Me and smoking---I"m choking here!

I'm a smoker. Not the heaviest smoker in the world but I'm a smoker. I think I do it out of boredom. At work, I don't smoke and have no problems. When I'm around my son, I don't smoke.

The strange thing about me and smoking, When I'm not smoking, I hate the smell of smoke. A smoker who hates the smell of smoke...odd.

So, I"m sitting here at Safeway in the corner on a bench. The bench is around 12 feet long with 3 tables in front of it. I'm sitting at one of the ends.

A elderly gentleman comes in and reeks of smoke. It is so freaken strong! Its all in his clothe and smells awful! I smelled him when he was 10 feet away. And now, instead of taking the other table farthest from me, he decides to take the table right next to me!!! I"m choking here!!

I'm typing, and he's 3 feet away. One leg crossed over the other. He's bobbing one leg up and down. Taking his sweet time eating something he bought in the deli section. If i had to guess, he is clearly homeless. But even homeless people should respect my space.

That's it, I"m taking a break and going outside to have a smoke.

Mysteries are good

Almost everyday, late in the afternoon, this well mannered Hispanic man would come in the sitting area with a laptop and an assistant. He sets up his laptop and everyday there is a couple new Hispanic people with him.

I have no clue what is going on. I can't speak Spanish. Its like everyday. Even on the weekends. And all this time watching him, I can't tell if he is selling them something. Educating them. Maybe he is a complete fraud stealing from immigrants. I mean, who makes their office at Safeway?

I really have no idea what is going on. All I know is, they all sit around , talk allot and stare at the laptop.

But incidently, I really don't want to find out. I'm sure I can just easily ask him. But sometimes, mysterious are good. Besides, there can only be 2 outcomes if I ask him.

1. The answer is so simple and the aura of the mystery is over. Basicaly a let down.
2. The answer he give me sounds good but is a lie.

What's with the Baggers attire?

I just noticed the teenage baggers wear ties? There is nothing wrong with it. They look good. I really have no complaints.

But when you see some baggers running out into the hot son to fetch carts wearing a tie......Well, I don't know the right expression. Its fine, but you know the thought of like...hmmmmm...tie...hmmmmm.


I don't know why lately I"ve been writing about those teenagers running after carts lately. I guess its the thought that someday, one of these cart fetchers will rise to supervise 100 employees under them at some unknown company.

And mathematically, one of them will end up in prison.

Clean tables?

On my way to Safeway today, I've decided I"m going to start taking care of the sitting area of Safeway. I'm going to keep things neat and clean. So I went and bought one of those sprays to clean tables with.

The area is never really messy or unclean. But I just figure if I'm going to use Safeway as my living room, I mind as well as treat it such. I should do my part.

Well, when I got to Safeway, the tables were nicely organized and the tables were fairly clean. What they hey??!!! The one day I decided I'm going to be janitor of my area and someone gets to it before I do! There is always tomorrow.

Carts Carts Carts

So I'm outside of Safeway having a cigarette watching the young baggers grudgingly fetch all those carts. Actually the cart fetchers at this Safeway are pretty good about it. And they don't show any displeasure about it. But it got me thinking.

There has to be a better way. Well, somethings in life you can't substitute the human touch. Maybe no a better way but there has to be a easier way.

I only came up with one solution......

The parking layout of this Safeway is done very well. Every row of parking has a walkway (at the nose of your car) that leads to the store. Now, at Target, if you want to go up or down the escalator to another floor, you can put your cart on a contraption next to the escalator that will bring the cart up or down with you.

So the idea is...Suppose over these walkways, are people movers like they have at the airport. So at a couple points in the parking lot, the baggers would go out, move a cart to the "Target contraption" that lifts the carts up to the people/cart mover that would move the cart back to the store. The cart would come down in the store. And if a customer wants to use a cart they just take it off the thing.

If they can make a bowling ball boomerang back you, they can do it with a cart.

There are 2 cons to this idea.

1. The cost to build such a thing is not cost effective.
2. Sending those teenagers out, give them something to do when business is slow.


But it makes their jobs a little bit easier.

I trully believe his idea is not half bad. But no one is going to invest $50k to move carts back into a store.

These Safeway Baristas

I don't know who is in charge of hiring these Starbuck Baristas in Safeway but he/she seem to know who is suitable for the job.

The Starbucks counter is one of the first things you see when you enter the store. All the Baristas are really young girls. Most likely high shool age and they are very friendly. Except for one. The one exception is not unfriendly, just very business like.

Oh how nice it is to be young. I sense the younger baggers all the time. I can see their minds. Why is that guy almos sitting here at our Safeway. Doesn't he have anywhere to go. What a loser! He's probably homeless. No wait. He can't be. He looks Asian. hmmm. Don't make eye contact, he's got the look of a mentally unstable.

Or...they can be like typical teenagers and have nothing going on up here and dont' really care.

Loud phone talker

All pretty quiet today in Safeway. There was a girl who sat 6 feet from me. She got on the phone and at some point was pretty much yelling into her cellphone. She was speaking in Spanish. But it amazes me she doesn't seem to mind that other people in a 30 yard radius can hear what her convesation is. Considering here is a group of 4 Hispanic gentlemen sitting here in the table area.