Author Topic: Overheard at Work  (Read 13253168 times)

gaja

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18700 on: October 09, 2017, 08:26:25 AM »
I wonder if the study looked at bike lanes that are demarcated by a line of paint rather than proper bike lanes that have a physical barrier.

It doesn't fit with my experience either.
My guess is that they looked at roads with bike lanes vs roads without.  Roads with bike lanes are probably more congested, hence the reason it needed a bike lane.  If you look at a per mile of road basis, my guess is roads with bike lanes have more wrecks than roads without.

If this is true it's one of those cases of: there's lies, damn lies, and statistics.  I've learned I can take data and come up with any conclusion I want.  Overcoming your biases is really hard, even with hard data in front of you.

According to a road planner I talked to, almost all accidents were cars drive into people happens at zebra crossings. I guess the logical conclusion is to remove all zebra crossings? He also described a study that shoved that all security features in cars lead to more reckless driving, and suggested removing airbags and installing sharp spikes in the center of the steering wheel instead, to encourage careful driving.

Raenia

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18701 on: October 09, 2017, 09:08:25 AM »
Would you all mind keeping the bike-safety-or-not stuff to it's own thread?  There's one in this very board: https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/antimustachian-wall-of-shame-and-comedy/biking-is-dangerous/

RidetheRain

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18702 on: October 09, 2017, 09:37:01 AM »
Was talking with a colleague in the parking lot this morning after she parked the biggest SUV I've seen yet in a compact parking space. For context, I know she has two 13-14 year old children.

Me: "Wow, that's a big car!" <Hoping to subtly hint that maybe compact parking isn't the place for her.>

Her: "Yeah I know, I know. But I had to drop my kids off at school this morning so I needed the bigger car"

Me: "Gotcha, I hope it's not too out of the way for you"

Her: "No, no just a block from the house."

Now, parenting is difficult and as a non-parent I know I have no right to tell people how to raise their kids so the conversation ended. But Jesus Mary and Joseph! Tell your kids to walk! Or to sit next to each other in the smaller car for the two seconds it will take to drive one freaking block!

paddedhat

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18703 on: October 09, 2017, 09:45:59 AM »
Would you all mind keeping the bike-safety-or-not stuff to it's own thread?  There's one in this very board: https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/antimustachian-wall-of-shame-and-comedy/biking-is-dangerous/

Yea, um. That works for me, until somebody starts in with the "Your no better than a rape apologist" bullshit. Then I would mind NOT reply to that grade of garbage.

LennStar

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18704 on: October 09, 2017, 10:22:01 AM »
According to a road planner I talked to, almost all accidents were cars drive into people happens at zebra crossings. I guess the logical conclusion is to remove all zebra crossings? He also described a study that shoved that all security features in cars lead to more reckless driving, and suggested removing airbags and installing sharp spikes in the center of the steering wheel instead, to encourage careful driving.

Haha, yes, that is the standard story on how to NOT read statistics. Was in a TED video, too.
Like, you know, the mayority of people killed in an airplane accident are sitting inside an airplane does not automatically mean that airplanes are more dangerous then other vehicles.

Quote
Her: "No, no just a block from the house."

You know, when I was 5 years old I walked home all alone about 500m.
Granted it was a very easy way and only one not much used street to cross, but still. It is *not* impossible to walk that distance with school kids, and probably faster then getting them all in and out of the car. (btw. when I was 9 I walked alone 800m even in the dark mornings. As was everyone else, and quite some of them farer.)
Not to mention the "exercise" those children surely need and btw. which could have positive results on their school success.

ixtap

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18705 on: October 09, 2017, 10:24:48 AM »
According to a road planner I talked to, almost all accidents were cars drive into people happens at zebra crossings. I guess the logical conclusion is to remove all zebra crossings? He also described a study that shoved that all security features in cars lead to more reckless driving, and suggested removing airbags and installing sharp spikes in the center of the steering wheel instead, to encourage careful driving.

Haha, yes, that is the standard story on how to NOT read statistics. Was in a TED video, too.
Like, you know, the mayority of people killed in an airplane accident are sitting inside an airplane does not automatically mean that airplanes are more dangerous then other vehicles.

Quote
Her: "No, no just a block from the house."

You know, when I was 5 years old I walked home all alone about 500m.
Granted it was a very easy way and only one not much used street to cross, but still. It is *not* impossible to walk that distance with school kids, and probably faster then getting them all in and out of the car. (btw. when I was 9 I walked alone 800m even in the dark mornings. As was everyone else, and quite some of them farer.)
Not to mention the "exercise" those children surely need and btw. which could have positive results on their school success.

I walked three blocks, but the neighbor a few doors down drove her (incredibly spoiled) kid. Sometimes she would offer to take me home, but all those videos said not to accept a ride, even if it was someone you knew, so I still walked.

RidetheRain

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18706 on: October 09, 2017, 10:46:16 AM »
According to a road planner I talked to, almost all accidents were cars drive into people happens at zebra crossings. I guess the logical conclusion is to remove all zebra crossings? He also described a study that shoved that all security features in cars lead to more reckless driving, and suggested removing airbags and installing sharp spikes in the center of the steering wheel instead, to encourage careful driving.

Haha, yes, that is the standard story on how to NOT read statistics. Was in a TED video, too.
Like, you know, the mayority of people killed in an airplane accident are sitting inside an airplane does not automatically mean that airplanes are more dangerous then other vehicles.

Quote
Her: "No, no just a block from the house."

You know, when I was 5 years old I walked home all alone about 500m.
Granted it was a very easy way and only one not much used street to cross, but still. It is *not* impossible to walk that distance with school kids, and probably faster then getting them all in and out of the car. (btw. when I was 9 I walked alone 800m even in the dark mornings. As was everyone else, and quite some of them farer.)
Not to mention the "exercise" those children surely need and btw. which could have positive results on their school success.

I walked three blocks, but the neighbor a few doors down drove her (incredibly spoiled) kid. Sometimes she would offer to take me home, but all those videos said not to accept a ride, even if it was someone you knew, so I still walked.

I remember missing the bus at roughly the same age. My mother was a stay at home mom so she could have driven me the 2 miles to school. Instead, she rigged up a system to strap my french horn case safely to my bike and sent me off.

financialfreedomsloth

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18707 on: October 09, 2017, 10:48:41 AM »
My colleague tells me she lives paycheck to paycheck.  She's 50 something and renting a small place in an expensive area of town.  She worries that she'll never be able to retire.  However:

-when my older baby was born and I was cloth diapering her, she told me "when my son was a baby I only used Pampers brand disposable diapers on him as I only want the BEST for my son."
-I buy clothes for my kids either second hand or on sale at the end of the season a year in advance once size bigger.  I once mentioned this and she said "I'd never do that for my son as I only buy the best current season clothes for him and never on sale."
-she says she really admires the fact that we were able to buy an apartment.  However, we bought a place in a lower income area that she would never consider.  She rents in one of the priciest areas of town and looks down her nose at areas like where we live. 
-she is also afraid to buy a place (despite crazy low interest rates and house prices here) as she says that she's afraid of having to pay a mortgage every month.  I pointed out that she has to pay rent every month but she doesn't seem to get the analogy.
-she owns a car that she drives maybe once a month as you really don't need a car to live in this city.  She says that she'd never get rid of it as how would she get to IKEA or to visit her sister who lives a bit further out of the city.  I told her about car sharing but she dismissed that as "too difficult".

I know people exactly like this.

And the fact that they are struggling is someone else's fault.  Always.

She reminds me of a co-wroker I had. The bank I worked at was restructuring and offered all workers older than 58 a kind of pre-pension: they would get 80% of current wage until official retirement age and could stay home. Of course this would also have an impact on their pension (but a small one). Everybody in my department above 58 thought it to be a fantastic deal (most had been working at the bank for 40+ years and could easily absorb the 20% loss in wages).

All except this one guy.

So I aks him why he is not happy about it. Turns out he wants to keep working till 65 as he wants his full pay check and full pension.
'Brussels is an expensive city and I have  high rent to pay' is his first excuse.
I am like, what, you never bought a house? He then says Brussels was always expensive to buy a house.
I reply that is true and it is the reason why I bought a house further from Brussels. I then get the reply he is a true Brusselsman and would never consider living anywhere else ... (Which again raises the question why he never bought a house there in the first place ...).

Across of him another old co-worker sat. When the grumpy guy left he said he was going to take the deal, rent out his very big appartment in Brussels and rent a smaller appartment closer to his son as he no longer needs to life in Brussels when he is not working there. The difference in rent will be bigger than the pay cut he will take so he will actually have more money every month and no longer need to work than he has now by working...

O yeah, the grumpy guy earned more than the happy one ...

Hula Hoop

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18708 on: October 09, 2017, 11:36:18 AM »
I know for a fact that my coworker has a potential down payment for an apartment (unless she spent it all) as she told me how much she inherited when he parents died.  She's in her early 50s and has a very steady pay check - she's been at the same job for 30 years.  She looked at some houses to buy after her last lease ended but they were all in slightly less expensive areas than her preferred area (which is the richest area in town) so she wouldn't consider them.  Also, she seems really intimidated by the process of getting a mortgage as well as scared that she won't be able to make mortgage payments even though she's been paying rent on time for 30 years now.

RidetheRain

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18709 on: October 09, 2017, 11:48:28 AM »
scared that she won't be able to make mortgage payments even though she's been paying rent on time for 30 years now.

