opportunity to address...even expand the concept of grocery store courtesy.

This is one of those moments in time when a person in a customer service role asks her customers to do something for her. With the additional descriptors, "gross" and "eww!" it deigns a noticeable condescension ..." Perhaps one day she might have a booger-faced laden toddler of her own, that, like so many others, she will promptly plunk down into the seat of a filthy shopping cart deign a second thought as she soldiers on with the task at hand. Kids can be paradigm-shifters for certain.

Now, about those sanitizers in the foyer of the grocery store: Clearly a splendid idea! I commend retailers who place them, but at the same time, I have to ask if they are serious about customer concerns for sanitization. When promotional soft drink cases are stacked six feet high along a wall directly in front of those sanitizers, what then is the priority? Such "marketing" makes retrieving a wipe a formidable task for even the most able-bodied shopper. How about when a customer seeks to find a sanitary wipe and is instead met with an empty wipe container? Is that consistent customer focus?

A trip to the grocery store is frequently intertwined with other daily tasks, thus, efficiency of the task is a priority. But I have found such efficiencies,  often thwarted by large pallets of products blocking aisles and an associate stocking shelves, all the while oblivious to the customer activity around them. Like a curmudgeon gardener swatting at bees....Tripping over an empty produce cartons in the produce section is a regular source of irritation. (Lucky it's me, others might try to sue).

Why do my fellow customers have to be so damned obnoxious about grocery shopping? When we drive down the road, we stay to the right. It is a mindset we adopt for driving. So why then do people dart about in stores in front of others, abruptly halting his or her cart and proceed to block the entire aisle to the exclusion and hindrance of other shoppers? And why do some have to hold up check-out lines for what seems like an endless moment in time with inane and lengthy lottery purchases? Finally, I have to say it... if you smell bad, take a shower or stay home.

The Grocery store cashier is a perfect case study and argument for going to the self-scan lines. Cashiers: Why must you carry on a conversation with a co-worker at the register, never once making eye-contact with the customer whose purchases you are tallying? Here is a newsflash for you cashiers: "We customers care little (if at all) about your social life at that moment in time." We don't want to hear who is having a baby or who got drunk last night. And of course, I would be remiss in leaving out the lackadaisical cashier, moving at the speed of "turtle" with a sigh every fourth product that screams, "I'd rather be watching paint dry." These people bring inner pain to the check-out experience. A faux sense of urgency and intention would send a more positive message to the customer in line.

I cannot possibly understand how concern for germs could be so paramount when the cashier is not even paying attention to the task at hand. Inattentive Cashiers are a major source of anxiety for customers because while the cashier is not paying attention, a miss-priced product has just rung through and now the customer has to raise the voice decibel level in order to break into such conversations. And the response is usually pretty generic: a confused look with a grimace signaling inconvenience.

How about the person bagging my groceries? If I do not make a quick spot check of the area, I often find that he or she has left a bag of my items out of my cart.  Instead of giggling and firing a dismissive "sorry," stop for three seconds, feign some sincerity, make eye contact and say, "I apologize for that," and place the item in the cart.

Many like me choose not to deal with store staff for the aforementioned reasons. With self-scan check-outs, this becomes easier. But even these self-scan registers are problematic with the occasional customer in front of you who reads each product label as he or she scans the item. Or when the Machine runs out of printer, paper and you have to watch the line grow behind you while the associate struggles to change it. In July of this year, a grocery store chain out west announced it would be doing away with its' self check-outs because it desired to interact with its' customers....EPIC FAIL.

To be fair, I note the store deli. This particular group of associates seems to have nailed it when it comes to customer service. The make eye contact, they seem to listen intently, the make sure they hear what you asked for, and they seem to field customer requests with a sense of seriousness and urgency. And they are courteous!

To Natasha Cole, if unhealthy habits witnessed every day at a grocery store are seminal enough to write about in the Union Leader, perhaps you might lead the effort to better serve your customers. I think Natasha will find that awareness is on the rise and more customers are making full use of the sanitizers, (when provided and available, that is). Most customers will exercise a general modicum of courtesy for others. But Ms. Cole also has to accept the reality of the self-absorbed never-ending sea of stupid people who will not occupy five seconds of courteous thought within their daily movements, thus making life for the rest of us that much more irritating. But concern yourself with those of the unwashed masses like me, Ms. Cole. Chances are you will very rarely, if ever have to interface with us because we are in the self-can line for our not wanting to deal with you.

