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I don't encounter direct customer feedback anywhere near as often as I used to, as I no longer resopond directly via a customer service email, and almost never even respond on social media like I used to. So it was a delightful surprise today when I encountered a new story that was a doozy.
At one of our stores a customer was checking the weight of ice cream pints and novelties, by taking them out of the freezer case . . . and weighing them on the scale in the bulk section.
Because many of them weighed in under the printed size on the packaging, she apparently went off about how companies are out to screw customers, due to covid and inflation and rising prices.
I laughed out loud when I read that.
By the way, all frozen desserts are measured by volume, in fluid ounces, which is not always 1:1 with weight. Plus, some air gets whipped into ice cream as just part of how it's made, which can make weights vary a bit. Just in case you were thinking about taking this woman's side! Although if you were, just like her you probably have bigger problems than exactly how much ice cream is in a pint container.
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I don't think I've mentioned this here yet, but it's looking increasingly certain that, in the beginning of August, I will be traveling for a work conference for the first time in 21 years of this job. (In fact, the trip will overlap with August 5, the 21st anniversary of my first day.)
It's for a conference called "Co+nvergence," hosted by NCG, which is the "National Co+op Grocers" collective of which PCC is by far the largest member. (I asked Noah who he thought would be second-largest, and he guessed a co-op grocery chain right there in Minnesota—where NCG is also headquartered—but he guessed they have five or six stores. By comparison, we have 16.)
When Gabby first asked if I would be interested in going to this, I was like, "I guess?" I could see it being a lot of information not directly related to my job, but a) I might still learn something; and b) I love to take any opportunity to visit some place new—especially if both airfair and lodging are covered! Although I fully plan to extend my stay so I can explore outside the very full conference days, which will mean at least three hotel nights I'll have to pay for myself. It will still be way cheaper than if I had to pay for the rest of the stay and the airfare.
I was able to bring this up to Noah for the first time this morning, as this is a day he works in the office, and he actually got visibly excited by the idea of my coming along: "Awesome!" he said. He was even surprisingly enthusiastic about the conference itself, which he's been to twice before: he says it's really fun. Well okay, then.
He did say a lot of it focuses on operational issues that indeed won't be directly relevant to me. But, yesterday I found last year's program and schedule (this year's isn't out yet), and found a fair amount of things that actually might have had some relevance, especially now that I'm becoming kind of the liaison for NCG-specific pricing. A couple of related responsibilities that Eric used to take care of, in the transition of Gabby into his role, have now fallen to me. And honestly, a whole lot about how NCG prices flow to us has long been a mystery or outright confusing to me, and still is, and I'm hoping this experience might provide some clarity.
I'm also excited about visiting the Twin Cities for the first time, even though the conference, and therefore the first four hotel nights, will have to be in Saint Paul rather than Minneapolis. But! I've been obsessively researching things to do and check out, just as I had in the lead-up to the trip to Australia, with two key things I'm interested in even in Saint Paul itself: most significantly, a tour of the Minnesota State Capitol building, which has tour times even on Saturdays—and I like to collect a new
tour of a state capitol or province parliament building every chance I get. There will be a new one right there in Saint Paul!
And then, there's Minneapolis's famed
skyway stystem, the largest of its kind in the world, connecting 9.5 miles of indoor, second-story pedestrian pathways over 80 blocks. It occurred to me to put this on my list fairly late in the game, when I suddenly remembered it—I've actually known about it since I was a teenager, because I grew up in Spokane, which has a much smaller skywalk system downtown but whose claim to fame is being the "second largest" such system in the country—behind Minneapolis.
Except: I discovered this week that Saint Paul has
its own skyway system, about half the size of Minneapolis's, covering five miles and 47 blocks—in which case, wouldn't that have made Spokane
third? Maybe they were counting Minneapolis and Saint Paul as one, "Twin Cities." Although that makes no real sense as the two systems are not connected to each other; they are ten miles apart. Whatever.
I do know that the convention center I'll be going to, as well as one of the two hotels being used for conference guests, are connected to the Saint Paul skyways. My only real concern is whether I'll be able to fully explore the system in Saint Paul during a weekday, as Wednesday through Friday will be packed with conference events, and I intend to transfer over to Minneapolis on Saturday. And I thought at first that I would fly home on Monday, but when I realized the Minneapolis skyways are by far the most accessible during business hours, I decided I'll need Monday for that, so I'll fly home on Tuesday instead.
