A new direction

www.stopandshop.com

We were loyal customers of Shaw's Supermarket until last weekend. Not wanting to ignore the strike at Shaw's distribution center, we decided to do our weekly shopping at the Stop and Shop in Milford. Boy, are we glad we stumbled into this store!

Stop and shop has a brand new way of food shopping that we adore. Upon entry, you scan your loyalty card at a large display of scanner guns. Once your card is processed, a scanner lights up for you to take. Game on! Now, as you walk through the store making your selections, you scan the item and bag it right in your cart. The scanner logs your groceries, tracks the prices, and offers coupons not advertised. If you make an error, simply remove the item from your cart and from your scanner log. When you are done shopping, you go to the check out line, enter your scanner, and suddenly every item you purchased rings up with the cashier. You can then hand over additional coupons and the cashier will enter them for you as the scanner can't read paper coupons. You pay and out you go! Perfection!

How much fun will shopping be for our technology loving 8 year old when we let her control the scanning? No more begging to be left out of the boring grocery run! And I should also mention that prices were cheaper on a lot of every day items. A can of soup at Shaw's is typically $2.19 for the brand I purchase. At Stop and Shop, the price was $1.79. That's a savings that can't be ignored!

At at our local (Milford) Stop and Shop, the customer service was also shockingly fabulous! A shout out to the young stock-boy who saw us questioning the price of an item. He recognized a chance to pitch his store positively and he went for it. He is the sole reason we are now Stop and Shop customers. At that moment, we had no idea this scanning system was in place as we had walked right by the display. This young man was so friendly and so thorough in his explanations that we went right back to the display and got our scanner. When we passed him a second time, he waved and asked if we were enjoying the experience. Well done! And our cashier was patient as we stumbled through the new check out process with the help of her kind guidance.

Nice work, Stop and Shop! We look forward to exploring this new relationship.

That's mighty fine pie

Perhaps we're just weird, but we like true customer service. In fact, we expect it. Unfortunately, in this day of phone trees and automated responses, it doesn't occur often. Today we experienced the best and the worst of it at the Home and Garden Show in Durham.

We might as well get the icky out of the way first.

Many people working at the trade shows we've attended recently seem to not understand why they are there. Let us (gently) remind you: give out samples, talk up your company, maybe make a sale... Overall, create a positive impression for potential new customers.

Speaking to the creepy older gentleman representing Wick-It Cool Candles who felt it okay to smear scented candle wax all over my hand while commenting on Victoria's Secret and attempting to massage my digits. Could it get any worse? No sale. And to the incredibly crabby lady with the flavored dips, if you want to increase your customer base, I would highly recommend you ditch the desire to critique the amount of free samples people are consuming and to absolutely rethink negative comments on attendees' kids. Not smart.

But some vendors get it, and they get it right. Simply, they are friendly. They smile and give some information about their company. They know that samples that aren't given away represent missed customers. They know that families with children present are families consisting of future customers. We leave their booths happy. We like them and we follow up on their companies.

For instance: the lady in the Cabot Cheese booth (www.cabotcheese.coop) who happily offered all of her cheese flavors to our family and was smitten by our son Jack, offering him a job with the company (in eighteen years or so...) And the people from Lakonia Olives (www.lakoniagreekproducts.com) who quickly explained their company history and offered fine samples of their olives and oils.

But far an above the pack, we loved our interactions with Saffie's Neighborhood Bakery (www.nhbakery.com).

Greg and Kathryn offered samples of several types of delicious Whoopie Pies to our whole family. Want another taste? Fine. When we came back to buy a few pies for the road, Greg gave us an extra Woopie Pie, since Ophelia kept giving her samples to Jack. And Kathryn gave Avery a gigantic cookie-- just because. We are officially huge fans of Saffie's. Thanks for their great service and attention at the show. Kudos to these folk who recognize their customer base and roll out the red carpet.

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice

Study: Lead Poisoning Could Lurk in Spices

We are a family that loves to cook from scratch. We aren't afraid to try new things and we take pride in having children that love a wide array of foods. My husband Thom is a chef, which doesn't hurt! Thom can whip up a fabulous meal from a limited supply of ingredients grabbed from the pantry. It is amazing to watch and to eat!

You can imagine our horror when we stumbled upon this recent news report linked above. The most frustrating aspect is that we can't find one single link that breaks down the risk by specific spice. Reports seem focused on ethnicity, such as "Indian or Mexican spices," rather than "oregano," or "basil." Are we to throw out each and every one of our powdered spices? Have we unknowingly exposed our entire family to lead and should we have everyone tested immediately? We use heavy amounts of spices in our daily creation of meals so this is not just unfounded panic.

We found this article on-line, meaning: it's not a 'space' issue that limited the report form having enough details to be useful. Instead, it included just enough information to incite fear, but few facts that might help alleviate it. Where indeed is the link to a list of the spices tested? Or references to the name brands? Are only imported spices at risk, so we could be safe with 'grown in the USA' labels? We get none of this information.

What about spices that are mixed into other products and then sold? We have, for example a jar of "Kitchens of India Onion and Yogurt Cooking Sauce: Dehli Dum Aloo" in the fridge, made with spices imported from Kolkata, India. What is the lead risk there? Or is that product 'safe' because it is in another form, and maybe was inspected by the FDA?

The article mentions Chili Powder as coming up at high lead levels. So what happens when I go to Taco Bell and have burrito? Is that safe?

Who knows? Our article at TIME.com tells us none of this.

So TIME Magazine, welcome to your place on our S.ugar H.oney I.ced T.ea List.


But TIME is not the only one.

And try to make sense of this:
"Currently the Food and Drug Administration, which oversees the safety of food products imported into the U.S., does not have specific guidelines for screening lead in dried products like spices. That's because the FDA feels there is no safe level of lead in dried products, since studies have not yet established that lead exposure doesn't lead to adverse health effects."

Ummm. What??

So let me get this straight: The FDA says no level of lead is safe in food products. So instead of setting the 'pass' level at zero parts per billion, for example; they decided not to test it at all?

That's like taking the speedometer out of your car, and then arguing that you can't be given a speeding citation because you don't know how fast you were going.

So, FDA, we are looking at you. And this is not our Happy Face.

Everywhere we go, the kids wanna rock!

And then there's people who get things right, who listen to customers and improve their offering.

Boston Rock-n-Romp really has made some good changes.

We went to Rock-N-Romp about two years ago, and it didn't work out. The event was held in a Boston bar, the thinking at the time being that parents needed a chance to get out into a space where they could get their rock on, and to try to create a regular rock show, but with tweaks that made it more kid-friendly. So the bands didn't swear, and there were activities for the kids. One band even let all the kids come onto the stage and play or sing with them for a while. It was a good show, a good try. But it was still wicked loud, as club shows tend to be. Our kids didn't enjoy it very much.

After the event we told the organizers that we thought it was too loud. Could the music be turned down, or maybe it could be held in a place where there was more opportunity to escape the noise, if needed. And I guess we weren't the only ones who had this critique.

So the latest show took a lot of this into consideration.

It was held at a new venue-- an armory with a huge main room, including a big balcony area that was sort of out of the way, but in view of the stage. And the room was set up to create these two pockets of quiet off to the side of the stage. So people could head there, still see and hear the band, but not be in the real sound zone.

It worked out really well. Our kids had a great time, and are wondering when the next show is. So our hat's off to the Boston Rock-n-Romp!

www.myspace.com/rocknrompboston