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cross-posted at GraniteGrok

Town of Durham Seeks to Inspect Rentals

"College is a refuge from hasty judgment." —Robert Frost

Owning rental property is a daunting endeavor. With ownership comes financial challenges, legal exposure, and responsibilities not traditionally endured with single family home ownership. Add to that facet renting to college students and the task becomes a head-snapping endeavor.

Years ago, I found myself dealing with twelve units of off-campus student housing in Durham New Hampshire. In my experience, I found the cards were stacked against me. The town of Durham has never taken the steps necessary to effectively deal with their rental housing market specifically how it interfaces between the college and the town. Much of what is in place is the knee-jerk reaction of the vocal few.

College students going off to college means this is their first time away from home. They are on their own and not under the wing or the rules of Mommy and Daddy. Living off campus means having, "ones' own place" and celebrating that first breath of new-found independence. The problem is that independence can manifest it in ways that are not positive.

Landlords in Durham who rent to college students quickly understand the realities behind renting to students if they went into such an undertaking without the upfront experience. The whole college experience brings with it a social plane few ever anticipated.

I had a lease and a very specific clause that stated the maximum number of occupants that can be present at any given time. Despite that clause, I found myself out in Durham late one night accompanying the Durham Police to break up an extremely large party. As partygoers left, I counted heads exiting the property: one-hundred and sixty six kids had packed into a 1,100 square foot apartment. What followed were the hissing and seething rants of angry parents in another state accusing me, "hassling" their kids needlessly," with threats of legal action.

A college rental property owner undertakes up to 40% higher costs in maintenance on such properties than a traditional residential rental. As reported in today's Page A7 Union Leader story, Durham Fire Chief Corey Landry describes the 16 Edgewood road property in Durham, having no working smoke or carbon monoxide detectors as, "Extreme."  The story fails to convey, however, why such a condition existed,  presenting images of derelict property owners. Many landlords I know in Durham are conscientious people and the life safety code is a part of their management practices.  One of the most significant challenges such property owners face is smoke detectors because they are so often tampered with by the occupants of these rentals.  Window screens, doors and smoke detectors are a constant an ongoing expense. The property damage endured over a school year is remarkable.

During my tenure managing the Durham properties, I found the town to be heavy-handed in its enforcement of occupancy without regard to what landlords try to do while complying with the law. One might have a rental where up to three occupants are permitted. Despite that, one of those occupants might have a friend who gets kicked out of the dorms so now the landlord has four occupants in violation of the lease. So now the town seeks to enforce its ordinance and the Landlord has to follow all due process within the Landlord and Tenant Law and often times, the two run counter to one another.

When a Landlord is forced to litigate in Durham, such litigation brings significantly more cost than a traditional Landlord and Tenant action. The college provides a lawyer to kids and the courts show some degree of fealty to the college population. Summarily, it is a daunting task holding kids accountable for property damage, lease violations and other issues that invited unwanted municipal attention. To add to the list of problems, Landlords, have lease provisions prohibiting Beer pong boards because of their propensity to attract under-aged drinking, large crowds and unruly behavior which brings with it, not to mention dangerous levels of inebriation. Despite the lease prohibition, I found several of these left behind upon move-out. A prohibition on household furniture being kept or maintained outside of the unit on the property means nothing. Couches still end up on the lawn. Controls and restrictions on parking only means that you are going to be having a conversation about thirty vehicles being parked in a ten-car lot. Setting a definite schedule for snow removal still means that you as the landlord are not going to get compliance from at least one tenant.

Many Landlords sincerely attempt to provide a place to live that is clean, habitable, safe, decent and nice, but are challenged by a bunch of post-adolescents testing their newfound freedom and limits. They are present, maintain their properties and try to be proactive. Others, those absentee Landlords, collect the rent by mail and do the bare minimum in maintenance, often ignoring issues hoping they will quietly go away.

Those who own a house and convert it to a student rental in quest for quick cash, rarely contemplate the twists and turns that follow, let alone the legality of doing so in a particular area. Most zoning precludes such a conversion, let alone how ticked off the neighbors of the property get with loud music, boisterous yelling and heavy vehicular traffic.

