Super Stop & Shop

Super Stop & Shop
2450 Jerusalem AvenueNorth Bellmore, NY 11710


They have some nerve calling this place "super" anything. I had to run in here yesterday evening for a few quick items. I found the store to be a complete mess. There were reckless teen employees moving around palette sized loads of produce on mini fork lift devices that I had to navigate past. The "fresh" produce aisle was appalling. All the fruits and vegetables looked picked over, old and undesirable. To top off my brief shopping experience I encountered yet another robotic Long Island supermarket employee.

I know working with the public can really stink so I always try to be nice to people in customer service rolls. I greeted the employee at the check out by saying, "Hi, how are you?". She glared at me and said nothing. I then asked her if she would kindly swipe the "house" card because I didn't have my discount card with me. Again, she glared and was wordless. At the end of ringing me up she tossed my potato chips down in a way that was certain half of them cracked.
At this point I chose not to speak either and glared back at her. That actually seemed to help because she said "thank you" as she pulled her pen back out of my hand after I signed my bill.

Why are people so RUDE around here? Where is all the civility? What happened to everyone?

That's my last vent of the month. Look forward to more complaints about various Stop and Shop locations on Long Island. I have a particular fish monger to pick a bone with.

I'm 27 years old at heart...great news!

You Are 27 Years Old

Under 12: You are a kid at heart. You still have an optimistic life view - and you look at the world with awe. 13-19: You are a teenager at heart. You question authority and are still trying to find your place in this world. 20-29: You are a twentysomething at heart. You feel excited about what's to come... love, work, and new experiences. 30-39: You are a thirtysomething at heart. You've had a taste of success and true love, but you want more! 40+: You are a mature adult. You've been through most of the ups and downs of life already. Now you get to sit back and relax.

What Age Do You Act?

Century 21 Department Store

Century 21 Department Store
1085 Old Country Road Westbury, Long Island 11590
http://www.c21stores.com/long_island.asp

I stopped by here today to try to pick up a gift for my Dad's birthday. There are certainly good bargains to be had, but you really need to pick through some ugly stuff sometimes. Often times the "ugly stuff" isn't the merchandise but the other customers. I nearly called the police while I was on line today to report a possible child abuse (teenager abuse) incident. A hideous woman was shouting at her teen daughter and took a swing at her with her shopping bag. The girl shouted back that she was trying to be helpful by pointing out a bargain. The mother then charged out of the store with two depressed looking teenage girls behind her.

The scene was very distasteful. I wonder what happened to the Long Island of yesteryear. People said hello, thank you please and refrained from beating their children in public. I'd love to know where I can afford to move to and still be near NYC. We can probably move just about anywhere. Recently a Levitt home I know of was sold for $510,000. Levitt homes are the basic econ-homes that were built post WWII to accommodate the needs of the returning soldiers and their growing families. I believe they originally sold for somewhere around $5000.00 in the late 40's and early 50's.

So my point is, we could sell our so-so home for a bundle and move on. I could then have nicer bargain outlets to shop in and hopefully avoid public beatings. For some reason the average customer there today seemed to be wearing faux fur, ratty looking hair and bright red lipstick bleeding into the cracks of their lips. YUCK.

Televisions Top Turd Tom Cavanagh

OK, who hired this guy to star in anything??? By mistake I stopped on CBS this evening and discovered a pilot episode of a new show called "Love Monkey". First of all... PHEW... Stupid name. Second of all, I cannot stand this guy Tom Cavanagh. He has no appeal at all. I watched about 20 minutes of the program before I had to go yak.

CBS says about the show:

"LOVE MONKEY, based on the best-selling book by Kyle Smith, revolves around Tom Farrell (Tom Cavanagh), a 30-something up and coming single record executive who is navigating the tumultuous and highly amusing waters of work and dating in New York City. Tom's got it all until he gets fired from his job and is dumped by his girlfriend, all in the same day. "

Perhaps it's because I've grown up in, lived in and worked in New York that I found this show so annoying. It was filmed and acted as if New York was being portrayed by people from Nebraska. Nothing against Nebraska, but I know that when you come from somewhere else you have a different perception of the City.

Perhaps it's because CBS just stinks and has been promoting programming for old farts since I was about 7 years old (that's as far back as I remember). I think CBS should just throw in the towel and stop putting out new programs. Instead they should make themselves a full time infomercial station selling Depends Undergarments and Sleep Number beds.


P.S. Putting this guy in a CBGB t-shirt doesn't trick me into thinking he's a New Yorker

Adopt a Lab/American Pit bull terrier mix

Name: Silas

Age: 6 months

Sex: Male

Breed: Lab/American Pit bull terrier mix

Location: Flushing, Animal Haven Shelter

This guy is beyond cute and looks like he needs a good home with kind owners. Please consider adopting your next pet. There are way too many animals in our city pounds and local shelters. To adopt Silas please visit the website: http://www.animalhavenshelter.org/. If you aren't ready to take an animal home just yet, consider Animal Haven's Sponsor A Pet Program.

Contractor Crapola (Service Magic)

Way back in the early days of this blog I talked about using Service Magic to find someone to fix my bathroom tiles. We need to have the whole thing re-wall boarded and tiled. Everything else in the bathroom is in fine working order, but the tiles are original 1950's tiles and the wall is starting to give way.

Well the first try with Service Magic was fruitless. No Contractors that seemed well qualified applied. We had someone else in who we got from a friend but they seemed to being going for the hard sell trying to get us to put in a new tub etc. Sorry .... not in the budget.

I tried Service Magic again a few weeks ago and found someone we liked and the price was right. After meeting a few others we called him last week and left a message to say we'd like to award him the job. I could not believe this was the same guy who came to our house.

