Have you ever taken a picture in a grocery store so that you could remember something, possibly research it, or in my case call a friend and say “what the heck is this and how do you cook it?”?
I’ve done it lots of times. I used to drive my friend Bruce buggy because I figured he should know what to do with bok choy…being oriental and all. But no, Bruce was born in Canada and doesn’t have any more idea what to do with pigs feet than I do.
So imagine my surprise today when I went to check out a relatively new store in my ‘hood called either A-1 Premium or Al Premium (owner’s name could be Al, I suppose) and found some stuff that I thought grandson Jaden would love to see, although frankly it was making me a little queasy. In fact, I commented to husband Joe that I felt like I’d walked into another country, the food was so varied and different. Next thing I know I’ve got some goon following me around yelling at me “no pictures…no pictures”. Husband Joe of course jumped to my defence before I had a chance to open my mouth. “Why can’t she take pictures?” he asked. “They’re just to show to our grandson”.
“No pictures!” insisted our goon. “You talk to Manager”, pointing to the very front of the store (we were at the very back). “Nope”, said Joe. “You want us to talk to the manager, you go get him”. Well this deteriorated into “you do it” “no, you do it” and we walked away – with a goon shadow. Next thing we know we’re being followed by our goon and a man in a red jacket who finally approached us and said “you no take pictures in store”. And then he said something about the pictures ending up on the internet (of course, I thought “hey, great idea” – that had never been my intention).
Joe again explained they were only for our grandson – as I plotted Facebook and a blog – and red jacket walked away smiling.
As we finished our shopping – still under the watchful eye of goon – I started wondering if the fuss was about illegal aliens as employees. What else could the big deal have been?
Still in this day and age of instant communication (have you seen the commercial where the man falls off the treadmill?) where a story of poor communication and therefore poor customer service can be spread in a heartbeat, this was very, very poorly handled. Joe reckons we may be barred from the store for life. I’ll have to check that out later this week.
And what was all the fuss about? Well, here are the infamous pictures:
Ridiculous…talk about paranoid…. Too bad, it is an interesting store. I guess this is where cultures clash.