So now Durham seeks to solve its issues by creating a process that might prove to be arbitrary. In following this story for the towns' quest to impose an inspection process, I am skeptical how that will emerge as a fair process. Presently in Manchester, as a landlord, I have a "certificate of compliance" inspection conducted every three years by the building department. It is minimal and for the most part, fair, but sometimes can be arbitrary. I would wager that Durham will be overly arbitrary to the detriment of Landlords. Under the present system in Manchester, the landlord is still liable for missing window screens and faulty smoke detectors, irrespective of the destructive tenants who cause the issue. If Durham wants to be fair, they will hold tenants accountable for the destruction done by them that alters any life-safety code.

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cross-posted on Granite Grok

OCCUPY WALL STREET FOR DUMMIES

"In hindsight it may even seem inevitable that a socialist society will starve when it runs out of capitalists."  —Larry Niven

How does one become an Occupy Wall Street Protestor? A quest for understanding in a somewhat complicated topic. Why? Because there are some who seem to demonstrate a modicum of intelligence and articulate usage of the language when the camera is rolling. And, there are some who dress reasonably normal (normal meaning, no obvious hygiene challenges, maintaining a groomed appearance). Those folks are in the vast minority. And certainly it would not be an accurate statement to say these slackers are all "youth generational." The camera has caught some old enough to be peers of my parents.

But the task at hand is an immediate one. How do I blend in? How do I become an OWS protestor. I suppose I should start with something superficial. Ah yes! you say, "Things aren't always as they appear." and how right one might be to make such a characterization. But any good leftist will tell you, honesty is a relative term. "Your views are your views."  Kind of akin to calling people racists because they don't like Obama... Yet, when it is pointed out that these same "racists" like Herman Cain, the argument shifts to, "you only like him because he gives your racism cover." Rank dishonesty is the domain of the left. And outward appearance is what we first see from our friends in the lame stream media.

As a segue into my OWS protestor journey, I neither shave nor shower for an extended period of time. (if I wish to wholly embrace this slacker look, I don't brush my teeth, either..If a casual observer spies a chive stuck in my teeth when I smile, I have arrived) It is important to engender that, "rail against the establishment" appearance. Smelling ones' own smell, is sufficient validation one has achieved parity with the OWS appearance.

To truly embrace the concept, I must purchase the utmost gaudy, kitschy articles of clothing from the local thrift store. A prerequisite for this neo-haberdashery might be faint odors of mothballs, cedar or musty fragrant odors. After all people need to experience overall discomfort with me in their quest to be, "tolerant".

I might be remiss if I didn't take up smoking. Nothing says "stick it to the man" like cigarette smoking. Perhaps I might even acquire a small bag of weed to make some fast friends. "A Friend with weed is a friend indeed," you know. [insert Bag O' Weed song from Family Guy]. Perhaps a pint of a libation? Drinking on public property also says, "Stick it to the Man." MD 2020...Boone's Farm? Nope! only the best! As I was wandering through Victory Park, I was startled to see a young lad parked in front of a tent with a couple of other lads, sporting a bottle of Glenfiddich 30. That kid probably stole it.

I cannot go to an OWS protest without signs. Need a Sharpie...No money, no problem just shoplift it. Otherwise, I requisition all the stuff for needed signs at the local college my mummy and daddy are paying for me to attend. Oh, and I need a drum, too. If the local kitschy junk stores are in short supply, I can steal that, too. I soldier on about the business of gathering the needed goods to attend this OWS shindig.

I am now packed and ready...I have my Blackberry....made by a greedy crooked corporation, financed by the crooks on Wall Street...I have my Coleman Tent, made by yet another big greedy corporation; The clothing I wear produced in either China or Indonesia, where I complain about how low wages are in comparison to U.S. Workers, without regard to standard of living; I've got a handy supply of cigarettes made by Big Greedy crooked Tobacco Companies that are on a mission to kill America's children; I've got my weed, its purchase having funded some drug lord somewhere who kills a lot of people to achieve market dominance; Finally a stop-off at Planned Parenthood for some free condoms. And please don't remind me about the greedy Institutions of higher learning with their arbitrary and unaccountable yearly tuition hikes; I simply do not want to hear it.

