Low Down at the Grocery Store

A couple of days ago Mr. Al went shopping at our local Safeway. He does this a lot, running in for chips and soda, which I rarely buy. On this particular trip they were having a promotional game they called a cake walk. An announcer would count down from ten, then call a number. If you were standing on the right number glued to the floor, you won a prize.

This particular prize, some grilling thing or another, was of interest to him, so he turned to the nearest number – there in the meat department – in time to see an employee who had been loitering next to it stick his foot out to claim in.

Low and behold, it was the winning number. The other employees in the meat department were busy clapping and cheering as if this guy had done something good. Mr. Al was out of luck.

He’s not really one to put up with a perceived injustice, so he came right home to tell us all about it.

What would you do if you were in the store at the time? What would you do if your spouce/friend/room mate came home to tell you all about it?

Naturally I agreed it was wrong, and promptly announced I would blog about it. Mr. Al, though, couldn’t seem to let it go. Finally, when I said I was going there for groceries (because he doesn’t buy things like flour, dish soap, or veggies) he went along to complain to the management.

Apparently the employee’s behavior was a shock to the manager. He agreed completely with Mr. Al that it shouldn’t have happened. A little while later Mr. Al saw the manager in the meat department reading the employees there the riot act.

The meat department happens to be next to the bakery. When the manager came out he saw Mr. Al standing there and gave him this cake as a consolation prize.

It was a little stale, The Boy said, but only survived part of one day in our household. Mr. Al was pleased. His opinion was validated quite nicely. But in the end, it would have been nicer to have won the grilling equipment.