Groceries In the Tropics

The weather remains rainy, humid, and cool. Perfect day for sleeping in. When I did get up, I had breakfast, then spent the rest of the morning reading and finishing Naughty Marietta. (I'll watch Sweethearts later in the week.)

Work wasn't too busy today, but we were short on help. There were two call-outs. I found this interesting, given this isn't the kind of weather that usually inspires delinquency. At any rate, I stayed an extra hour and put piles of candy away between customers.

About an hour before I left, several employees were called into the front office by Pete, our new manager. Far from being in trouble, he wanted to tell us about a promotion Acme going to do between this Friday and early July. It appears to work like the McDonald's Monopoly promotion. Customers and employees each get a game card (employees get one with different prizes). When they buy anything at all, they get one piece. If they buy certain products, they can get more pieces.

At the very least, this looks like a vast improvement on the annoying pot and pan giveaway from two years ago. It still involves giving out game pieces, but they're far larger and easier to handle than the tiny stickers we gave out for the pots. You don't have to collect as many, either. Most of the items only require five or six pieces to win a prize. The prizes are a lot bigger and more useful than a cheap pot, too, ranging from food items to large cash-prizes.

But the best part by my way of thinking is, for the next few weeks, the Acme is lifting its uniform code somewhat and allowing employees to wear capris and Hawaiian shirts to look the part of summer barbecuers. That may be the best prize of all. It's supposed to get much hotter after this week, and it'll be a heck of a lot easier on me to ride to work in capris and a light Hawaiian shirt!

I ran a few errands in the mall behind the Acme after work. I stopped at America's Best and ordered contacts. I took a peek at Lucille Roberts to see what they're like. I headed for Fashion Bug to buy myself a pair of khaki capris for this weekend.

The weather continues to be weird, by the way. It rained a little bit this morning, then was just cloudy when I went to work. It poured around 2:30...for all of five minutes. When I headed back to the mall, it was just cloudy again, and it stayed cloudy when I rode home and swept the long green seed pods off the porch. It started to rain lightly around 7:30...and once again ended five minutes later, around the time I took out the trash.