You know, I've never really understood that fear. If you miss rent you could get kicked out immediately. If you miss a mortgage payment you have time required by law and a bank that really wants to work with you because banks don't want to own houses. There are some sleazy banks out there, but generally, they will work with you first. Obviously credit gets hit both ways, but wouldn't having a house be better in that scenario?

zolotiyeruki

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18710 on: October 09, 2017, 12:25:11 PM »
scared that she won't be able to make mortgage payments even though she's been paying rent on time for 30 years now.

You know, I've never really understood that fear. If you miss rent you could get kicked out immediately. If you miss a mortgage payment you have time required by law and a bank that really wants to work with you because banks don't want to own houses. There are some sleazy banks out there, but generally, they will work with you first. Obviously credit gets hit both ways, but wouldn't having a house be better in that scenario?
Banks REALLY don't want to own houses.  Typically (from what I've seen) you have several months, if not a full year, before you have to worry about foreclosure and eviction.  And being late on a payment doesn't even necessarily mean you'll get a ding on your credit history.  There's been a couple times in the last 5 years where DW or I was late making the monthly payment, but nothing ever showed up on the credit report.

firelight

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18711 on: October 09, 2017, 10:49:37 PM »
I doubt people like this admit it to themselves while they are in law school or whatever.  The fact that ex-boss' wife told me she quit her high paying lawyer job as soon as she peed on a stick (or just afterwards) kind of seemed nuts as former boss was always complaining about the millstone of their combined law school loans around his neck.  I had bad morning sickness when she told me this and other health issues but was showing up at work each day anyway and doing my best while ducking to the bathrooms to barf during meetings. 

These kinds of perceptions are just one more cross us working women have to bear.
I hate such people too. Two of my co-workers (married to each other) got pregnant. The wife quit the next day to 'take care of baby'. And we are stuck with the husband complaining of loans and debt and target runs and toys.

I'm all for people staying home if they want to. But please don't complain or compare with others. And my sil was training to be a dentist when she got pregnant and became a sahm. The loans were from that period. She claims being a dentist and a mom are mutually exclusive

LennStar

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18712 on: October 10, 2017, 01:26:08 AM »
I'm all for people staying home if they want to. But please don't complain or compare with others. And my sil was training to be a dentist when she got pregnant and became a sahm. The loans were from that period. She claims being a dentist and a mom are mutually exclusive

Hm... I think I have to tell that my dentist the next time. He and his wife are working together (one left side rooms, one right side rooms), and I think they have 2 children.

AnnaGrowsAMustache

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18713 on: October 10, 2017, 02:02:23 AM »
Agreed. But a lot of drivers aren't reasonable. And then the cyclist is dead or badly injured. Is it worth that just to be right regarding fault? If cyclists were interested in their own safety they would assume all drivers are unreasonable and refrain from riding two abreast where they can't be overtaken. I mean, I have the right to cross the road at a crossing, but I'm still going to look both ways before I do! Because I'm the one that's going to bear the consequences.

You're one step removed from blaming rape victims for wearing skirts, I suggest you reconsider your victim blaming perspective.

If cyclists choose to ride side by side (and there are a number of reasons this might be appropriate) then they should be able to do so freely and without judgement.

I'm not victim blaming. Absolutely the car is at fault. I'm saying that I run MY life by taking more care when I'M the one that will bear the consequences. That's reality. To go back to your rape victim blaming example (which I think is in quite poor taste, frankly), I should be able to walk around naked without being attacked by some freak. But that's not very bloody likely so I think I'll wear clothing..... If I get hit by a car, I'll be a tad more screwed up than the car driver so I take care crossing the road. Even at a crossing. See how that works?

AnnaGrowsAMustache

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18714 on: October 10, 2017, 02:10:05 AM »
I doubt people like this admit it to themselves while they are in law school or whatever.  The fact that ex-boss' wife told me she quit her high paying lawyer job as soon as she peed on a stick (or just afterwards) kind of seemed nuts as former boss was always complaining about the millstone of their combined law school loans around his neck.  I had bad morning sickness when she told me this and other health issues but was showing up at work each day anyway and doing my best while ducking to the bathrooms to barf during meetings. 

These kinds of perceptions are just one more cross us working women have to bear.

Um.... feminism, the movement that gave you the ability to BE a professional woman, is about choice. A woman's choice to be a stay at home mum is just as valid as a woman's choice to be a working mum, or to choose not to have children, or any other of the thousand choices we can now make. What's important is that we have the choice. Even 60 years ago, we didn't. Don't judge other women for making a choice that you would not make. Just celebrate the fact that they can make it.

And, yes, menimisn is starting to give men the choice to be a stay at home dad too!

farfromfire

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18715 on: October 10, 2017, 03:36:09 AM »
My coworker is in his mid 30s and has been living on his own for ~10 years.

CW: Want to go out for lunch?
Me:  No thanks, I already ate.
CW: Oh, you eat out before work?
Me:  Nope, ate at home.
CW: What, like pasta?
Me:  Among other things.
CW: Yeah, sometimes I think I should make a pot of spaghetti at home for dinner, eating out 3x a day is expensive and not so healthy. But I don't have the time to go shopping.

Linea_Norway

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18716 on: October 10, 2017, 03:51:02 AM »
My coworker is in his mid 30s and has been living on his own for ~10 years.

CW: Want to go out for lunch?
Me:  No thanks, I already ate.
CW: Oh, you eat out before work?
Me:  Nope, ate at home.
CW: What, like pasta?
Me:  Among other things.
CW: Yeah, sometimes I think I should make a pot of spaghetti at home for dinner, eating out 3x a day is expensive and not so healthy. But I don't have the time to go shopping.

Hmm. Eating out also costs time.

farfromfire

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18717 on: October 10, 2017, 04:00:47 AM »
My coworker is in his mid 30s and has been living on his own for ~10 years.

CW: Want to go out for lunch?
Me:  No thanks, I already ate.
CW: Oh, you eat out before work?
Me:  Nope, ate at home.
CW: What, like pasta?
Me:  Among other things.
CW: Yeah, sometimes I think I should make a pot of spaghetti at home for dinner, eating out 3x a day is expensive and not so healthy. But I don't have the time to go shopping.

Hmm. Eating out also costs time.
Not only that, but he must be the slowest-eating person I have ever met, a burrito or kebap lunch is a 1 hour affair. I have no idea how he finds time for that 3x a day.

marielle

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18718 on: October 10, 2017, 06:58:56 AM »
My coworker is in his mid 30s and has been living on his own for ~10 years.

CW: Want to go out for lunch?
Me:  No thanks, I already ate.
CW: Oh, you eat out before work?
Me:  Nope, ate at home.
CW: What, like pasta?
Me:  Among other things.
CW: Yeah, sometimes I think I should make a pot of spaghetti at home for dinner, eating out 3x a day is expensive and not so healthy. But I don't have the time to go shopping.

Hmm. Eating out also costs time.
Not only that, but he must be the slowest-eating person I have ever met, a burrito or kebap lunch is a 1 hour affair. I have no idea how he finds time for that 3x a day.

I'm convinced that I spend less time on food/cooking than people who eat out. At least where I work, many people drive 3 miles each direction to get fast food. Plus waiting in the drive through. While I spend a few hours on Sunday and have food for 5 days. It could be less than an hour if I bought more canned stuff versus fresh veggies/dry beans and used a slow cooker.

A Definite Beta Guy

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18719 on: October 10, 2017, 07:25:19 AM »
I don't understand co-worker. Shopping takes the least amount of time in the home cooking process. I spend about 30-40 minutes on a grocery trip per week, tops. That's, like, one prepared meal.

farfromfire

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18720 on: October 10, 2017, 09:10:07 AM »
I don't understand co-worker. Shopping takes the least amount of time in the home cooking process. I spend about 30-40 minutes on a grocery trip per week, tops. That's, like, one prepared meal.
Not only that, but there are 4 different supermarkets within a 5 min walk radius. I know he's aware of the concept since he sometimes goes to buy a post-lunch snack at the supermarket by work.

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18721 on: October 10, 2017, 09:32:03 AM »
I don't understand co-worker. Shopping takes the least amount of time in the home cooking process. I spend about 30-40 minutes on a grocery trip per week, tops. That's, like, one prepared meal.
Not only that, but there are 4 different supermarkets within a 5 min walk radius. I know he's aware of the concept since he sometimes goes to buy a post-lunch snack at the supermarket by work.

That's phenomenal. Generally groceries take me at least two hours, even if the available stores are only 5 to 15 minutes away by car. That's because the products are scattered higgledy-piggledy all over the store, deliberately, so you have to hunt for them and spend more time picking through things you don't need, don't want, and have no intention of buying. The cash registers are mostly unoccupied because Wal-Mart doesn't believe in human staff, the DIY checkout counters are invariably bogged down because the chip card readers are fragile and broken or someone is trying to buy alcohol, cigarettes, a R-rated DVD, something related to birth control, razor blades, or something else that requires professional help. It takes me 30-40 minutes just to get through the checkout line! That's why I refuse to go grocery shopping more than once a week. My daughter still doesn't understand why I can't "JUST slip out to the grocery store on the way home from work because it's NO BIG DEAL" on a daily or near-daily basis. Each such slippage takes more than an hour of my time, and she's unwilling to help with the shopping process since it's not something that interests her and she doesn't think it's an effective use of her time, which she considers to be far more valuable than mine. So she refuses to write down the things she wants onto a grocery list, when I ask if she has any special requests for food or toiletries she says "no, I don't need anything", and then a day later she bitches me out when I don't magically guess what she wants or needs, and throws a tantrum if I don't run out and get what she wants now-now-now. If I'm busy with something else and can't drop everything to run the errand for her immediately, she flies into a snit and runs around telling other people I don't support her and she "has to" buy everything she needs because I'm oh-so-cheap.

