Some other features of this store include no "meat cutting". There are no butchers employed here. They just sell prepackaged meat. As I shopped for chicken, I noticed several empty spots on the cooler shelf.
And...when I got home, I realized that on May 26th I had purchased a pork roast with a "sell by date" of May 9th! The pork was for Sophie. We add toppers to her kibble like pork, beef, chicken, salmon or egg mixed with sweet potato or cottage cheese. Oh, she does love her cheese. But I wouldn't feed our princess "old meat"!
My bad for not noticing, of course. But still. In my defense, the dates are wicked small. They really don't want you to pay attention. So while the meat department doesn't have meat cutters, apparently they are understaffed enough to let something like this happen. Maybe they will have that contractor that was stocking the shelves look at the meat dates. Or maybe, Marty can do it.
Well done Bill, and I heartily agree with your comments at the end. We've lost track of many things, including that every corporate entity in this country had to be licensed at some point and there is a code of ethics attached to the licensing agreement. Honored now more in the breech than in practice, if someone with a lot of time and money wanted to throw a good-sized spanner into the works, there are a lot of breech of responsibility lawsuits waiting to happen.
The image in the My Face is still a work in progress photo reminds me of Rosie from The Jetsons. Showing my age this morning.
If this is the future, I am glad I don't have children or grandchildren! I agree wholeheartedly with your comments, Bill. As Bernie Sanders has said, the U.S. should be able to provide a decent standard of living for ALL of its citizens... if only our leaders had the will to do so.
Love the satire, Bill. You are so spot on. With the advent of robots, the shopper has the inability to ask questions like "which aisle has the things I need to hang this shelf on he wall? Or high do I make this coffee grinder machine work. Artificial intelligence is ok to answer unnuanced questions, but for complex questions you need an intelligent human mind. You are also correct that for Homo sapiens to survive we need to return to stakeholder from shareholder outlook. What is the oligarchy going to do when all the "useless minions" have died from starvation, climate crises, or poor health?
As I was walking around the store, I encountered two women straightening and stocking shelves. "I asked: where is the sun block lotion?". They said in every bad English: "Umm, I don't know. We don't work for the store." Obviously the company found it cheaper to subcontract than hire. Another example of the very antithesis of benevolent business practices. I wonder if they were undocumented folks who could be paid a lot less....
So sad …we continue this spiral at our own detriment ! We must sanction the man -not one more ILLEGAL EXECUTIVE ORDER ! He and the corrupt justices that gave him “immunity impunity “ needed to be charged with treason the minute they violated their oaths to uphold the constitution when they made a madman a MAD KING; they made him “above the law” and the minute they did that ; they became responsible for every treasonous Executive Order and affront to our Democracy they gave this “textbook “ malignant narcissist !!! Each order is proof positive of their vile intentions to dismantle our Democracy as they hunt down (they are the ones on a constant with hunt ; PROJECTION ) and persecute the most vulnerable in our society ! ENOUGH is enough !
The whole place goes dark. The doors are locked until the terrorist is found. The back up generators save the food. Shoppers are assembled at the front end. Interviews are held. MAGA faithful are released. I am placed in a freezer for storage until they decide my fate. If they find my substack, I'll never get out.
Thanks, Bill. I'll never look at that robot the same way again... and I'm one who uses that scanner at Stop&Shop. Most trips, it saves time for the cashier - I bag as I go, so the cashier has less work. I've tried the self-checkout and it's a PITA, especially with the scanner. And those scanners can be cantankerous; I've had to restart shopping at least twice in the past few months because it failed. And don't get me started on having to bend down to the lower levels of that rack to pick up the scanner. The major drawback: every so often, they run an audit on your grocery cart - which adds more time than the scanner saves. Especially when the audit mechanism fails, and the cashier needs to find the manager to fix it.
That scanner does mean the customer does (part of) the cashier's job; an even worse example is the Wegmans app that uses your phone to scan - that takes it to a whole 'nother level. I haven't tried that one yet; my spouse does her shopping there, and she won't use it.
I still want the human - they're needed to fight with the electronic system, which doesn't always work right. And I still find myself double-checking the sales slip when I get home.
I will take exception to one point, though. I learned in MBA school that the number one objective of any company is to maximize shareholder wealth. Social responsibility is not a requirement in that regard, but it's good business. A company's goodwill value is often more than the value of its assets. So I'd prefer to focus on the idea that treating customers well and treating the things they care about with due respect makes the customers want to continue to support the business, which drives the profits so the business can do more good stuff to make more money!
Thanks Bob. Good points! "Pure capitalism" wouldn't worry one whit about people - customers or employees. But enlightened and intelligent capitalists "do no harm" to people or planet.
I am a businessman who has run various enterprises. And if I had been "pure" I wouldn't have slept at night.
The founders of our big box enterprise told us every time that they visited that if we treated our customers and employees right the numbers would fall into place. They did.
I think your closing comment proves my point. I spent my career in management of biopharmaceutical facilities, and corporate responsibility for us was focused on FDA, EPA, and an alphabet soup of other agencies. If we didn't comply, we'd be out of business. Quality was essential. Treating employees well was equally important so they supported the other requirements and did more than just get the job done. Building a sense of pride created quality products that in turn positioned us for success.
Some other features of this store include no "meat cutting". There are no butchers employed here. They just sell prepackaged meat. As I shopped for chicken, I noticed several empty spots on the cooler shelf.
