Wal Mart cuts prices again

I've never tried the fried chicken from Publix. Someone was raving over their subs. I tried one and didn't care much for it. But they're deli lunch meats are spectacular. I buy the BBQ-basted breast of chicken, which is oh so tasty and almost fat-free. It's the only grocery store I've visited where I can get a cannoli from the bakery. They also prepare their own dough, so that you can snag some and have almost instant homemade pizza. Their produce section rocks. I'm the kind of guy who pays for convenience, and the diced onions are awesome. I just open the container and dump the whole tub into whatever I'm cooking. I also like their fresh sliced fruit.

I have to tell you, I worked at Wal-Mart for three months during my college days, and that was enough to scare the hell out of me. It was a new store, and two weeks after it opened a guy walked up to me and ordered me to work in the little in-store fast-food place. Apparently, they couldn't find anyone else to cover breaks, so they handed the baton to me and another fella. I didn't know the menu or how to prepare ANYTHING. I had absolutely no training. I had been stocking shelves in the frozen foods department. It was the same situation with the other guy. We were completely clueless. We might as well have been rebuilding engines.

We had a little folder with printed instructions. We managed to fry a few things. That experiment lasted about 30 minutes, and I quit a few days later.

 

Heinie,

I worked as a "courtesy clerk" (or common garden variety bag boy) when I was 16. I don't know how to put into words how much it sucked. Wound up quitting after six weeks and without notice, which I remember really infuriating my mother. I called to tell the manager I was a goner, and he said, "OK, you realize this will upset your references." Right. Like anyone in their proper freakin' mind would ever list having been a bag boy on a future job application.

Do try the Publix chicken sometime. Goes great with a 12-pack.

 

You don't know how great chicken and beer sound right now. I haven't eaten more than about 1,500 calories any day for the past month. And my fat intake has been at 25 grams or less per day and usually hovers around 15 grams.

The wife and I have lost 30 pounds in about a month. Unfortunately, we both have a long way to go. If I lose 120, I'll be satisfied. So I'm one-fourth of the way there. This reality is that I'd still be considered overweight by about 30 pounds.

 

I hardly ever shop at Wal-Mart now. Dillion's grocery prices are for the most part equal or cheaper (milk $1.99 compared to $2.66 at Wal-Mart). And then there's the heaven of grocery stores: Aldi.

 

HeinekenMan, good work, you'll make it. I wish you could sell me 10-15 pounds. I'm drinking all the shitty beer and eating all the bad Halloween candy I can. No luck. I weighed myself while I was at the vet's office last week (hey, the scale was conveniently placed). Still too skinny.

 

Aldi IS cheap. But if you've ever weakened to the extent that you can't live without isolated,
specific brand names, lotsa luck.

 

If you can't gain weight, I'm not sure that I can help you. The key seems to be pizza. Eat it as often as possible. And you really should be eating late at night, preferably something high in fat and calories.

 

Sounds familiar. I worked at KMart as a "runner," which was the modern term for low-paid jack of all trades and master of none, in the summer of 1990. Need someone to operate the cash register up front? Get the runner! Need someone to clean up a pile of puke in aisle six? Get the runner! Need someone to chase down the knife-wielding shoplifter? Get the runner! (somehow avoided that, though we all heard the horror story of the guy who caught a shoplifter and was bitten as the shoplifter yelled "I HAVE AIDS!!!")

It re-defined the suck in so many ways. 12:30-9:30 on Saturdays, 10-6 on Sundays, plus several weekday nights from 5-9:30. The manager had been there nine years, which was six years longer than she was supposed to be there, and for all I know the old windbag is still there. If you weren't on the lifetime plan, she had no use for you. I went away to a summer journalism convention one week and got home Saturday at like 3 pm. I had a message waiting for me from the manager: "WHERE ARE YOU?" Uhh, I'm off until Sunday, sunshine.

And the personnel manager was the same way, and with the worst teeth I've ever seen to boot. She was married to the guy who ran the auto section. Apparently, newspapers aren't the only incestous employers.

I wanted to quit in the worst way in the middle of the summer but my mother wouldn't let me. Mom told me if I quit I'd be completely on my own...no car, no spending money, no nothing all summer long. So that made it really satisfying come the first Saturday of September, when I told her I couldn't balance working at KMart along with running cross country and my senior year studies. (wink wink) She told me it was OK if I quit. I never drove to the store so fast in my life. The personnel manager tried telling me how much I'd regret this and I was like OK whatever I will never see you again.

I was determined to not only never work in retail full-time as an adult, I was determined that I'd never do that again, anywhere, and that the next gig I had would pay me to write. I was right.

I bought a couple CDs with my last check (Bad Company's Holy Water was one of them) and, instead of hating life at KMart for nine hours, dozed on the bed during a cloudless early fall day as the CD played all afternoon long. Man, that was as good as it got.

 

PFC (Publix Fried Chicken) is delectable.

 

I've never even been to a WalMart. I have nothing against it, but there isn't a WalMart close to my home.....the closest WalMart is about 20 minutes away, and I pass by 2 malls, 6 or 7 Stop&Shops, etc.

 

Never pass up a chance to degrade and denigrate working-class people who don't have the good fortunte to travel in the elite circles in which you reside.

 

The trick in getting a good sub at Publix is to request Boar's Head meat. It's $1 more, but worth it. The sub rolls are always fresh and their Italian-type sub dressing (which you can also buy) is great.