There used to be a grocery store about 3 miles from me, with well trained cashiers who had been doing their jobs for years and who knew what they were doing. But a Wal-Mart sleazed into the neighborhood despite having a super-center less than 2 miles away. They greased some palms with the liquor control board to get a booze-selling license the neighborhood didn't want them to have, and put the mom-and-pop place out of business because a sizable amount of their business depended on booze sales. So now although the "neighborhood market" is closer, it's basically a glorified convenience store and you have to go to at least two places to get groceries or else drive at least five or six miles out of the way. The groceries are Wal-Groceries, so basic things I need such as cheesecloth and the right kind of pectin simply aren't available anymore.

Other things that can't actually be successfully bought, but that are present in the grocery store, include most kinds of frozen food. When it thaws before you can get it through the checkout line, you can't buy things like ice cream. Well, you can put it in your cart, head for the checkout line, and by the time you physically get it out of the store it's liquid. If you try to go when the lines are shorter, there won't be any managers available to fix the invariable screw-up when the cashier forgets to cancel the order ahead of yours before beginning and needs a manager to override the mistake. Cashiers aren't given the authority to void transactions, and there's no way to page a manager because they're "roaming". So you, or someone ahead of you, has to wait until the manager finishes up a break, or a personal conversation, or something else. I've walked away from two Wal-marts in the past month and left groceries in the cart for return or on the conveyor belt, simply because after half an hour to 45 minutes of standing in line it was still simply impossible to check out. I haven't seen such retail inefficiency since I visited the USSR late in the Gorbachev administration. But the option of going somewhere else simply doesn't exist. Wal-Monopoly has that part of the city completely tied up and there simply aren't other places to get groceries.

CptCool

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18722 on: October 10, 2017, 09:37:24 AM »
I don't understand co-worker. Shopping takes the least amount of time in the home cooking process. I spend about 30-40 minutes on a grocery trip per week, tops. That's, like, one prepared meal.
Not only that, but there are 4 different supermarkets within a 5 min walk radius. I know he's aware of the concept since he sometimes goes to buy a post-lunch snack at the supermarket by work.

That's phenomenal. Generally groceries take me at least two hours, even if the available stores are only 5 to 15 minutes away by car. That's because the products are scattered higgledy-piggledy all over the store, deliberately, so you have to hunt for them and spend more time picking through things you don't need, don't want, and have no intention of buying. The cash registers are mostly unoccupied because Wal-Mart doesn't believe in human staff, the DIY checkout counters are invariably bogged down because the chip card readers are fragile and broken or someone is trying to buy alcohol, cigarettes, a R-rated DVD, something related to birth control, razor blades, or something else that requires professional help. It takes me 30-40 minutes just to get through the checkout line! That's why I refuse to go grocery shopping more than once a week. My daughter still doesn't understand why I can't "JUST slip out to the grocery store on the way home from work because it's NO BIG DEAL" on a daily or near-daily basis. Each such slippage takes more than an hour of my time, and she's unwilling to help with the shopping process since it's not something that interests her and she doesn't think it's an effective use of her time, which she considers to be far more valuable than mine. So she refuses to write down the things she wants onto a grocery list, when I ask if she has any special requests for food or toiletries she says "no, I don't need anything", and then a day later she bitches me out when I don't magically guess what she wants or needs, and throws a tantrum if I don't run out and get what she wants now-now-now. If I'm busy with something else and can't drop everything to run the errand for her immediately, she flies into a snit and runs around telling other people I don't support her and she "has to" buy everything she needs because I'm oh-so-cheap.

There used to be a grocery store about 3 miles from me, with well trained cashiers who had been doing their jobs for years and who knew what they were doing. But a Wal-Mart sleazed into the neighborhood despite having a super-center less than 2 miles away. They greased some palms with the liquor control board to get a booze-selling license the neighborhood didn't want them to have, and put the mom-and-pop place out of business because a sizable amount of their business depended on booze sales. So now although the "neighborhood market" is closer, it's basically a glorified convenience store and you have to go to at least two places to get groceries or else drive at least five or six miles out of the way. The groceries are Wal-Groceries, so basic things I need such as cheesecloth and the right kind of pectin simply aren't available anymore.

Other things that can't actually be successfully bought, but that are present in the grocery store, include most kinds of frozen food. When it thaws before you can get it through the checkout line, you can't buy things like ice cream. Well, you can put it in your cart, head for the checkout line, and by the time you physically get it out of the store it's liquid. If you try to go when the lines are shorter, there won't be any managers available to fix the invariable screw-up when the cashier forgets to cancel the order ahead of yours before beginning and needs a manager to override the mistake. Cashiers aren't given the authority to void transactions, and there's no way to page a manager because they're "roaming". So you, or someone ahead of you, has to wait until the manager finishes up a break, or a personal conversation, or something else. I've walked away from two Wal-marts in the past month and left groceries in the cart for return or on the conveyor belt, simply because after half an hour to 45 minutes of standing in line it was still simply impossible to check out. I haven't seen such retail inefficiency since I visited the USSR late in the Gorbachev administration. But the option of going somewhere else simply doesn't exist. Wal-Monopoly has that part of the city completely tied up and there simply aren't other places to get groceries.

Highly recommend Aldi. It sounds like if there's one that's within a 30min drive it may be quicker for you to do that. I'm usually in/out with a week or two of groceries in 15min.

RidetheRain

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18723 on: October 10, 2017, 09:43:01 AM »
I don't understand co-worker. Shopping takes the least amount of time in the home cooking process. I spend about 30-40 minutes on a grocery trip per week, tops. That's, like, one prepared meal.
Not only that, but there are 4 different supermarkets within a 5 min walk radius. I know he's aware of the concept since he sometimes goes to buy a post-lunch snack at the supermarket by work.

That's phenomenal. Generally groceries take me at least two hours, even if the available stores are only 5 to 15 minutes away by car. That's because the products are scattered higgledy-piggledy all over the store, deliberately, so you have to hunt for them and spend more time picking through things you don't need, don't want, and have no intention of buying. The cash registers are mostly unoccupied because Wal-Mart doesn't believe in human staff, the DIY checkout counters are invariably bogged down because the chip card readers are fragile and broken or someone is trying to buy alcohol, cigarettes, a R-rated DVD, something related to birth control, razor blades, or something else that requires professional help. It takes me 30-40 minutes just to get through the checkout line! That's why I refuse to go grocery shopping more than once a week. My daughter still doesn't understand why I can't "JUST slip out to the grocery store on the way home from work because it's NO BIG DEAL" on a daily or near-daily basis. Each such slippage takes more than an hour of my time, and she's unwilling to help with the shopping process since it's not something that interests her and she doesn't think it's an effective use of her time, which she considers to be far more valuable than mine. So she refuses to write down the things she wants onto a grocery list, when I ask if she has any special requests for food or toiletries she says "no, I don't need anything", and then a day later she bitches me out when I don't magically guess what she wants or needs, and throws a tantrum if I don't run out and get what she wants now-now-now. If I'm busy with something else and can't drop everything to run the errand for her immediately, she flies into a snit and runs around telling other people I don't support her and she "has to" buy everything she needs because I'm oh-so-cheap.

There used to be a grocery store about 3 miles from me, with well trained cashiers who had been doing their jobs for years and who knew what they were doing. But a Wal-Mart sleazed into the neighborhood despite having a super-center less than 2 miles away. They greased some palms with the liquor control board to get a booze-selling license the neighborhood didn't want them to have, and put the mom-and-pop place out of business because a sizable amount of their business depended on booze sales. So now although the "neighborhood market" is closer, it's basically a glorified convenience store and you have to go to at least two places to get groceries or else drive at least five or six miles out of the way. The groceries are Wal-Groceries, so basic things I need such as cheesecloth and the right kind of pectin simply aren't available anymore.

Other things that can't actually be successfully bought, but that are present in the grocery store, include most kinds of frozen food. When it thaws before you can get it through the checkout line, you can't buy things like ice cream. Well, you can put it in your cart, head for the checkout line, and by the time you physically get it out of the store it's liquid. If you try to go when the lines are shorter, there won't be any managers available to fix the invariable screw-up when the cashier forgets to cancel the order ahead of yours before beginning and needs a manager to override the mistake. Cashiers aren't given the authority to void transactions, and there's no way to page a manager because they're "roaming". So you, or someone ahead of you, has to wait until the manager finishes up a break, or a personal conversation, or something else. I've walked away from two Wal-marts in the past month and left groceries in the cart for return or on the conveyor belt, simply because after half an hour to 45 minutes of standing in line it was still simply impossible to check out. I haven't seen such retail inefficiency since I visited the USSR late in the Gorbachev administration. But the option of going somewhere else simply doesn't exist. Wal-Monopoly has that part of the city completely tied up and there simply aren't other places to get groceries.

Highly recommend Aldi. It sounds like if there's one that's within a 30min drive it may be quicker for you to do that. I'm usually in/out with a week or two of groceries in 15min.

