Maybe the Hot Dog Guy Knows Where They Are
By Jeff Salter
You’ll need to read this entire post to get to the moral of the tale. All I heard in the initial conversation was, “Can you pick up a bag of frozen chicken pieces?”
Knowing that my batting average is about .333 (or worse) in getting the actual product my wife wanted, I said, “If you’ll write it down, in detail, I’ll do my best to find it.”
So she wrote down: “1 bag of frozen chicken already grilled and cut into chunks. Kroger brand is fine.”
At Kroger, I asked a guy stocking packaged meat, “Do you have any of this?” and showed him my note.
“Shopping for the wife, huh?” He added silent commiseration. “I’ve never heard of that, but let’s go look.”
I followed him about 65 feet to a freezer cabinet marked “chicken”. He rummaged around and, with a big smile, produced a bag. “I think we’ve got a winner,” he intoned.
I thanked him profusely and continued on. As I shopped, my eye was drawn to the word “RAW” on top of this bag. The photograph showed grilled chicken, but that word seemed to void the notion of the package’s visual imagery.
So I tracked the meat guy back down. He was stocking hot dogs by that point.
“Sorry to bother you again, but are you sure this is the only bag of frozen chicken pieces y’all have? This says ‘RAW’ and my wife had an idea it would be grilled already.”
He shook his head. “That’s the only stuff I know about.”
I continued to mull over the contradiction between the image of grilled chicken parts and the word RAW. So I wandered over to a female employee stocking ice cream. Showed her the same note.
She also nodded silent commiseration.
I explained that the hot dog guy only knew about the RAW version.
“Over here, Hon,” she said, as she led me to a completely different freezer cabinet… also marked CHICKEN. Sure enough, in this instance, the picture showed GRILLED and the text also indicated GRILLED.
BINGO!
I thanked her.
—
The morals of the tale?
1. Never give up trying to get precisely what you were sent for.
2. You can’t always trust the hot dog guy to know where chicken pieces are housed.
3. The ice cream lady usually knows more than the hot dog guy…
NOTE:
This was originally a Possum Trot Pundit Post from January 9, 2014.
Question:
Have YOU ever gone to the store to get something your spouse wanted but you’ve never purchased that item before (so you have no idea where it is)?
[JLS # 508]
Angela Schroeder
Patricia Kiyono
Elaine Cantrell
Jeff Salter
Joselyn
Tonette Joyce
Four Foxes, One Hound 
You must know that I will be weighing in on anything FOOD and Kroger-related, Jeff!
Your mistake was asking someone in the MEAT department about things in the FROZEN FOOD department. They are the ones who stock the shelves. I am sure the hotdog guy could have told you exactly where to find fresh sausages and lunch meats. The ICE CREAM LADY I am sure stocks all of the frozen foods.
MANAGERS NEVER KNOW WHERE THINGS ARE, btw.
Now, with the Click-List people, they usually know where things are in the store.
The biggest problem that I have had recently was searching for applesauce. It was no longer where it had been with the canned/jarred vegetables. It was not with the canned/jarred fruit.I t was not with the packaged side dishes. A Click-List person told me it was with lunchbox items. I said that I didn’t want individual cups, but a large jar. They said it was there. Who would have thought to look there? The big jars of applesauce are down on the bottom shelf, under the puddings and fruit cups, granola bars and Capri Suns!
The one problem I have encountered is that there are similar products in different areas in the store. Canned/boxed milk,(cow,coconut, almond, etc.), products are in FOUR different places in my local Kroger: In the baking aisle, in the health bar section, (boxed milks), in one end of an aisle with the Asian foods, the other end of that aisle with the Latin foods and oddly, two aisles down with the Goya brand foods, which are not with the Old El Paso, Taco Bell, Pace and other Hispanic/Latin brands.
Rice and beans are in the Latin section, and in the Asian section in two places: with the far eastern Asian foods and the South Asian foods, along with also being in the pasta aisle. Olives are with the pickles and in the Italian section, two aisles down. It’s a treasure hunt in every store excursion. I can’t imagine sending anyone else looking for what I want and I have to see what the heck is available now.
