Will Bag 4 Food

Ah yes. The discount food store. Places like Aldi and Food 4 Less. These retail operations have proliferated madly in the last five years. Or maybe I am now just being forced to take notice. I feel that, if nothing else, these places prepare me for a job as a bagger. I almost wonder if we will soon encounter an even less service-oriented establishment. What would that be like? Would you enter your choices on a cold gray terminal and catch your groceries as they tumble out of a large chute as you stand outside shivering in a parking lot, trying to corral a frozen ham as it skids across the pavement? I think someone will soon be calling me about my new concept. What shall I name it? Retail Rectum? Love Food Canal? Spew and Chew? Any ideas?

Seriously though, I do really admire one thing that Aldi does. At first it incensed me, then it made sense to me. The pay-for cart strategy. All the carts are linked together outside the store. You have to pop a quarter in the slot to unlink a cart. Then, when you're done shopping, you get your quarter back by returning the cart and linking it back into place. Sure solves the runaway cart crisis. However, I have heard a lot of grumbling from street people.