I find that timing it right and planning is really important for getting in and out of a grocery store quickly. I switched from Sunday's to after work on Monday's and that cut my shopping time in half. If you're a meal planner like me then you can organize your list by what should be close together at the store (tomato sauces are usually near noodles & rice, bread is usually inexplicably near snack foods) that cuts down on a lot of time too. The grocery is one of those places you really get to know :) it causes irrational anger when they move things around.

infogoon

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18724 on: October 10, 2017, 09:49:04 AM »
That's because the products are scattered higgledy-piggledy all over the store, deliberately, so you have to hunt for them and spend more time picking through things you don't need, don't want, and have no intention of buying.

Honestly, even above and beyond the lower prices, this is one of the things I love about shopping at Aldi. The stores are so much smaller than the other local supermarkets; I can get in and out in fifteen minutes for a "picking up staples and produce" run.

Playing with Fire UK

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18725 on: October 10, 2017, 10:19:26 AM »
My shopping list is written in the order that things are laid out in my regular supermarket.


Not only that, but there are 4 different supermarkets within a 5 min walk radius. I know he's aware of the concept since he sometimes goes to buy a post-lunch snack at the supermarket by work.

WTF? A post-lunch snack? A snack, for after lunch, which is a meal, at which food is consumed? Seriously? He should try eating actual nutrition for lunch and see if that makes a difference to hunger levels.

mm1970

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18726 on: October 10, 2017, 10:27:12 AM »
I don't understand co-worker. Shopping takes the least amount of time in the home cooking process. I spend about 30-40 minutes on a grocery trip per week, tops. That's, like, one prepared meal.
Not only that, but there are 4 different supermarkets within a 5 min walk radius. I know he's aware of the concept since he sometimes goes to buy a post-lunch snack at the supermarket by work.

That's phenomenal. Generally groceries take me at least two hours, even if the available stores are only 5 to 15 minutes away by car. That's because the products are scattered higgledy-piggledy all over the store, deliberately, so you have to hunt for them and spend more time picking through things you don't need, don't want, and have no intention of buying. The cash registers are mostly unoccupied because Wal-Mart doesn't believe in human staff, the DIY checkout counters are invariably bogged down because the chip card readers are fragile and broken or someone is trying to buy alcohol, cigarettes, a R-rated DVD, something related to birth control, razor blades, or something else that requires professional help. It takes me 30-40 minutes just to get through the checkout line! That's why I refuse to go grocery shopping more than once a week. My daughter still doesn't understand why I can't "JUST slip out to the grocery store on the way home from work because it's NO BIG DEAL" on a daily or near-daily basis. Each such slippage takes more than an hour of my time, and she's unwilling to help with the shopping process since it's not something that interests her and she doesn't think it's an effective use of her time, which she considers to be far more valuable than mine. So she refuses to write down the things she wants onto a grocery list, when I ask if she has any special requests for food or toiletries she says "no, I don't need anything", and then a day later she bitches me out when I don't magically guess what she wants or needs, and throws a tantrum if I don't run out and get what she wants now-now-now. If I'm busy with something else and can't drop everything to run the errand for her immediately, she flies into a snit and runs around telling other people I don't support her and she "has to" buy everything she needs because I'm oh-so-cheap.

There used to be a grocery store about 3 miles from me, with well trained cashiers who had been doing their jobs for years and who knew what they were doing. But a Wal-Mart sleazed into the neighborhood despite having a super-center less than 2 miles away. They greased some palms with the liquor control board to get a booze-selling license the neighborhood didn't want them to have, and put the mom-and-pop place out of business because a sizable amount of their business depended on booze sales. So now although the "neighborhood market" is closer, it's basically a glorified convenience store and you have to go to at least two places to get groceries or else drive at least five or six miles out of the way. The groceries are Wal-Groceries, so basic things I need such as cheesecloth and the right kind of pectin simply aren't available anymore.

Other things that can't actually be successfully bought, but that are present in the grocery store, include most kinds of frozen food. When it thaws before you can get it through the checkout line, you can't buy things like ice cream. Well, you can put it in your cart, head for the checkout line, and by the time you physically get it out of the store it's liquid. If you try to go when the lines are shorter, there won't be any managers available to fix the invariable screw-up when the cashier forgets to cancel the order ahead of yours before beginning and needs a manager to override the mistake. Cashiers aren't given the authority to void transactions, and there's no way to page a manager because they're "roaming". So you, or someone ahead of you, has to wait until the manager finishes up a break, or a personal conversation, or something else. I've walked away from two Wal-marts in the past month and left groceries in the cart for return or on the conveyor belt, simply because after half an hour to 45 minutes of standing in line it was still simply impossible to check out. I haven't seen such retail inefficiency since I visited the USSR late in the Gorbachev administration. But the option of going somewhere else simply doesn't exist. Wal-Monopoly has that part of the city completely tied up and there simply aren't other places to get groceries.
that's horrible

RidetheRain

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18727 on: October 10, 2017, 11:01:38 AM »
My shopping list is written in the order that things are laid out in my regular supermarket.


Not only that, but there are 4 different supermarkets within a 5 min walk radius. I know he's aware of the concept since he sometimes goes to buy a post-lunch snack at the supermarket by work.

WTF? A post-lunch snack? A snack, for after lunch, which is a meal, at which food is consumed? Seriously? He should try eating actual nutrition for lunch and see if that makes a difference to hunger levels.

I usually eat a few snap peas or whatever around 3pm each day so I don't find that too weird. But the phrasing here was funny. I imagine someone driving through McDonald's, eating the food, then stopping at Subway for the post-lunch meal.

What about second breakfast, right?

lbmustache

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18728 on: October 10, 2017, 11:51:19 AM »
My coworker is in his mid 30s and has been living on his own for ~10 years.

CW: Want to go out for lunch?
Me:  No thanks, I already ate.
CW: Oh, you eat out before work?
Me:  Nope, ate at home.
CW: What, like pasta?
Me:  Among other things.
CW: Yeah, sometimes I think I should make a pot of spaghetti at home for dinner, eating out 3x a day is expensive and not so healthy. But I don't have the time to go shopping.

Hmm x2. You could order online if time is really stretched that thin. Amazon has nearly identical prices to the grocery stores around here, especially for basics like pasta and sauce.

farfromfire

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18729 on: October 10, 2017, 12:08:13 PM »
My coworker is in his mid 30s and has been living on his own for ~10 years.

CW: Want to go out for lunch?
Me:  No thanks, I already ate.
CW: Oh, you eat out before work?
Me:  Nope, ate at home.
CW: What, like pasta?
Me:  Among other things.
CW: Yeah, sometimes I think I should make a pot of spaghetti at home for dinner, eating out 3x a day is expensive and not so healthy. But I don't have the time to go shopping.

Hmm x2. You could order online if time is really stretched that thin. Amazon has nearly identical prices to the grocery stores around here, especially for basics like pasta and sauce.
3 of the 4 aforementioned supermarkets also offer online ordering with same day delivery if you order in the morning. Honestly, he's one of those people that are seemingly incapable of change, since he never had to shop or cook as a child he'll never be able to. I joke that if McDonald's ever shuts down, he'll die like Gödel.

A Definite Beta Guy

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18730 on: October 10, 2017, 12:11:10 PM »
Wal-Mart sounds like hell on Earth for grocery shopping. :(

farfromfire

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18731 on: October 10, 2017, 12:14:56 PM »
I don't understand co-worker. Shopping takes the least amount of time in the home cooking process. I spend about 30-40 minutes on a grocery trip per week, tops. That's, like, one prepared meal.
Not only that, but there are 4 different supermarkets within a 5 min walk radius. I know he's aware of the concept since he sometimes goes to buy a post-lunch snack at the supermarket by work.

That's phenomenal. Generally groceries take me at least two hours, even if the available stores are only 5 to 15 minutes away by car. That's because the products are scattered higgledy-piggledy all over the store, deliberately, so you have to hunt for them and spend more time picking through things you don't need, don't want, and have no intention of buying. The cash registers are mostly unoccupied because Wal-Mart doesn't believe in human staff, the DIY checkout counters are invariably bogged down because the chip card readers are fragile and broken or someone is trying to buy alcohol, cigarettes, a R-rated DVD, something related to birth control, razor blades, or something else that requires professional help. It takes me 30-40 minutes just to get through the checkout line! That's why I refuse to go grocery shopping more than once a week. My daughter still doesn't understand why I can't "JUST slip out to the grocery store on the way home from work because it's NO BIG DEAL" on a daily or near-daily basis. Each such slippage takes more than an hour of my time, and she's unwilling to help with the shopping process since it's not something that interests her and she doesn't think it's an effective use of her time, which she considers to be far more valuable than mine. So she refuses to write down the things she wants onto a grocery list, when I ask if she has any special requests for food or toiletries she says "no, I don't need anything", and then a day later she bitches me out when I don't magically guess what she wants or needs, and throws a tantrum if I don't run out and get what she wants now-now-now. If I'm busy with something else and can't drop everything to run the errand for her immediately, she flies into a snit and runs around telling other people I don't support her and she "has to" buy everything she needs because I'm oh-so-cheap.

There used to be a grocery store about 3 miles from me, with well trained cashiers who had been doing their jobs for years and who knew what they were doing. But a Wal-Mart sleazed into the neighborhood despite having a super-center less than 2 miles away. They greased some palms with the liquor control board to get a booze-selling license the neighborhood didn't want them to have, and put the mom-and-pop place out of business because a sizable amount of their business depended on booze sales. So now although the "neighborhood market" is closer, it's basically a glorified convenience store and you have to go to at least two places to get groceries or else drive at least five or six miles out of the way. The groceries are Wal-Groceries, so basic things I need such as cheesecloth and the right kind of pectin simply aren't available anymore.