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yes, the two biggest adjustments I’ve encountered here is (1) when the city voted to go from “dry” to “wet” and the store moved EVERYTHING to accommodate two complete aisles of BEER. And (2) when south Kroger moved from Light 17 to the new expanded store at Light 16-A. The new store is double or triple the size of the other one and has many additional departments. I had to draw a map that I used when my mom was still going with me.
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I am glad that they built a new one and incresed the size of the ‘new’ one several times since Ihave been her, but this lat ‘reset’ of the store has made it so complicated, it isn’t funny.It’s the first time that I didn’t learn where everythig was right away.It’s been well over a year and I still get confused.
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my latest excursion, earlier this week, involved my search for Doritos. I went down an entire aisle with chips and saw mostly cheese puffs and tater chips. Reversed course and checked that aisle again. It was clearly marked “Chips / snacks”.
Finally I gave up and moved to the next aisle… where the CORN chip products were apparently segregated. First time I’ve realized they had their own aisle.
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As I’m reading this, imagine me shaking my head. LOL! Yup, I knew immediately the hot dog guy was wrong and you were about to make a purchasing mistake.
I’m sure I’ve done the same, but I can’t recall.
Cute post, Jeff.
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Thanks, Jenn. That hot dog guy should have known about chicken pieces, in my opinion. But he was so pleased that he’d found the frozen RAW pieces…
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To date, I’ve never looked for something Arnie wanted and got the wrong thing, but Arnie used to go shopping with me, so he always sought out the items on his own list, while I picked up what I needed. Now that he’s doing the shopping, he’s run into several cases where he brought home what he “thought” I wanted. And he’s also brought home what he felt was “near to” what I wanted, but couldn’t find. LOL We’ve experienced a variety of new things this way. LOL
You’re in good company, Jeff. I give you guys “E” for effort. 🙂
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Tell Arnie to be sure NOT to rely on the hot dog guy for chicken advice.
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What kills me is all the “extra” stuff he brings home. “Thought we might need this.” LOL
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I carry in my snacks in a separate bag, so I don’t have to provide any explanations. LOL
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Sneaky…very sneaky. But the word is out now. Denise will be checking. LOL
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LOL — she doesn’t always read my blog…
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Since hubby does the majority of the cooking, he does most of the grocery shopping, and he knows what he wants. Once in a great while I’ll pick up things for him, and he complains when I get the wrong brand. But if I have to pick up something I’ve never purchased before, I take a picture of what I want or bring along the item to be replaced, and that usually works.
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yeah, the picture idea takes away most of the margin for possible error.
I’m also known to bring box-tops or labels.
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I’m afraid I’ve sent my poor husband on errands like this. Most of the time he gets it right, but not always.
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Like I said, I’m batting about .333
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I love this. Rick often goes to Kroger alone while I stay home and oversee virtual school for Mollie. I’ve learned to write my list in order of how they’re found at the store according to the way I shop. Rick has been with me enough to know how to correctly navigate the store. Also if an item is often out of stock, I list second choices. Also if I have a coupon I’ll put the size & brand he needs to get. He rarely has to ask for help since I’ve been making the list so detailed. Oh, and Rick doesn’t have a smart phone to look things up on so the more detailed my list, the better for him.
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when the wife is happy, everybody’s happy.
I like your practice of listing 2nd & 3rd options.
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I usually leave the 2nd and 3rd option up to Arnie. If I don’t want anything but specifically what I listed, I put an asterisk next to it. He wouldn’t dare get something else, right? But he has. LOL
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Thanks for the laugh! I needed that today – and you delivered.
I shop at Walmart (since that’s where I’m at work stocking Hallmark cards). Why make two trips to a second store? They had a major store revision August a year ago (2019). There’s STILL things I’m trying to find in there LOL
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I used to buy a LOT of greeting cards. There was a Hallmark shop in downtown shreveport right across the street from where I worked for 26 years. I often zipped over there during my lunch break.
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Did you pick up some ice cream while you were there?
I have gone to pick up some items at the store for my parents and had to call to make sure it was the right thing. Thank goodness for video calls!
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I went through a lengthy period when I wasn’t buying any ice cream because we didn’t have any freezer room for it. But in the spring we got a new fridge, so I’m back in business.
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Many a poor man has been lost at the supermarket searching for the right item.
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yes, indeed.
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