Giant Foods, "Convenience," and why I'm switching to Aldi...

 

I tried to find a more modern commercial for Giant Food Pharmacy, but it seems that the company doesn't spend a lot on electronic media advertising and hasn't since the 1990s.  So we'll have to settle for this.  Also, very little of today's snark concerns the content of this ad and is instead about the company's current self-checkout system.  Stay with me.

First, the ad itself:  "your prescriptions are filled while you shop?"  This is like that old joke about the car repair shop that features the promise "tires rotated while you wait:"  when the customer is told that it will take 24 hours to get the tires rotated and points to the sign in protest, the mechanic remarks "well, you'll be waiting, won't you?"  In my experience, the reason why you "wait for your prescription while you shop" is because the standard reply to "Is my prescription, which was called in three days ago, ready yet?" is "Um...no, give us another twenty minutes."  So yeah- your prescription is being filled "while you shop," but that's no more impressive as a mechanic telling you that your tires are being rotated "while you wait."  You're shopping because you came to pick up your Rx and it's not ready yet.  Not exactly a feather in the cap of Giant Food Pharmacy.

But now, the real reason for this rant:  Giant's "new and improved" self-checkout, which requires customers who don't have time to wait behind the family with four carts and a file cabinet full of coupons or the jackanapes who won't get off her iPhone to respond to questions about the non-EBT eligible items that make up half her cart, includes a built-in glitch that makes the whole experience a big, insulting headache.  I'm talking about the scale that all scanned items must be placed on the moment they are scanned if you don't want the screen to accuse you of being a shoplifter, which it does anyway at least once per visit.  It's bad enough that I can no longer move heavy items like cases of bottled water or family packs of chicken directly back into my cart but instead have to pick them up twice because an electronic scale must confirm that I'm being honest, but the insult is compounded when putting the items on the scale result in a loud "You Have Unscanned Items In Your Bag" announcement loud enough to let everyone within a ten-foot radius that you are being suspected of theft.  Oh, and it's not like there's an infinite amount of space to put your groceries down- if you're making a large purpose, at some point you have to stop scanning, take your groceries off the scale and put them in your cart-- and be "politely" reminded by the machine that "if you are finished scanning, please select your payment method."  Grrrr...

I'm not kidding- since they put this new system in, I have been accused of shoplifting (by a machine, not by an employee- they invariably just walk up to the system, swipe the screen with that plastic baton thing, and move back into "waiting to assist because yeah we know these machines suck" posture) every. Single. Time. I've purchased goods at Giant Food Pharmacy.  And I thought the "please confirm the number of bags you're purchasing because we aren't sure you got it right the first time" and "would you like to round up your $9.01 purchase to $10 for our charity of the moment?" messages were imposing annoyances.  

I'd go back to letting the Real Human Being who resents seeing buggy tech slowly separating her from a job, but Giant is doing a very good job making that option less attractive by the week by giving fewer shifts and leaving more and more of those assisted-checkout lines closed.   So we customers find ourselves with three options- wait forty minutes on line to let a real cashier handle our purchases, save time by going through the self-checkout but be regularly chastised and accused by electronics during the entire experience, or- finding someplace else to buy our groceries.  Aldi is right up the street, has everything Giant has, and doesn't "remind" me that I shouldn't try to steal stuff I'm not trying to steal.  So I guess it's going to be Aldi from now on, except of course when I have to pick up a prescription.  Then it's back to Giant- and probably more shopping, because it will be "almost ready" when I get there, just give them fifteen or twenty minutes.

Where can David Ortiz possibly go from here?

 

2022:  David Ortiz appears in commercials for Cryptocurrency, "subtly" encouraging thousands of economically-ignorant viewers to put actual money into a mirage.  It's kind of hard to see which group of CryptoCrap "investors" are dumber- the ones who invest because they see a sports or entertainment millionaire suggest that its a good idea, or the ones who invest because they want to make a bold stand against "Fiat" currency by putting some of their own into an "Unregulated" (and therefore better, because remember how much more stable banks were before the Great Depression, when the official policy of the Federal Government was Hands Off.)  They both end up in the same place- wondering where their "worthless" paper money is and wishing they had it back.

2023:  David Ortiz appears in commercials for DraftKings, "subtly" encouraging thousands of economically-ignorant viewers that putting their money at risk every few seconds by tapping their iPhones makes the sportsball game they are watching a thousand times more fun than it was when they just viewed it with nothing but emotional stakes on the line.  99 percent of the customers for the "new" Make Your Own Poverty* app Ortiz is peddling are economically insecure (regardless of what we see on these commercials, customers of online betting- like customers of scratch-off tickets, Powerball, MegaBucks and the other 20,000 or so "games" being "offered" at the counter of your local convenience and liquor stores- are already living on the margins, which is why they are risking their money in the first place.)  And despite what we see in the ads, 99 percent of the people engaged in this destructive behavior lose money.  But it's all in fun, right?

2024- David Ortiz appears in commercials celebrating the fun of eating Tide pods?  Vaping?  Soliciting Prostitutes?  Speeding through School Zones?  It's gotta be something like one of those, if Ortiz wants to continue on his mission to destroy lives in exchange for some more of that sweet, sweet "Fiat" currency.