Other things that can't actually be successfully bought, but that are present in the grocery store, include most kinds of frozen food. When it thaws before you can get it through the checkout line, you can't buy things like ice cream. Well, you can put it in your cart, head for the checkout line, and by the time you physically get it out of the store it's liquid. If you try to go when the lines are shorter, there won't be any managers available to fix the invariable screw-up when the cashier forgets to cancel the order ahead of yours before beginning and needs a manager to override the mistake. Cashiers aren't given the authority to void transactions, and there's no way to page a manager because they're "roaming". So you, or someone ahead of you, has to wait until the manager finishes up a break, or a personal conversation, or something else. I've walked away from two Wal-marts in the past month and left groceries in the cart for return or on the conveyor belt, simply because after half an hour to 45 minutes of standing in line it was still simply impossible to check out. I haven't seen such retail inefficiency since I visited the USSR late in the Gorbachev administration. But the option of going somewhere else simply doesn't exist. Wal-Monopoly has that part of the city completely tied up and there simply aren't other places to get groceries.

Highly recommend Aldi. It sounds like if there's one that's within a 30min drive it may be quicker for you to do that. I'm usually in/out with a week or two of groceries in 15min.

I find that timing it right and planning is really important for getting in and out of a grocery store quickly. I switched from Sunday's to after work on Monday's and that cut my shopping time in half. If you're a meal planner like me then you can organize your list by what should be close together at the store (tomato sauces are usually near noodles & rice, bread is usually inexplicably near snack foods) that cuts down on a lot of time too. The grocery is one of those places you really get to know :) it causes irrational anger when they move things around.
Some great responses!

TGS, it took me a while to adjust to shopping here in Vienna - many small supermarkets scattered all around, and kitchens+refrigerators are small as well, so instead of a hypermarket run once a month (~2 hours) you go to the small supermarket twice a week in ~10 min. This change has led me to eating way more fresh fruit, vegetables and meat which is nice.
On the negative side, this has led to me spontaneously running out to buy ice cream since it only takes 15min if the checkout like is short.

Hofer, which is the Austrian Aldi, is particularly amazing - in n out in under 10 min sometimes with 20 items.

Hula Hoop

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18732 on: October 10, 2017, 12:14:15 PM »
Um.... feminism, the movement that gave you the ability to BE a professional woman, is about choice. A woman's choice to be a stay at home mum is just as valid as a woman's choice to be a working mum, or to choose not to have children, or any other of the thousand choices we can now make. What's important is that we have the choice. Even 60 years ago, we didn't. Don't judge other women for making a choice that you would not make. Just celebrate the fact that they can make it.

And, yes, menimisn is starting to give men the choice to be a stay at home dad too!

I wasn't judging her for being a stay at home parent. Plenty of my friends are SAHPs and, in fact, a huge number of people on this board are aspiring SAHPs.  But, since this is the Antimustachian Wall of Shame board, I was just pointing out that going into six figures worth of debt to get a professional degree from a prestigious university and then quitting after a couple of years is not exactly mustachian.  If you want to be a SAHP then don't go into huge amounts of debt expecting your spouse (male or female) to be chained to a job they don't enjoy to pay it back.  Or at least work for long enough to put a big dent in that student debt.

farfromfire

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18733 on: October 10, 2017, 12:20:49 PM »
My shopping list is written in the order that things are laid out in my regular supermarket.


Not only that, but there are 4 different supermarkets within a 5 min walk radius. I know he's aware of the concept since he sometimes goes to buy a post-lunch snack at the supermarket by work.

WTF? A post-lunch snack? A snack, for after lunch, which is a meal, at which food is consumed? Seriously? He should try eating actual nutrition for lunch and see if that makes a difference to hunger levels.

I usually eat a few snap peas or whatever around 3pm each day so I don't find that too weird. But the phrasing here was funny. I imagine someone driving through McDonald's, eating the food, then stopping at Subway for the post-lunch meal.

What about second breakfast, right?
Lol to both of you.

to be fair it is a small breakfast, 2 Kaisersemmel rolls with coffee from McDonalds (WHY? There are equivalent rolls at the supermarket for 10% of the price). Lunch is large, real cafeteria food or some fast food. Post-lunch snack is a danish or two with coke, no idea about dinner.
« Last Edit: October 10, 2017, 12:28:13 PM by farfromfire »

zolotiyeruki

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18734 on: October 10, 2017, 12:39:45 PM »
I don't understand co-worker. Shopping takes the least amount of time in the home cooking process. I spend about 30-40 minutes on a grocery trip per week, tops. That's, like, one prepared meal.
Not only that, but there are 4 different supermarkets within a 5 min walk radius. I know he's aware of the concept since he sometimes goes to buy a post-lunch snack at the supermarket by work.

That's phenomenal. Generally groceries take me at least two hours, even if the available stores are only 5 to 15 minutes away by car...
DW leaves to go grocery shopping at Walmart at 6:00 am.  Including travel time, it usually takes about an hour.  She's on a first-name basis with the cashiers there.

Unfortunately, Walmart ended their price-matching policy, so now she has to make a second run to Aldi (usually for produce), and Aldi isn't open that early.  If they were, DW would have long ago started doing the bulk of her grocery shopping there.

ketchup

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18735 on: October 10, 2017, 01:50:36 PM »
Wal-Mart sounds like hell on Earth for grocery shopping. :(
I started avoiding our local Walmart until they installed the self-checkout lanes (and a bunch of them at that).  It would just take too damn long to check out, 45+ minutes was not uncommon.  With the self-checkout, it's not bad at all, maybe waiting 10 minutes if it's super busy.

TheGrimSqueaker

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18736 on: October 10, 2017, 03:08:43 PM »
... bitching about Wal-Groceries...

Highly recommend Aldi. It sounds like if there's one that's within a 30min drive it may be quicker for you to do that. I'm usually in/out with a week or two of groceries in 15min.

I'd like to try Aldi's but according to their on-line tool the closest one to me is 473.27 miles away by air. That's a little more than the distance from London to Geneva, and a little less than the distance between Milan and Sarajevo.

The self-checkout lines work for mainstream items that don't require adult assistance, if and only if the receipt paper is filled regularly, the card-reader device is functional, and they're amply stocked with cash (for making change from cash transactions). None of those three assumptions is necessarily valid. New Mexico is like living in Ayn Rand's wet dream, but with more gun violence.

horsepoor

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18737 on: October 10, 2017, 03:14:16 PM »
I don't understand co-worker. Shopping takes the least amount of time in the home cooking process. I spend about 30-40 minutes on a grocery trip per week, tops. That's, like, one prepared meal.
Not only that, but there are 4 different supermarkets within a 5 min walk radius. I know he's aware of the concept since he sometimes goes to buy a post-lunch snack at the supermarket by work.


That's phenomenal. Generally groceries take me at least two hours, even if the available stores are only 5 to 15 minutes away by car...
DW leaves to go grocery shopping at Walmart at 6:00 am.  Including travel time, it usually takes about an hour.  She's on a first-name basis with the cashiers there.

Unfortunately, Walmart ended their price-matching policy, so now she has to make a second run to Aldi (usually for produce), and Aldi isn't open that early.  If they were, DW would have long ago started doing the bulk of her grocery shopping there.


For a while I was in the habit of shopping at Winco on Saturday mornings.  If you can get there before 8 am, it's pretty much all middle-aged or older women doing their major shopping.  They aren't farting around, they're just on a mission to get their list and go; generally little to no wait for a checkstand.  It was kind of a nice routine, but now I shop at multiple stores and it varies a lot week to week.

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18738 on: October 10, 2017, 03:20:07 PM »
... bitching about Wal-Groceries...

Highly recommend Aldi. It sounds like if there's one that's within a 30min drive it may be quicker for you to do that. I'm usually in/out with a week or two of groceries in 15min.

I'd like to try Aldi's but according to their on-line tool the closest one to me is 473.27 miles away by air. That's a little more than the distance from London to Geneva, and a little less than the distance between Milan and Sarajevo.

The self-checkout lines work for mainstream items that don't require adult assistance, if and only if the receipt paper is filled regularly, the card-reader device is functional, and they're amply stocked with cash (for making change from cash transactions). None of those three assumptions is necessarily valid. New Mexico is like living in Ayn Rand's wet dream, but with more gun violence.

I don't get Aldi's. The prepared food tends to be cheaper, but the ingredients tend to be more expensive. I can get pasta and milk consistently cheaper, often eggs as well.

A Definite Beta Guy

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18739 on: October 10, 2017, 03:38:22 PM »
I tend to go to the Jewel (Illinois equivalent to Safeway). I prefer to do my hopping at 9 or 10 AM, before the store gets really busy. I'm usually awake by 5:30, so no real struggle there.

It's well laid out and not big, so it's easy to navigate. On the other hand, they have limited SKUs, which puts the hurt on a few things, especially in the produce section. Can't find celery root or daikon there, for instance. No dashi, either.

frugledoc

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18740 on: October 10, 2017, 03:45:48 PM »
Today at work, was speaking to a colleague nearing retirement age.  We are both hospital doctors in the NHS, and were moaning a bit about management/hospital politics.

Him:  I can walk away at any time now, my mortgage is paid off and I don't need the money.  I feel sorry for your generation with big mortgages to pay and 2 kids.  Things are only going to get worse and you will have to just suck it up.

