Praise for the Customer Service at the Local Stop & Shop in Sandwich, MA

I came across a rather confusing coupon given to me by Stop &Shop.  The coupon was for the A+ rewards program.  I know that that means that Stop & Shop contributes to schools based upon what one buys if an item gives A+ points.  That is, A+ points benefit the community.  To see children grow up with a school system that values them, and a town that is willing to assist that is a wonderful thing.  Thus, I see that A+ rewards are a good thing, even if they don’t directly result in savings.  I am glad that it is offered, and I hope that people support it.

The coupon I had actually said $1 off 20 cans, and $0.50 off 6 cans.  I bought a package of 24 cans.  The coupon said that it was not subject to doubling.  However, though there was a dotted line on the coupon, I was not sure if it was one coupon or two coupons, especially since the coupon only had 1 bar code that could be scanned.

Sue is a lady that usually works nights at the register.  She probably doesn’t have to.  She probably could get by on Social Security, as she is older.  I think that it is wonderful that she has continued working, and through her work, I believe that she can be a blessing to our town.  She serves customers with a smile.  She has always been polite, and nice in the sense of being accurate, and not the archaic meaning of being wishy-washy.  I took my coupon to Sue, and asked her, “If I buy 2 more cans will I get $0.50 off?”  Her reply was no, since the coupon said that it was not subject to doubling.  In that language, I was unsure if that meant doubling itself, or doubling with other coupons.  However, something still wasn’t making sense.  That is, if I bought 20 cans, then I had already bought 6 cans and since this was a single coupon, I should get $1.50 off and not just $1 off.  Sue was kind, and on the error on the part of the store entered an additional $.50 off several times, and called the manager over and kindly asked the manager why the register was acting the way it was.  The manager didn’t have a clue.  Then, another customer came further compounding the problem situation, as we didn’t want to make him wait in order to be served.

A resolution was reached.  Sue would give me $0.50 out of her drawer.  That’s good business for as far as I am concerned, the customer is almost always right.  Having worked registers at various stores myself, I know that if your register comes up short, then you often get a written warning, or something like that.  Sue risked a warning by giving me that money.  However, I took the $0.50 and put it in the charity box that Stop & Shop has at the local store.  That way, I can know that if Sue gets heckled for doing what she did, she is being heckled over money given to charity.  And, she knows that to, so Gd give her strength if anyone decides to be mean to her!  However, that sort of immoral practice does not seem to be the norm at the local.

I was very proud to be a good customer, doing business the old-fashioned way.  In fact, the man who was waiting in line and others may have received a few pointers not only from Sue, but also from me.

1.       Sue and I discussed the A+ rewards program, such that the man waiting in line may have heard about it, and that this sort of charity is important.

2.       One of the products I got during this trip I had accidently left, the last time I was at the store was waiting for me.  I was not charged.  The product was a shoe cleaning kit, designed to help clean shoes to make them last longer.  I usually have leather shoes, or some leather in my shoes, such that they last longer and are definitely worth paying for a Kiwi kit to fix up.  The service desk looked up the transaction, and said that I could have the kit for free because it was turned in.  That is the kid working the desk should learn that even after a few days have passed, it is not too late to ask about a missing item.

3.       Then, not one but three people saw me with the kit.  The man behind me, waiting in line.  He was middle aged.  Many people have forgotten that there are such things as shoe cleaning kits, and possibly I reminded him of that.  Sue saw it, and she probably felt that proud that someone in her town was going to try to make their shoes last longer.  And, the young man working at the service desk may have gotten the idea that making shoes last longer is cool.

4.       I used a coupon to save money on the diapers I was buying.

5.       Two witnesses saw that I put the $0.50 that Sue gave me from her drawer into the charity box, which Stop & Shop so kindly makes readily available at their checkout counters.

Lawn Care and Tourism on Cape Cod

I don’t understand the craze to have a lawn.  In fact, to having a lawn seems like a terrible thing.  Huh?  Well, every time I mow the lawn, I am contributing to the depletion of top soil.  Cape Cod already has only a thin layer of top soil.  Grass can rob nutrients from the soil if it is mowed carelessly.  Those nutrients are scattered to the wind, and they blow away, where you might find them in the depths of the ocean.  Now, some mowers are better than others.  And, I guess I don’t have a problem with it if it is done like how my Dad does.

Last summer, I had a side job mowing lawns, and I just couldn’t do it for so many reasons.  I thought the man overcharged for his rooms.  I thought his actions were borderline on heartless on several occasions, and that he should have been more charitable.  I did not need the money, but my goal was to help him pay off his mortgage, such that he did not owe money, or was at least not forced to foreclose on his property.  Now, in his favor, I don’t think that he knew any better nor any other way of doing things.  However, he was the boss, and I knew of a better way of doing things, such that no slave is superior to his master.  It was an employment scenario that just couldn’t work.