But what about food? well, nobody seems to have an answer for that. So I guess I am on my own and if I get hungry enough I can purchase a nice meal using my ATM Debit card issued by the, "Zionist Jew-controlled [sic] banks." Money on that card funded by none other than the "magic money færies." Wow! Capitalism sucks!

And speaking of the,  "Zionist Jew-controlled [sic] banks,"  I now need to practice an attitude of "tolerance..." absent of "bigotry and hate..." except for the evil, "Zionist Jew-controlled [sic] banks." No racism here, NOPE! Haters go home!

So why am I going? Why? because I want free stuff. I want a living minimum wage...about 20 bucks an hour...But If I don't like my job or don't want to work, then I want a Check. I like the way Germany does it. Government mandates for shorter work days, paid breaks funded vacations, "free" healthcare...housing, this list goes on. I want my student loans forgiven, if I am one from the lesser masses. I want the government to mail me a check when I am out of work. In fact, I don't even want to go to the mailbox...I want the postman to walk in my house and hand it to me while I am playing X-Box and eating Doritos. But I cannot do all of this without a villain. And that villain is the corporate fat cats on Wall Street and Corporate America and the stingy rich people who won't share their money.

My "retarded" conservative daddy says, "If we liquidated everything rich people owned and then sold all their assets and sacked their employees we would have their combine total net worth of 3 trillion dollars... an amount the current government requires annually for expenditures. So with that done, we could fully finance the US government for just one year." Naturally, for an effective OWS mindset, I need to say, "Daddy is full of crap." Class warfare....it's the only way to go.

All of this is well and good, but beating that drum hour after hour gets boring. So I am looking forward to getting drunk, laid, stoned and seeing what I can strategically sponge off others there.  Certainly, those with communal notions will share? Oh well, if not, I'll just steal. Stealing is okay as long as I am looking out for the greater good and I am part of that greater good. Note to Self: attempt getting into that cute hippy chick's pants...no, not that one, the other who with the little dog.

Finally, I wonder, "Who brings the toilet paper?" Nobody asks that, now do they? Just wondering. Perhaps the Unions will bring the paper.

CROSS POSTED

SUPPORT LITERACY

"I know a lot of people think I'm dumb. Well, at least I ain't no educated fool."  ~Leon Spinks

 Literacy is vital to individual success in our modern world. The ability to read, write, and speak English enables people to get jobs, participate in children's education, maintain family health, and participate in our society. 

"letters from Cassie"

CROSS-POSTED 

VICE-PRESIDENT BIDEN'S 'CRACKED-HEAD CLUB'

Biden to Representative Giffords. “Now we’re both members of the Cracked Head Club.. You know, I had two craniotomies. For real..."~Vice President Joseph Biden

While many are expressing shock about Vice-President Biden's recent comment to Rep Gabrielle Giffords now being a member of the "Cracked Head Club" I am one who is not shocked. I don't think the 'vip' meant any disrespect at all...In fact, I would go so far as to say he meant it to be warm...to identify with Representative Giffords plight...in his own stupid way of expressing that.

Biden rightfully should get a pass on this crass comment because Stupid people cannot help themselves. Academic achievement is no hallmark of brilliance. After all, Vice-President Biden attended the Roman Catholic College Prep school Archmere Academy in Claymont Delaware. He went on to the University of Delaware in Newark where he received a BA in History and Political Science. He then graduated from University of Syracuse Law with a Juris Doctor as was later admitted to the Delaware bar. But to be sure, Biden was a slacker....And, Biden's educational background illustrates for us the shining example of what Stupid People in America can achieve.

Joe Biden is a stupid person. If one really analyzes all his quips and flubs (and there are numerous) one can easily arrive at the conclusion that he simply cannot help himself. Stupid people are, well..."stupid."

Perhaps the Americans with Disabilities Act can be amended for stupid people. After all, we must be more tolerant in society, shouldn't we?  But to be truly tolerant of a stupid person, the stupid person must be a Democrat. Otherwise the Lame stream media would ostracize them and place them in the political Leper Colony, were the stupid person to be a Republican or a conservative. Such an ADA amendment would not apply to Conservatives, either. While liberals and democrats think Republicans and conservatives are stupid, stupidity is the precursor to abusing them. Just wanted to clear that up.

So, leave poor Vice-President Biden alone, I tell you! He is stupid and cannot help himself.

CROSS-POSTED