Me (in my mind only):  lol, I don't have a mortgage and have FU money.     Don't all consultants?

ketchup

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18741 on: October 10, 2017, 03:59:31 PM »
I tend to go to the Jewel (Illinois equivalent to Safeway). I prefer to do my hopping at 9 or 10 AM, before the store gets really busy. I'm usually awake by 5:30, so no real struggle there.

It's well laid out and not big, so it's easy to navigate. On the other hand, they have limited SKUs, which puts the hurt on a few things, especially in the produce section. Can't find celery root or daikon there, for instance. No dashi, either.
Jewel is a weird grocery store.  It's smaller than Walmart/Meijer, so the selection is a little worse (for the most part - I can never find a head of red leaf lettuce at Walmart, but Jewel always has it), and the prices are a little higher (a lot higher on some things).  Their meat is worse than Walmart (at least their chicken - haven't gotten my beef/pork from a grocery store in a while because I'm a pretentious asshat) despite costing more money.  It's an odd mix of trying to be a cheap grocery store and trying to be Whole Foods.  They got rid of the self checkout sometime last year, so it's no longer reliably an efficient quick stop.

Meijer is probably my favorite grocery store in our area.  Good prices, just "fancy" enough to have a good selection of weird stuff I might be interested in, good quality produce/meat, well laid-out, and it has self checkout. 

I liked Shop and Save for a while, but I've gotten bad (bad as in rotten) meat from them so I just avoid it entirely.

Aldi's savings I find to not be worth the trip except occasionally.

Goldielocks

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18742 on: October 11, 2017, 12:12:00 AM »

..the mayority of people killed in an airplane accident are sitting inside an airplane does not automatically mean that airplanes are more dangerous then other vehicles.


No, it does not indeed!..  it means that the seats inside the airplane are more dangerous, statistically, than the seats on the outside of the airplane.


:0
« Last Edit: October 11, 2017, 12:13:46 AM by Goldielocks »

martyconlonontherun

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18743 on: October 11, 2017, 03:46:17 AM »
I don't understand co-worker. Shopping takes the least amount of time in the home cooking process. I spend about 30-40 minutes on a grocery trip per week, tops. That's, like, one prepared meal.
Not only that, but there are 4 different supermarkets within a 5 min walk radius. I know he's aware of the concept since he sometimes goes to buy a post-lunch snack at the supermarket by work.

That's phenomenal. Generally groceries take me at least two hours, even if the available stores are only 5 to 15 minutes away by car. That's because the products are scattered higgledy-piggledy all over the store, deliberately, so you have to hunt for them and spend more time picking through things you don't need, don't want, and have no intention of buying. The cash registers are mostly unoccupied because Wal-Mart doesn't believe in human staff, the DIY checkout counters are invariably bogged down because the chip card readers are fragile and broken or someone is trying to buy alcohol, cigarettes, a R-rated DVD, something related to birth control, razor blades, or something else that requires professional help. It takes me 30-40 minutes just to get through the checkout line! That's why I refuse to go grocery shopping more than once a week. My daughter still doesn't understand why I can't "JUST slip out to the grocery store on the way home from work because it's NO BIG DEAL" on a daily or near-daily basis. Each such slippage takes more than an hour of my time, and she's unwilling to help with the shopping process since it's not something that interests her and she doesn't think it's an effective use of her time, which she considers to be far more valuable than mine. So she refuses to write down the things she wants onto a grocery list, when I ask if she has any special requests for food or toiletries she says "no, I don't need anything", and then a day later she bitches me out when I don't magically guess what she wants or needs, and throws a tantrum if I don't run out and get what she wants now-now-now. If I'm busy with something else and can't drop everything to run the errand for her immediately, she flies into a snit and runs around telling other people I don't support her and she "has to" buy everything she needs because I'm oh-so-cheap.

There used to be a grocery store about 3 miles from me, with well trained cashiers who had been doing their jobs for years and who knew what they were doing. But a Wal-Mart sleazed into the neighborhood despite having a super-center less than 2 miles away. They greased some palms with the liquor control board to get a booze-selling license the neighborhood didn't want them to have, and put the mom-and-pop place out of business because a sizable amount of their business depended on booze sales. So now although the "neighborhood market" is closer, it's basically a glorified convenience store and you have to go to at least two places to get groceries or else drive at least five or six miles out of the way. The groceries are Wal-Groceries, so basic things I need such as cheesecloth and the right kind of pectin simply aren't available anymore.

Other things that can't actually be successfully bought, but that are present in the grocery store, include most kinds of frozen food. When it thaws before you can get it through the checkout line, you can't buy things like ice cream. Well, you can put it in your cart, head for the checkout line, and by the time you physically get it out of the store it's liquid. If you try to go when the lines are shorter, there won't be any managers available to fix the invariable screw-up when the cashier forgets to cancel the order ahead of yours before beginning and needs a manager to override the mistake. Cashiers aren't given the authority to void transactions, and there's no way to page a manager because they're "roaming". So you, or someone ahead of you, has to wait until the manager finishes up a break, or a personal conversation, or something else. I've walked away from two Wal-marts in the past month and left groceries in the cart for return or on the conveyor belt, simply because after half an hour to 45 minutes of standing in line it was still simply impossible to check out. I haven't seen such retail inefficiency since I visited the USSR late in the Gorbachev administration. But the option of going somewhere else simply doesn't exist. Wal-Monopoly has that part of the city completely tied up and there simply aren't other places to get groceries.

Highly recommend Aldi. It sounds like if there's one that's within a 30min drive it may be quicker for you to do that. I'm usually in/out with a week or two of groceries in 15min.

I find that timing it right and planning is really important for getting in and out of a grocery store quickly. I switched from Sunday's to after work on Monday's and that cut my shopping time in half. If you're a meal planner like me then you can organize your list by what should be close together at the store (tomato sauces are usually near noodles & rice, bread is usually inexplicably near snack foods) that cuts down on a lot of time too. The grocery is one of those places you really get to know :) it causes irrational anger when they move things around.
Some great responses!

TGS, it took me a while to adjust to shopping here in Vienna - many small supermarkets scattered all around, and kitchens+refrigerators are small as well, so instead of a hypermarket run once a month (~2 hours) you go to the small supermarket twice a week in ~10 min. This change has led me to eating way more fresh fruit, vegetables and meat which is nice.
On the negative side, this has led to me spontaneously running out to buy ice cream since it only takes 15min if the checkout like is short.

Hofer, which is the Austrian Aldi, is particularly amazing - in n out in under 10 min sometimes with 20 items.

I'm from the Chicago region of the US but staying in Vienna on the weekend as part of a two-week work trip. Any suggestions for a 29-year old man with no plan, cheap, likes history, loves activity, and no language skills?

martyconlonontherun

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18744 on: October 11, 2017, 03:59:52 AM »
I don't understand co-worker. Shopping takes the least amount of time in the home cooking process. I spend about 30-40 minutes on a grocery trip per week, tops. That's, like, one prepared meal.
Not only that, but there are 4 different supermarkets within a 5 min walk radius. I know he's aware of the concept since he sometimes goes to buy a post-lunch snack at the supermarket by work.

That's phenomenal. Generally groceries take me at least two hours, even if the available stores are only 5 to 15 minutes away by car. That's because the products are scattered higgledy-piggledy all over the store, deliberately, so you have to hunt for them and spend more time picking through things you don't need, don't want, and have no intention of buying. The cash registers are mostly unoccupied because Wal-Mart doesn't believe in human staff, the DIY checkout counters are invariably bogged down because the chip card readers are fragile and broken or someone is trying to buy alcohol, cigarettes, a R-rated DVD, something related to birth control, razor blades, or something else that requires professional help. It takes me 30-40 minutes just to get through the checkout line! That's why I refuse to go grocery shopping more than once a week. My daughter still doesn't understand why I can't "JUST slip out to the grocery store on the way home from work because it's NO BIG DEAL" on a daily or near-daily basis. Each such slippage takes more than an hour of my time, and she's unwilling to help with the shopping process since it's not something that interests her and she doesn't think it's an effective use of her time, which she considers to be far more valuable than mine. So she refuses to write down the things she wants onto a grocery list, when I ask if she has any special requests for food or toiletries she says "no, I don't need anything", and then a day later she bitches me out when I don't magically guess what she wants or needs, and throws a tantrum if I don't run out and get what she wants now-now-now. If I'm busy with something else and can't drop everything to run the errand for her immediately, she flies into a snit and runs around telling other people I don't support her and she "has to" buy everything she needs because I'm oh-so-cheap.

There used to be a grocery store about 3 miles from me, with well trained cashiers who had been doing their jobs for years and who knew what they were doing. But a Wal-Mart sleazed into the neighborhood despite having a super-center less than 2 miles away. They greased some palms with the liquor control board to get a booze-selling license the neighborhood didn't want them to have, and put the mom-and-pop place out of business because a sizable amount of their business depended on booze sales. So now although the "neighborhood market" is closer, it's basically a glorified convenience store and you have to go to at least two places to get groceries or else drive at least five or six miles out of the way. The groceries are Wal-Groceries, so basic things I need such as cheesecloth and the right kind of pectin simply aren't available anymore.