Not only does grass deplete the top soil, but to spread it about aimlessly conjures up my idea of the characters Er and Onan in the Bible, and the wickedness of spilling one’s seed, that resulted in the Lord putting someone to death.  At the place of employment, there were these big piles of dead plant growth, and yet no attempt was being made to use them for the purpose of recycling.  This is the difference between he and my dad.  When my dad mows his lawn, he collects the grass, puts it in the place in the woods along with other plant material, but he actually uses it when he gardens.  They key ingredient of the mistake my boss was making was that he was mixing grass clippings with branches.  This sort of scenario can’t result in an optimized composting system.  Rather, it becomes difficult to retrieve the part that becomes soil first, such that over the course of time, what you have is a pile of sand left when the grass can no longer grow and a pile of grass clippings that would be as a worthless island of soil, the beginning of an oil deposit in the middle of a land of sand.  Locally, what good are two piles, except for when one is for long term recycling, while the other would be good within a year or so?

What I was doing by mowing the lawn at this place was inviting visitors from foreign lands to bring invasive species, which in all probability would cause harm to the environment in the short term.  In the long term, the invasive species may actually benefit.  And, perhaps, where there is one invasive species that is dominating an ecosystem, a natural predator from the invasive species could be introduced, a foreign species, almost like an invasive species, to help control the population of the problematic invasive species.  Such is the concept of the phrase, “The more, the merrier.”  That is, just because a species is not native to a certain environment does not make it problematic to that environment.  However, in the case of owning a local motel, the mowing of lawns invites foreigners to haphazardly bring invasive species to Cape Cod.  Cape Cod already has many invasive species, and it is my prayer that these invasive species don’t destroy Cape Cod, and its value even as a place to visit, but that in the long term the overall strength of Cape Cod’s ecosystem is improved, such that there is population control, not just for humans, but also for invasive species for creation is groaning at the sins of mankind and his voyages.

One invasive species that is sometimes a problem on Cape Cod is the gypsy moth, no offense to gypsies intended on my part.  But, these horrible moths sometimes destroy the beauty of Cape Cod, leaving chewed tree leaves, and dying trees.  It is therefore been my suggestion to introduce natural predators of the gypsy moth to the environment of Cape Cod, in an effort to control them.  There are other invasive species, such as certain kinds of crabs, and grass that are also invasive.  I do not know much about the foreign lands where these creatures come from, but what I do know is that they are running rampant, and a stop needs to put to their superfluous multiplication.  If nothing is done to save Cape Cod’s trees, then Cape Cod is destined to become a ghetto.

Sometimes places that have been wonderful tourist attractions turn into ghettos.  I am a witness that that happened to some places on the New Jersey shore.  After a drive through the ghetto, I came to a sign, where there was a picture of where I was standing, but it wasn’t in ruin, it was fine and luxurious like Cape Cod.  And, I thought, if it can happen to them, it can happen to us.  We need to take action!

Cape Cod is precious and needs to be protected.  We must be a land that don’t need tourism to flourish, if we are to be more than as a firecracker in history.  We must be able to get by without tourists.  We need to think local, such that we can be a self-sustaining community before we start to invite visitors.  We also need to be able to clean up after our visitors, such that we can care for them appropriately.  If we have not done these things, then we have not been hospitable to our visitors, and likewise we should expect that Cape Cod will not be hospitable in the future.

1st Bartering - Sandwich, MA Public Library

I like to go to the library. I use it for many reasons. However, this blog is not about that. It’s about bartering. I had lost my library card, and there is a fee for a new card. The fee is $3. I’m okay with it. The fee probably even written into law or something. Don’t let anything stop you from bartering. Many times people will waive something, especially if you can give them something in return. So, to get the fee waived, I offered about $50 in free books. The idea was to be somewhat charitable in addition to making the trade.

Naturally, there was a little stammer in by the librarian. She had probably never encountered something like this before. She was not the head librarian, so she said that she wanted to consult her superior before making the decision. In my town, I don’t know of many people that barter. That is a shame.

When the librarian said that she would have to ask her superior, I retracted my offer of the books. In Hyannis, I know that there is a place where I can leave books, and though I would get nothing in return for it, I feel laws should not be hard and fast, such that they can’t be waived. That is, I felt a need to give to charity, but it is important not to squander one’s valuables. If it wasn’t worth it to the librarian to give me a free card in return for about 7 books, 2 of which were hard cover, I didn’t want them to have my books. Seriously, I was offering them a trade of about $50 for a $3 card. If it wasn’t worth it to them, then I would take my books elsewhere, where there was nothing that could be offered to me in return. Maybe, the next place wouldn’t squander it? However, I am glad that there was no squandering, and I was proud of how my town acted with my generous proposition.

I prefer to give to charity locally before I give it away to places further away though it is important not to neglect places that are further away. In the story of the city of Sodom in the Bible, according to legend lack of hospitality was the reason the city was destroyed. As the legend goes, the people in Sodom would starve anyone who visited by doing things like raising the cost of bread. So, what this legend tells us is that it is important to be hospitable to everyone, and not just locals. This is why the Sandwich Public Library was my first choice to give books.

Luckily, the librarian made a split decision, and decided to waive the $3 fee. I am very proud to live in the town I live in. I like for it to be a nice place and a part of that is actually working to make it a nice place. Hopefully, by bartering, I have helped improve the world, and not ripped off the town. What do you think?