And...when I got home, I realized that on May 26th I had purchased a pork roast with a "sell by date" of May 9th! The pork was for Sophie. We add toppers to her kibble like pork, beef, chicken, salmon or egg mixed with sweet potato or cottage cheese. Oh, she does love her cheese. But I wouldn't feed our princess "old meat"!
My bad for not noticing, of course. But still. In my defense, the dates are wicked small. They really don't want you to pay attention. So while the meat department doesn't have meat cutters, apparently they are understaffed enough to let something like this happen. Maybe they will have that contractor that was stocking the shelves look at the meat dates. Or maybe, Marty can do it.
My grandparents wouldn’t recognize today’s warped American billionaire dreams. We need all
Hands on Deck to kill fascism now. Good piece, Bill🇺🇸💙🇺🇸⭐️
I’m no expert, but it seems useful to tax the vastly wealthy people, businesses and religions. Raising the minimum wage is a distraction.
But that’s not favored as we all observe.
Good essay Bill.
Well done Bill, and I heartily agree with your comments at the end. We've lost track of many things, including that every corporate entity in this country had to be licensed at some point and there is a code of ethics attached to the licensing agreement. Honored now more in the breech than in practice, if someone with a lot of time and money wanted to throw a good-sized spanner into the works, there are a lot of breech of responsibility lawsuits waiting to happen.
The image in the My Face is still a work in progress photo reminds me of Rosie from The Jetsons. Showing my age this morning.
If this is the future, I am glad I don't have children or grandchildren! I agree wholeheartedly with your comments, Bill. As Bernie Sanders has said, the U.S. should be able to provide a decent standard of living for ALL of its citizens... if only our leaders had the will to do so.
Love the satire, Bill. You are so spot on. With the advent of robots, the shopper has the inability to ask questions like "which aisle has the things I need to hang this shelf on he wall? Or high do I make this coffee grinder machine work. Artificial intelligence is ok to answer unnuanced questions, but for complex questions you need an intelligent human mind. You are also correct that for Homo sapiens to survive we need to return to stakeholder from shareholder outlook. What is the oligarchy going to do when all the "useless minions" have died from starvation, climate crises, or poor health?
As I was walking around the store, I encountered two women straightening and stocking shelves. "I asked: where is the sun block lotion?". They said in every bad English: "Umm, I don't know. We don't work for the store." Obviously the company found it cheaper to subcontract than hire. Another example of the very antithesis of benevolent business practices. I wonder if they were undocumented folks who could be paid a lot less....
So sad …we continue this spiral at our own detriment ! We must sanction the man -not one more ILLEGAL EXECUTIVE ORDER ! He and the corrupt justices that gave him “immunity impunity “ needed to be charged with treason the minute they violated their oaths to uphold the constitution when they made a madman a MAD KING; they made him “above the law” and the minute they did that ; they became responsible for every treasonous Executive Order and affront to our Democracy they gave this “textbook “ malignant narcissist !!! Each order is proof positive of their vile intentions to dismantle our Democracy as they hunt down (they are the ones on a constant with hunt ; PROJECTION ) and persecute the most vulnerable in our society ! ENOUGH is enough !
What happens if Marty gets knocked over ?
The whole place goes dark. The doors are locked until the terrorist is found. The back up generators save the food. Shoppers are assembled at the front end. Interviews are held. MAGA faithful are released. I am placed in a freezer for storage until they decide my fate. If they find my substack, I'll never get out.
Yes, I have watched too many movies like this. 😀
Bill, I think that I should bring my camera and we should make the movie.
We should find out!
No, not Marty!
Thanks, Bill. I'll never look at that robot the same way again... and I'm one who uses that scanner at Stop&Shop. Most trips, it saves time for the cashier - I bag as I go, so the cashier has less work. I've tried the self-checkout and it's a PITA, especially with the scanner. And those scanners can be cantankerous; I've had to restart shopping at least twice in the past few months because it failed. And don't get me started on having to bend down to the lower levels of that rack to pick up the scanner. The major drawback: every so often, they run an audit on your grocery cart - which adds more time than the scanner saves. Especially when the audit mechanism fails, and the cashier needs to find the manager to fix it.
That scanner does mean the customer does (part of) the cashier's job; an even worse example is the Wegmans app that uses your phone to scan - that takes it to a whole 'nother level. I haven't tried that one yet; my spouse does her shopping there, and she won't use it.
I still want the human - they're needed to fight with the electronic system, which doesn't always work right. And I still find myself double-checking the sales slip when I get home.
Well done, Bill! Great message.
I will take exception to one point, though. I learned in MBA school that the number one objective of any company is to maximize shareholder wealth. Social responsibility is not a requirement in that regard, but it's good business. A company's goodwill value is often more than the value of its assets. So I'd prefer to focus on the idea that treating customers well and treating the things they care about with due respect makes the customers want to continue to support the business, which drives the profits so the business can do more good stuff to make more money!
Thanks Bob. Good points! "Pure capitalism" wouldn't worry one whit about people - customers or employees. But enlightened and intelligent capitalists "do no harm" to people or planet.
I am a businessman who has run various enterprises. And if I had been "pure" I wouldn't have slept at night.
The founders of our big box enterprise told us every time that they visited that if we treated our customers and employees right the numbers would fall into place. They did.
I think your closing comment proves my point. I spent my career in management of biopharmaceutical facilities, and corporate responsibility for us was focused on FDA, EPA, and an alphabet soup of other agencies. If we didn't comply, we'd be out of business. Quality was essential. Treating employees well was equally important so they supported the other requirements and did more than just get the job done. Building a sense of pride created quality products that in turn positioned us for success.