Other things that can't actually be successfully bought, but that are present in the grocery store, include most kinds of frozen food. When it thaws before you can get it through the checkout line, you can't buy things like ice cream. Well, you can put it in your cart, head for the checkout line, and by the time you physically get it out of the store it's liquid. If you try to go when the lines are shorter, there won't be any managers available to fix the invariable screw-up when the cashier forgets to cancel the order ahead of yours before beginning and needs a manager to override the mistake. Cashiers aren't given the authority to void transactions, and there's no way to page a manager because they're "roaming". So you, or someone ahead of you, has to wait until the manager finishes up a break, or a personal conversation, or something else. I've walked away from two Wal-marts in the past month and left groceries in the cart for return or on the conveyor belt, simply because after half an hour to 45 minutes of standing in line it was still simply impossible to check out. I haven't seen such retail inefficiency since I visited the USSR late in the Gorbachev administration. But the option of going somewhere else simply doesn't exist. Wal-Monopoly has that part of the city completely tied up and there simply aren't other places to get groceries.

I have some unsolicited advice and suggestions since I shop Walmart and sometimes i take an hour wandering down random because I look for new items that i can incorporate in my diet, but if I'm in a rush it isn't hard to get what you want.

1. How old is your daughter? The part about tantrums seems like a 5-year old, but the other part seems older. Personally, I could care less what she tells people if you have quality food at home. Anyone you care about knows you and knows you have edible food at home. Anyone else doesn't matter.

2. Even if you do care, I would imagine you get the same "Why don't we have?" and just check before you leave the house if you are stocked up? 90% of the stuff at walmart is storable for a few weeks so even if she doesn't eat it that week, it will be there next week.

3. If you only go once a week or every 2 weeks, why don't you just go at a crazy unusual time? Like Sunday 6AM or after 8PM. If you go on a sun/sat you are kind of asking for it to be busy.

4. Do you group your groceries together? All the fruit items are first (throw bananas, apples, carrots, sweet potatoes into the cart), follow that to the meat (throw in chicken, frozen fish, etc), then to dairy (throw in soy milk, greek yogurt, etc) go down frozen isle (frozen fruit and veggies, turkey patties, etc), Spaghetti isle and maybe 2-3 items from the processed food section and you have a full grocery list. Shouldn't really take that long unless you are unorganized. Yeah its annoying to walk to the back for milk, but in the grand scheme of things its 2 minutes extra and you grab stuff along the way. For me, it takes so long because the store is big, not necessarily the layout.

5. You should thank them for not letting you get ice cream and protecting your health :) But if you did get ice cream, I would think you would grab frozen stuff last. If you show at crazy times, it shouldn't be a problem getting through the line in 15 min.

pbkmaine

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18745 on: October 11, 2017, 05:48:41 AM »
I don't understand co-worker. Shopping takes the least amount of time in the home cooking process. I spend about 30-40 minutes on a grocery trip per week, tops. That's, like, one prepared meal.
Not only that, but there are 4 different supermarkets within a 5 min walk radius. I know he's aware of the concept since he sometimes goes to buy a post-lunch snack at the supermarket by work.

That's phenomenal. Generally groceries take me at least two hours, even if the available stores are only 5 to 15 minutes away by car. That's because the products are scattered higgledy-piggledy all over the store, deliberately, so you have to hunt for them and spend more time picking through things you don't need, don't want, and have no intention of buying. The cash registers are mostly unoccupied because Wal-Mart doesn't believe in human staff, the DIY checkout counters are invariably bogged down because the chip card readers are fragile and broken or someone is trying to buy alcohol, cigarettes, a R-rated DVD, something related to birth control, razor blades, or something else that requires professional help. It takes me 30-40 minutes just to get through the checkout line! That's why I refuse to go grocery shopping more than once a week. My daughter still doesn't understand why I can't "JUST slip out to the grocery store on the way home from work because it's NO BIG DEAL" on a daily or near-daily basis. Each such slippage takes more than an hour of my time, and she's unwilling to help with the shopping process since it's not something that interests her and she doesn't think it's an effective use of her time, which she considers to be far more valuable than mine. So she refuses to write down the things she wants onto a grocery list, when I ask if she has any special requests for food or toiletries she says "no, I don't need anything", and then a day later she bitches me out when I don't magically guess what she wants or needs, and throws a tantrum if I don't run out and get what she wants now-now-now. If I'm busy with something else and can't drop everything to run the errand for her immediately, she flies into a snit and runs around telling other people I don't support her and she "has to" buy everything she needs because I'm oh-so-cheap.

There used to be a grocery store about 3 miles from me, with well trained cashiers who had been doing their jobs for years and who knew what they were doing. But a Wal-Mart sleazed into the neighborhood despite having a super-center less than 2 miles away. They greased some palms with the liquor control board to get a booze-selling license the neighborhood didn't want them to have, and put the mom-and-pop place out of business because a sizable amount of their business depended on booze sales. So now although the "neighborhood market" is closer, it's basically a glorified convenience store and you have to go to at least two places to get groceries or else drive at least five or six miles out of the way. The groceries are Wal-Groceries, so basic things I need such as cheesecloth and the right kind of pectin simply aren't available anymore.

Other things that can't actually be successfully bought, but that are present in the grocery store, include most kinds of frozen food. When it thaws before you can get it through the checkout line, you can't buy things like ice cream. Well, you can put it in your cart, head for the checkout line, and by the time you physically get it out of the store it's liquid. If you try to go when the lines are shorter, there won't be any managers available to fix the invariable screw-up when the cashier forgets to cancel the order ahead of yours before beginning and needs a manager to override the mistake. Cashiers aren't given the authority to void transactions, and there's no way to page a manager because they're "roaming". So you, or someone ahead of you, has to wait until the manager finishes up a break, or a personal conversation, or something else. I've walked away from two Wal-marts in the past month and left groceries in the cart for return or on the conveyor belt, simply because after half an hour to 45 minutes of standing in line it was still simply impossible to check out. I haven't seen such retail inefficiency since I visited the USSR late in the Gorbachev administration. But the option of going somewhere else simply doesn't exist. Wal-Monopoly has that part of the city completely tied up and there simply aren't other places to get groceries.

Highly recommend Aldi. It sounds like if there's one that's within a 30min drive it may be quicker for you to do that. I'm usually in/out with a week or two of groceries in 15min.

I find that timing it right and planning is really important for getting in and out of a grocery store quickly. I switched from Sunday's to after work on Monday's and that cut my shopping time in half. If you're a meal planner like me then you can organize your list by what should be close together at the store (tomato sauces are usually near noodles &amp; rice, bread is usually inexplicably near snack foods) that cuts down on a lot of time too. The grocery is one of those places you really get to know :) it causes irrational anger when they move things around.
Some great responses!

TGS, it took me a while to adjust to shopping here in Vienna - many small supermarkets scattered all around, and kitchens+refrigerators are small as well, so instead of a hypermarket run once a month (~2 hours) you go to the small supermarket twice a week in ~10 min. This change has led me to eating way more fresh fruit, vegetables and meat which is nice.
On the negative side, this has led to me spontaneously running out to buy ice cream since it only takes 15min if the checkout like is short.

Hofer, which is the Austrian Aldi, is particularly amazing - in n out in under 10 min sometimes with 20 items.

I'm from the Chicago region of the US but staying in Vienna on the weekend as part of a two-week work trip. Any suggestions for a 29-year old man with no plan, cheap, likes history, loves activity, and no language skills?

https://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=Attractions&amp;find_loc=Vienna%2C+Wien%2C+Austria&amp;ns=1

Just walking around the Innere Stadt, which has so much history, will give you a lot to look at. It’s the area around St Stephan’s Cathedral, called “Stephansdom” in German.

farfromfire

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18746 on: October 11, 2017, 06:55:29 AM »
I don't understand co-worker. Shopping takes the least amount of time in the home cooking process. I spend about 30-40 minutes on a grocery trip per week, tops. That's, like, one prepared meal.
Not only that, but there are 4 different supermarkets within a 5 min walk radius. I know he's aware of the concept since he sometimes goes to buy a post-lunch snack at the supermarket by work.

That's phenomenal. Generally groceries take me at least two hours, even if the available stores are only 5 to 15 minutes away by car. That's because the products are scattered higgledy-piggledy all over the store, deliberately, so you have to hunt for them and spend more time picking through things you don't need, don't want, and have no intention of buying. The cash registers are mostly unoccupied because Wal-Mart doesn't believe in human staff, the DIY checkout counters are invariably bogged down because the chip card readers are fragile and broken or someone is trying to buy alcohol, cigarettes, a R-rated DVD, something related to birth control, razor blades, or something else that requires professional help. It takes me 30-40 minutes just to get through the checkout line! That's why I refuse to go grocery shopping more than once a week. My daughter still doesn't understand why I can't "JUST slip out to the grocery store on the way home from work because it's NO BIG DEAL" on a daily or near-daily basis. Each such slippage takes more than an hour of my time, and she's unwilling to help with the shopping process since it's not something that interests her and she doesn't think it's an effective use of her time, which she considers to be far more valuable than mine. So she refuses to write down the things she wants onto a grocery list, when I ask if she has any special requests for food or toiletries she says "no, I don't need anything", and then a day later she bitches me out when I don't magically guess what she wants or needs, and throws a tantrum if I don't run out and get what she wants now-now-now. If I'm busy with something else and can't drop everything to run the errand for her immediately, she flies into a snit and runs around telling other people I don't support her and she "has to" buy everything she needs because I'm oh-so-cheap.

There used to be a grocery store about 3 miles from me, with well trained cashiers who had been doing their jobs for years and who knew what they were doing. But a Wal-Mart sleazed into the neighborhood despite having a super-center less than 2 miles away. They greased some palms with the liquor control board to get a booze-selling license the neighborhood didn't want them to have, and put the mom-and-pop place out of business because a sizable amount of their business depended on booze sales. So now although the "neighborhood market" is closer, it's basically a glorified convenience store and you have to go to at least two places to get groceries or else drive at least five or six miles out of the way. The groceries are Wal-Groceries, so basic things I need such as cheesecloth and the right kind of pectin simply aren't available anymore.