I've found plenty of other things to do as well, including a 32-story tower in the center of downtown Minneapolis built in the thirties, now a hotel, and has a ticketed observation deck at the top. It's called the
Foshay Museum and Observation Deck, it's the W Hotel (hmm, maybe I could stay there? probably too expensive but worth checking out), and is on the top floor. Clearly that point of interest goes to the top of my list!
I talked to Shobhit for a few minutes about this last night. He lived in Minneapolis sometime around 2000 or 2001, for eighteen months once. A very cool detail he shared was that his apartment building was connected to the skyway system and so was the building where he worked, so he could walk to work from home and back without ever having to go outside.
— पांच हजार चार सौ पांच —
— पांच हजार चार सौ पांच —
In other news, watching my streaming SIFF movie last night was not meant to be. I'll have to do it tonight, really my last chance to do so.
Shobhit wanted me to join the Zoom meeting of the 37th District Democrats, as it was their endorsements meeting. None of the voting took place during the meeting, only nominations and seconds of nominations.
It should be noted that we don't live in the 37th legislative district, we live in the 43rd. But, the Seattle City Council district Shobhit is running for, which we do live in, overlaps with the 37th. So, all eight of the District 3 candidates actively participating in the Democracy Voucher program were present. And every candidate who received a nomination for endorsement was allowed a one-minue chance to speak and make their case, in the order that an endorsement came in.
Two of the candidates used to be in leadership positions at the 37th Destrict Democrats, and they got their nominations first, as they had a clear edge with this particular group of people. In this instance, this even pushed Joy, the person who is still by far the furthest ahead and allocated Democracy Vouchers, surprisingly far down the list: I think she was nominated fifth or sixth.
When it got to Shobhit, it looked for a minute like he wasn't even going to get a nomination; he doesn't know a lot of these people very well. Then, after a text exchange with one of them, a guy stepped up and moved to nominate Shobhit, and so then another person seconded. This placed Shobhit eighth, and thus last, in the order of one-minute statements.
By this point, the meeting, which faced a fair amount of delaying technical issues, had gone on quite some time. Checkin had been at 6:30, and the meeting officially started at 7:00, and in the end it went past 9:00.
I'm not even a dues-paying member of the 37th District Democrats, so I was only there as a guest and couldn't vote. Even if I could, I'm not sure it would have been a good look for me to be the only person to step up to nominate him or, probably more problematic, be the only person to offer a statement of support, being his spouse. My presence on the call was arguably useless, except it really wasn't: I think Shobhit wanted me there just for moral support. It made no difference to anyone else there, but it made a difference to him.
And after the introductory statements were made, there were two rounds of opportunity for other members on the call to make a thirty-second statement in support. There was some small mimuscule amount of comfort when, in the first round, one of the other candidates got no volunteers to make a statment of support, which made me think, at least, maybe Shobhit wouldn't get ranked dead last. But, in the second round of thirty-second support statements, one person did step up to speak for the other candidate who got no statements of support in the first round; Shobhit didn't get any either round.
Shobhit knew he wouldn't get this nomination, but I think it was probably still disappointing to be the person to get the least vocal support. He may have a point about this process though, which could work slightly in his favor in the long run: they do ranked choice voting—done after the meeting is closed—and none of them qualify for an endorsement according to the rules unless they get 60% of the vote. With so many candidates for District 3 vying for it, it's possible (maybe even probable, seems to be the way Shobhit is thinking) will get that high a majority, in which case they cannot endorse any of them.
Here's the thing I keep thinking about in this whole process: never before have I been so consistently exposed to all the candidates, as well as their ideas, plans and policy positions. As long as Shobhit is in the race, then obviously my vote goes to him. He'll be on the ballot in the August 1 primary; he'll get my vote. If he mamages to eek out in the top two after that race, then he'll get my vote in November as well. But, if not? I will be so knowledgable about the other candidates that I won't have to do any research at all for this race, because I'll already have long known who I think is the best candidate. Actually this will be the case no matter what: no matter how far Shobhit gets, I will be far more familiar with all the candidates in this race than I have ever been with any other candidate in any other race I've ever voted in.
Even being witness to all the smaller scale instances of democracy in action (such as last night's meeting itself) has been interesting and informative.
— पांच हजार चार सौ पांच —
[posted 12:31 pm]
