Tag Archives: giant

respecting personal space

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Above you see the bank machine in the Giant on Boot Road in West Chester. It’s the Giant that locals say is in the Bermuda Triangle  of retirement homes (Hershey’s Mill, Bellingham, Wellington).

Anyway, it’s an interior bank machine next to a micro branch of PNC Bank. Sometimes it’s busy and when it’s busy you either wait your turn or come back later.

Today I was depositing a check at the bank machine, and I was literally endorsing the check over to the bank so I could pop it into the machine, when all of a sudden I felt someone right upon me and behind me.  That is a slightly disconcerting feeling let alone taking into consideration the fact I was standing at a bank machine with my wallet out.

So this older gent – I would say the late 60s early 70s – is literally right on top of me. Startled I turned and looked at him.  He was close enough that I could smell his breath.

“I’m in a hurry. You don’t mind if I jump ahead while you are doing that do you?” He says.

I think my mouth must’ve hung open first and I paused before I answered, and I looked at him and I said “Why yes , I do mind.”

He then says “Well  calm down sweetheart!”

Alrighty. I just turned my back to him and kept my mouth clamped firmly shot. I was honestly afraid of what might come out if I responded.

Let’s start with the fact that I’m not his sweetheart, and he’s completely ignorant.

The second thing is I patiently wait my turn whenever someone’s ahead of me at the bank machine, it’s what you do. And I don’t stand on top of them, I give them space and privacy because that’s what you’re supposed to do , it’s a banking transaction.

I don’t know what it is about people at interior location bank machines. But they seem to think normal rules don’t apply.

I think there should be signs at these interior machines like they have for pharmacy lines where they ask people to keep it respectful distance between the current customer and themselves.  

I have run into this problem before at this particular bank machine.  Last time it was a huffy and shouting woman who told me she was important and she was in a hurry and I should move over for her. Literally.

(You will note as to not embarrass this man’s family I did not post a picture of him. Just the bank machine so you could see the space.)

I sometimes wonder where basic manners have gone. And why people can’t respect the personal space of others when they expect you to respect their’s. 

The final thought is this had that man done that at a bank machine in Center City Philadelphia, I probably would have stepped on his foot and elbowed him in the stomach and asked questions later because I would’ve been even more concerned I was about to be mugged or something.

There is no accounting for rude behavior I suppose. At any age. if I had been feeling witty I probably would’ve turned him and said “Oh grandpa please!”

today at giant

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  Something  I did not like today in the checkout line. I had a developmentally challenged adult man who was bagging my  order. He had an aide with him who was kind of pushing him too hard.

The grocery store was picking up with a lot of people in line to check out and I could tell he (the bagger) was getting a little flustered. The aide attached to the man bagging was not picking up on the cues being given by this guy that he needed a break.

 I wasn’t pushing them to get out of the store more quickly, I was happy to wait an extra few minutes so that the man doing the bagging who was developmently disadvantaged could complete his task. But what was happening is the person there being the aide was not particularly patient with the person he was assigned. I don’t know how else to describe it. 

The aide was reaching up and around him and basically just push push pushing him when you could see the man doing the bagging reacting much the same way a child who was upset and being pushed too much would react – he was getting very flustered and I felt very badly. The aid kept saying “you have to do your job, you have to do your job” or something basically like that.

So I went to the store manager on my way out.  The manager was reluctant to go over there and told me that the Giant employees don’t generally interfere with these people and their aides. I was at the Giant on Boot Road in West Chester.

I do not know what the protocol is here, and the gentleman who was with the aid during the bagging did not appear to be Down’s Syndrome but something else.  He was fully capable of doing his assigned tasks, he was just doing it a little more slowly than probably the average person would. Again, I had absolutely  no problem with the job he was doing, I had concerns about the way the aide was treating him.

end of an era: genuardi’s to giant

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Today is the last day for Genuardi’s on Boot Road in West Chester.  At 6 p.m. this evening, the doors close for good as a Genuardi’s, and the conversion to Giant begins.