*Nothing new about gambling, of course, or commercials which make gambling look like more innocent fun than a day at Santa's Village with the grandchildren.  But it's never been so easy to lose money from the comfort of your own couch- I'd say "to scratch that itch," but "feed that addiction" would be more accurate.  Bottom line is- hey David Ortiz, why do you hate your fellow Americans so very, very much?

Dr. Pepper reminds us that it's that time of the year again....

 

Some might call it the "silly season," but that doesn't sound like anything I would say, so I'll keep in character and call it the Stupid Season.

It's the season of moronic Dr. Pepper commercials masquerading as "seasons" of a long-running comedy-drama-garbage dump-crime against our brain cells ad campaign featuring the college football-obsessed loser residents of a small town where the only thing anyone cares about is, well, college football.

It's the We Get It Already one-note, one-unfunny joke that just keep hammering us over the head for the crime of wanting to watch one or two or a dozen football games on the weekend (or, if you are like me, just want something on in the background as you take your walks or clean your house or grade your papers or prepare your lesson plans.)  It's the Get In On The Fun zaniness of an entire community of people who worship soda that tastes like cough medicine and lollipops.  And it's almost as sad as the bleating glue-sniffers who actually binge-watch the "seasons" on YouTube.  (That's a thing that happens.  Check out the comments.)

And it's another reason why the MUTE button on your remote is only slightly less important than the ON button.  Because come on, I know this is supposed to be dumb, but even intentional idiocy can be taken too far.  Especially when you realize that there are people who actually look forward to "new seasons" of this dreck.

This stupid Dairy Queen commercial makes Negative Sense

 

1.  Why is a girl who looks to be at least twelve years old sitting in the back seat instead of in the front with her father?

2.  What is the big deal if the girl wants to start eating her blizzard DQ thing before they get home- that is, before it starts to melt all over the place?  Maybe hers isn't made out of whatever magic non-dairy substance her father's is and won't defy the laws of thermodynamics like his will. 

3.  Is "that's cold" supposed to be a pun?  Because if these blizzard things are cold, unless the AC is turned up to full blast (and even if it IS) they aren't going to stay cold for very long.  Is it "cold" because she gets to enjoy her blizzard while dad has to wait till he gets home?  Well, when he gets home hers will be done and his- because it won't melt, obviously- will still be there, and won't he get some level of juvenile "revenge" at that time?

4.  Seriously, what the hell is going on here?  Who buys a milk shake or an ice cream cone and says "I'm not touching this till I get home?"  That's just dumb.  Why didn't they just eat this stuff at DQ?  Why does neither one have a freaking lid on it- even if dad's is magic and doesn't melt, what is keeping it from gathering dust and dander and bugs in that car?  I mean, come on.   How many layers of stupid can one commercial have?  (And no, that is NOT a challenge.)

5.  What's with the comments?  What is "racist" about this ad featuring a black guy and a girl I assume is his daughter?  What am I missing here?  Why are people like this?

Cherish your stupid addiction this NFL season with Fanduel.

 

The football season is short...so cherish every moment in that 16 weeks by risking your paycheck and your family's financial stability as often as possible.  Because when it's over, you'll have to go back to, um, betting on the NBA, I'm sure. 

Somehow, we've got gambling on your phone being sold as something as precious as moments with a loved one.  Precious, and fleeting and to be appreciated because nothing good- be it football season or the opportunity to gamble on football- lasts forever.  Only winters in Buffalo last forever.

This is really, really sad.  Not as sad as winters in Buffalo, but still, really, really sad. 

Liberty Mutual? Here's some real "truth telling"

 

"It's ok that I spent all this money, because I saved money doing this other thing" is the mating call of every stupidly, intentionally poor person in the Western World.   It's the middle-class equivalent of "I can go into debt to buy this because I'll be able to pay for it as soon as I get my tax refund."  

Sorry, "honey:"  that's still a lot of shopping, and you probably still should be saving more and spending less.  And your mother forgetting to pick her husband up at the airport doesn't change that fact in the slightest.  It's just a mean piece of misdirection that isn't going to improve your credit score.  

Some free advice for Todd in this Chewy Commercial

 

So you're disappointed that you inherited a train set while a cat inherited regular pet supplies "in perpetuity?"  Well, considering that the cat is apparently capable of (at least internal) speech in the way that I imagine most pet owners think that their ridiculous little hairball-producers are, and apparently capable of higher thought processes which allow them to comprehend things like wills and words like "perpetuity," I have some very simple and totally free advice for Todd:

Get on this cat's good side.  I mean, let's be honest about this situation, shall we?  I don't care how old Todd is or how old Mr. Marbles is, Todd is going to outlive Mr. Marbles and we'll be back in this lawyer's office in no time.  Sorry, Mr. Marbles, but when Todd considers what "in perpetuity" means when it comes to your Chewy shipments, he's thinking in years consisting of single digits.  If your dead owner was responsible, Mr. Marbles, you aren't producing any heirs of your own.  So you either make a will- good luck with that- or your estate is going right back to the other people in this room inside a decade.   Time is NOT on your side, Mr. Marbles.