Here is what I wrote on the Service Magic feedback form:

We did not book the job with XXX-XXXXXX Construction for four major reasons:

1. Three weeks after receiving our original quote the owner was unable to recall any of the information he gave us in his proposal. Having taken two days to respond to our call awarding him the work he seemed to try and bluff his way through the entire conversation.

2. He was unable to provide a committed start and finish date for the job. He basically gave a vague answer saying sometime next week, but he'd let us know on Friday about working next week. Given our schedule it is next to impossible to arrange to have this kind of work done in our home without a committed start date with at least 1 weeks notice.

3. He finally admitted that he did not know how long the job would take and how many workers were required. For a professional contractor, we could not give work to someone who could not accurately estimate a very simple job.

4. Rather than apologize for not having notes or not being able to recall the details of the job, he adopted a "take it or leave it" approach and blamed us for taking three weeks to make a decision. This attitude in the end made us conclude we did not want to work with XXX-XXXXX Construction. Surely it wouldn't have hurt him to ask for a follow up visit to refresh his memory of the work rather than trying to guess?

This Joker basically called us without any notes on the quote. He didn't even remember how much he'd quoted us. When he was here he told us it would take 3 days and 1-2 workers depending on the day. He knew everything that needed to be done then... but because he seems to have no record keeping methods whatsoever he has now lost the work. We might not have been so aggravated if he had just said, sorry I lost my paperwork on the job, can I come back out and have a look the job again. That we could have accepted. We will not accept him blaming us for taking 3wks to make a decision. Like everyone just decides to spend $$$$$ just like that.

Today we were expecting yet another jackass to come and quote the job. Guess what??? HE NEVER SHOWED UP. It's Sunday afternoon and we sat around waiting for another contractor to show up. He didn't even Bother to call. I'm guessing these guys must be raking in a fortune and can afford to treat potential customers like crap. What is the world coming to???

You know you're from New York When....

Just got this in an e-mail from a friend. Thought it was amusing enough to post:

1. THERE IS NO NORTH AND SOUTH. IT'S "UPTOWN" OR "DOWNTOWN." IF YOU"RE REALLY FROM NEW YORK YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO CONCEPT OF WHERE NORTH AND SOUTH ARE.... AND EAST OR WEST IS "CROSSTOWN."

2. YOU'RE 35 YEARS OLD AND DON'T HAVE A DRIVER'S LICENSE.

3. YOU RIDE IN A SUBWAY CAR WITH NO AIR CONDITIONING JUST BECAUSE THERE ARE SEATS AVAILABLE.

4. YOU TAKE THE TRAIN HOME AND YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHERE ON THE PLATFORM THE DOORS WILL OPEN THAT WILL LEAVE YOU RIGHT IN FRONT OF THE EXIT STAIRWAY.

5. YOU KNOW WHAT A "REGULAR" COFFEE IS.

6. IT'S NOT MANHATTAN; IT'S THE "CITY".

7. YOU CROSS THE STREET ANYWHERE BUT ON THE CORNERS AND YOU YELL AT CARS FOR NOT RESPECTING YOUR RIGHT TO DO IT.

8. YOU MOVE 3,000 MILES AWAY, SPEND 10 YEARS LEARNING THE LOCAL LANGUAGE AND PEOPLE STILL KNOW YOU'RE FROM BROOKLYN OR THE BRONX THE MINUTE YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH.

9. YOU RETURN AFTER 10 YEARS AND THE FIRST FOODS YOU WANT ARE A "REAL"PIZZA AND A "REAL" BAGEL.

10. A 500 SQUARE FOOT APARTMENT IS LARGE.

11. YOU KNOW THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ALL THE DIFFERENT RAY'S PIZZAS.

12. YOU ARE NOT UNDER THE MISTAKEN IMPRESSION THAT ANY HUMAN BEING WOULD BE ABLE TO ACTUALLY UNDERSTAND A P.A. ANNOUNCEMENT ON THE SUBWAY.

13. YOU WOULDN'T BOTHER ORDERING PIZZA IN ANY OTHER CITY.

14. YOU GET READY TO ORDER DINNER EVERY NIGHT AND MUST CHOOSE FROM THE MAJOR FOOD GROUPS WHICH ARE: CHINESE, ITALIAN, MEXICAN OR INDIAN.

15. YOU'RE NOT THE LEAST BIT INTERESTED IN GOING TO TIMES SQUARE ON NEWYEAR'S EVE.

16. YOUR INTERNAL CLOCK IS PERMANENTLY SET TO KNOW WHEN ALTERNATE SIDE OF THE STREET PARKING REGULATIONS ARE IN EFFECT.

17. YOU KNOW WHAT A BODEGA IS.

18. SOMEONE BUMPS INTO YOU, AND YOU CHECK FOR YOUR WALLET.

19. YOU DON'T EVEN NOTICE THE LADY WALKING DOWN THE ROAD HAVING A PERFECTLY NORMAL CONVERSATION WITH HERSELF.

20. YOU PAY "ONLY" $230 A MONTH TO PARK YOUR CAR.

21. YOU CRINGE AT HEARING PEOPLE PRONOUNCE HOUSTON ST. LIKE THE CITY IN TEXAS.

22. THE PRESIDENTIAL VISIT IS A MAJOR TRAFFIC JAM, NOT AN HONOR.

23. YOU CAN NAP ON THE SUBWAY AND NEVER MISS YOUR STOP.

24. THE DELI GUY GIVES YOU A STRAW WITH ANY BEVERAGE YOU BUY, EVEN IF IT'S A BEER.