On June 15th, the Federal Trade Commission finally approved the sale of the 15 Genuardi’s stores to Giant.

But if we are honest with ourselves, the Genuardi’s Markets stopped being Genuardi’s when the family sold to Safeway in a transaction that was finalized in 2001.

The Boot Road store was truthfully, in my opinion, the best of the bunch.  I had mostly used the Wynnewood and St. David’s stores before, and St. David’s seemed to have issues being in a building that was rumored to have issues (you could see marks on the ceilings like there were roof leaks and stuff), and the customer service people and other staff weren’t especially helpful in a consistent way.  And the Wynnewood store ?  Well Wynnewood had haphazard service at best and that store was even more dirty than the Wynnewood Superfresh. And the parking lot in Wynnewood is a disaster. But if you live in Lower Merion, you might not notice all the potholes and surface issues in the lot because so many streets have the same issues around there.

I went to the store on Boot Road yesterday to pick up a couple of things and found the store mostly emptied out.  As per employees, the store hopes to re-open as a Giant on July 8th. It was so weird to be in an almost empty store.

One amusing thing I would like to share about being in Genuardi’s yesterday has nothing to do with the conversion.  It has to do with a pet peeve of mine – people having huge cell phone conversations loudly while shopping.

Yesterday, this chick saunters into what was left of frozen food with her cell phone on speaker and held out in her palm – à la Bravo Real Housewives of Anything.

It was one of those “I saw your man and let me tell you” conversations. It reminded me of that cell phone conversation on the commercial where the woman in the mall parking lot at first thinks the Rolls Royce is her car.  I feel bad for whomever was on the other end of that conversation as quite a few people heard most of the conversation before phone girl took it off speaker.  Definitely not a conversation you want random people to overhear, and we’ll leave it at that.

Keep cool today people!  And remember to go help East Goshen Farmers’ Market celebrate their 1st birthday this afternoon.

becky home ecky release me from my bonds

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It’s cooking week apparently…and doctor?  I think I am nesting.  My friend Linda even caught me in an apron. (There will be no film at 11 lest I suddenly spot orthopedic oxfords and a hair net too.)

Today homemade Mexican was just calling my name.

One of the other fun things about Chester County is tucked in here and there are little ethnic grocery stores and organic grocery stores, in addition to regular grocery stores and farm markets.  I have also discovered the regular grocery stores have a better selection than their counterparts I was used to on the Main Line. And I am not even talking Wegmans, which while lovely I find waaaaayyy too expensive.

So today there I was minding my own business and that chicken I roasted the other night practically screamed “enchiladas!” so I thought, why not?

While I was out dodging the Buicks from the Retirement Vatican also known as Hershey’s Mill, I thought I would like fresh salsa too, so I picked up all the ingredients, snipped herbs from garden and dinner smells marvelous and is only a few minutes away from being served.

I would have to kill you if I told you my secret enchilada recipe, but I will tell you today it also contains fresh Queso which I found in my travels today – in the dairy case, not by the side of the road.

 

My salsa recipe – which gets tweaked here and there:

4 round, ripe, preferably organic or local tomatoes (not huge, just average)

3 tomatillos

1 large red onion

1 yellow or orange sweet pepper

1 small bunch of cilantro

fresh basil, oregano minced

1 packet of Goya Sazon

Dash sweet paprika

Dash smoked paprika

salt and pepper

Lime zest of two limes, juice of three limes

1 pleasantly plump Jalapeno pepper, diced and seeded

It’s not rocket science, only salsa, so chop it up, toss it in a blender or food processor and pulse until desired consistency is achieved (we are of a couple different minds in my house – I like it more chunky, the boy and the man prefer it a little more smooth even if to me that is Gazpacho’s kissing cousin.)

It keeps a few days nicely in the fridge.

Domestic Diva over and out.