Other things that can't actually be successfully bought, but that are present in the grocery store, include most kinds of frozen food. When it thaws before you can get it through the checkout line, you can't buy things like ice cream. Well, you can put it in your cart, head for the checkout line, and by the time you physically get it out of the store it's liquid. If you try to go when the lines are shorter, there won't be any managers available to fix the invariable screw-up when the cashier forgets to cancel the order ahead of yours before beginning and needs a manager to override the mistake. Cashiers aren't given the authority to void transactions, and there's no way to page a manager because they're "roaming". So you, or someone ahead of you, has to wait until the manager finishes up a break, or a personal conversation, or something else. I've walked away from two Wal-marts in the past month and left groceries in the cart for return or on the conveyor belt, simply because after half an hour to 45 minutes of standing in line it was still simply impossible to check out. I haven't seen such retail inefficiency since I visited the USSR late in the Gorbachev administration. But the option of going somewhere else simply doesn't exist. Wal-Monopoly has that part of the city completely tied up and there simply aren't other places to get groceries.

Highly recommend Aldi. It sounds like if there's one that's within a 30min drive it may be quicker for you to do that. I'm usually in/out with a week or two of groceries in 15min.

I find that timing it right and planning is really important for getting in and out of a grocery store quickly. I switched from Sunday's to after work on Monday's and that cut my shopping time in half. If you're a meal planner like me then you can organize your list by what should be close together at the store (tomato sauces are usually near noodles & rice, bread is usually inexplicably near snack foods) that cuts down on a lot of time too. The grocery is one of those places you really get to know :) it causes irrational anger when they move things around.
Some great responses!

TGS, it took me a while to adjust to shopping here in Vienna - many small supermarkets scattered all around, and kitchens+refrigerators are small as well, so instead of a hypermarket run once a month (~2 hours) you go to the small supermarket twice a week in ~10 min. This change has led me to eating way more fresh fruit, vegetables and meat which is nice.
On the negative side, this has led to me spontaneously running out to buy ice cream since it only takes 15min if the checkout like is short.

Hofer, which is the Austrian Aldi, is particularly amazing - in n out in under 10 min sometimes with 20 items.

I'm from the Chicago region of the US but staying in Vienna on the weekend as part of a two-week work trip. Any suggestions for a 29-year old man with no plan, cheap, likes history, loves activity, and no language skills?
Cool!

Weather permitting:
* Walking along the canal
* Walking through the Prater central park
* Park Belvedere, along with the art museum inside (haven't been but heard great things)
* You can rent a bike for almost free from citybikewien.at (have to sign up with credit card) - free for under an hour, a few euros for a few hours so you can bike around town.
* Take a self-guided tour in the 1st district/Innere Stadt. Stephansdom is nice but beware of the annoying costumed dudes.
* There are "official" walks marked by the city, unfortunately the information is sparse and in German.

Vienna has some good museums but they cost a fair amount of money (>10 EUR) and there's enough to see for free outside as long as it's not raining heavily.

General tips:
* Most food in the 1st district is overpriced, in general restaurants aren't cheap but there are exceptions. Don't order anything you don't understand unless you are adventurous, I recently ate a pile of lungs doing just that.
* Beer on tap is nearly always between 3.5-4.9 EUR for 500ml
* Almost all "commercial" beer is good so not much of a craft scene, there is a nice craft beer bar in the 1st
* Public transportation is awesome and integrated into Google Maps

If you have time for a beer or a few PM me [29-year old man here too]. Same if you need bar/club/restaurant recommendations.

A Definite Beta Guy

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18747 on: October 11, 2017, 08:20:11 AM »
I tend to go to the Jewel (Illinois equivalent to Safeway). I prefer to do my hopping at 9 or 10 AM, before the store gets really busy. I'm usually awake by 5:30, so no real struggle there.

It's well laid out and not big, so it's easy to navigate. On the other hand, they have limited SKUs, which puts the hurt on a few things, especially in the produce section. Can't find celery root or daikon there, for instance. No dashi, either.
Jewel is a weird grocery store.  It's smaller than Walmart/Meijer, so the selection is a little worse (for the most part - I can never find a head of red leaf lettuce at Walmart, but Jewel always has it), and the prices are a little higher (a lot higher on some things).  Their meat is worse than Walmart (at least their chicken - haven't gotten my beef/pork from a grocery store in a while because I'm a pretentious asshat) despite costing more money.  It's an odd mix of trying to be a cheap grocery store and trying to be Whole Foods.  They got rid of the self checkout sometime last year, so it's no longer reliably an efficient quick stop.

Meijer is probably my favorite grocery store in our area.  Good prices, just "fancy" enough to have a good selection of weird stuff I might be interested in, good quality produce/meat, well laid-out, and it has self checkout. 

I liked Shop and Save for a while, but I've gotten bad (bad as in rotten) meat from them so I just avoid it entirely.

Aldi's savings I find to not be worth the trip except occasionally.

I haven't given Meijer's a shot. My Michigan friends love it, but it looks like a generic big box to me, and I've had negative opinions on the big boxes ever since I bought a pair of shoes that fell apart within 2 days.

Decent sales at Jewel happen often enough that I can hit all my essentials and not get much of a premium. A lot of the standard prices are ridiculous...the biggest annoyance for me is the lack of selection on certain things, and I also hate the meat section! My Dad is a butcher, though, so I get meat from him.

Also Jewel really saturates the market around me. we have 4 or 5 Jewels within 2 miles and nothing else besides a Mariano's. The Mariano's is much more difficult to navigate due to the way the outlots and traffic flow are set up.

Inaya

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18748 on: October 11, 2017, 08:44:36 AM »
I tend to go to the Jewel (Illinois equivalent to Safeway). I prefer to do my hopping at 9 or 10 AM, before the store gets really busy. I'm usually awake by 5:30, so no real struggle there.

It's well laid out and not big, so it's easy to navigate. On the other hand, they have limited SKUs, which puts the hurt on a few things, especially in the produce section. Can't find celery root or daikon there, for instance. No dashi, either.
Jewel is a weird grocery store.  It's smaller than Walmart/Meijer, so the selection is a little worse (for the most part - I can never find a head of red leaf lettuce at Walmart, but Jewel always has it), and the prices are a little higher (a lot higher on some things).  Their meat is worse than Walmart (at least their chicken - haven't gotten my beef/pork from a grocery store in a while because I'm a pretentious asshat) despite costing more money.  It's an odd mix of trying to be a cheap grocery store and trying to be Whole Foods.  They got rid of the self checkout sometime last year, so it's no longer reliably an efficient quick stop.

Meijer is probably my favorite grocery store in our area.  Good prices, just "fancy" enough to have a good selection of weird stuff I might be interested in, good quality produce/meat, well laid-out, and it has self checkout. 

I liked Shop and Save for a while, but I've gotten bad (bad as in rotten) meat from them so I just avoid it entirely.

Aldi's savings I find to not be worth the trip except occasionally.

I haven't given Meijer's a shot. My Michigan friends love it, but it looks like a generic big box to me, and I've had negative opinions on the big boxes ever since I bought a pair of shoes that fell apart within 2 days.

Decent sales at Jewel happen often enough that I can hit all my essentials and not get much of a premium. A lot of the standard prices are ridiculous...the biggest annoyance for me is the lack of selection on certain things, and I also hate the meat section! My Dad is a butcher, though, so I get meat from him.

Also Jewel really saturates the market around me. we have 4 or 5 Jewels within 2 miles and nothing else besides a Mariano's. The Mariano's is much more difficult to navigate due to the way the outlots and traffic flow are set up.
I love Meijer, but there aren't any anywhere near me. I really like Mariano's, but the nearest is a mile-ish away, and that's a pretty long way to carry groceries (I don't bike). I have a really awful Jewel two blocks from me (even worse than average, and it's like they actively work to make it worse), two Whole Foods within four blocks, and a Trader Joes three blocks away. Ideally, I avoid all four and shop at the Aldi and MarketPlace in Skokie. They're on my way home (Yellow Line), better prices than downtown for most things, and interesting/exotic ingredients. And dirt-cheap bulk spices. Can't really buy meat there, since it's an hour home from there, but I can get it elsewhere.

mm1970

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Re: Overheard at Work
« Reply #18749 on: October 11, 2017, 09:07:11 AM »
A somewhat depressing discussion with a coworker yesterday.  I work at a startup, and we pretty much run out of money every 2 years. This is one of those years.  Each time it happens, it gets more and more iffy as to whether we will weather it.

I'm not sure why I stay, really, since all this means I've gotten 1 raise since 2011 and my pay is currently 76% of the median.  But I do have a great boss, so there's that.

We chatted about the lack of money and the possibility that
A: there might be layoffs, which seem to happen whenever we run out of money and
B: we might just go under this time

He asked if we needed my salary and I said "no, not really.  I mean, we used to, but my husband actually gets raises and bonuses.  It wouldn't be awesome, but we could handle it.  I also know a lot of people it town, so I could get a job.  Probably within 6 months. Might pay even less than this one, might not be a job that is climbing the ladder, but I'd be fine."

He mentioned it was different for him.  Which, of course.  At his age (later 50s) vs mine (later 40s), it's harder to get hired.  And he's the breadwinner.  He's also a great guy and awesome at his job.

Anyway, the whole conversation depressed me.