Palace of fine foods

Today as I was walking up and down the aisles of the local Market Basket,the old adage "the more things change.the more they stay the same" popped into my head. The
first thought being being signs. I am talking advertising signs and price signs. Now what's the difference you might ask. And as John Karolides would say "I'm going to tell you now so you'll know"
In 1958 First National stores opened up a brand new super market on the corner of High street and Purchase street,in Danvers. It was just before rte.128. I am told that at one time a hospital was on this site. In later years it was Coleman's sporting goods.I think there is a Walgreens there now.
This is where I first became aware of window signs. At the grand opening, there was three big signs in the front windows. Announcing that this was the PALACE OF FINE FOODS. I have no problem with signs like that or any kind of seasonal signs. It was weekly sales items and regimentation of these signs that bothered me. I have always
liked the natural light that streamed through those big widows. Rather then the alien fluorescent sheen of the overhead lighting. But the company insisted that every Saturday night we changed six or eight 4x8 window signs in exact accordance
with the corporate schematic.
Now so not to bore you to death, with all my little bitches about window signs,I'll get to my main bitch. When I was a store manager The Somerville division alone had well over 100 stores and the total for the company was well over 600. So just how many man hours and how much money went to make these signs.
So I would make my quarterly payroll projections, knowing that they would be kicked back to me. With this admonishment! cut the hours, You need to project a higher sales per man hour. So as any store manager knows cutting the hours means cutting the front end service. Sort of like the road to Perdition!
So now you can see why every time I looked at those signs, I would wonder how many baggers and checkers we could have, if we did away with the print shop instead of clerks.
Remember that at that time over ninety percent of the stores were like the Danvers
store free standing units. Set back off the road on busy thoroughfares. So the signs
could not be read from the street. I always thought it was a pretty safe bet, that
once a customer pulled into the lot and parked we probably had them, That plus the fact the items on those window signs were prominently displayed and signed on front end caps.
So today at the Market Basket on rte.one in Seabrook New Hampshire the windows signs
are still there. If you know that stretch of road,you know that anybody who takes his eyes off the road to read window signs, either has a death wish or is searching for his cell phone.
So that brings me to price signs on merchandise displays. In this age of scanners
most items do not get individually price marked. It never seems to amaze me how many of the smaller and secondary displays have no signs. It is a fact the impulse sales of these smaller displays generate a high gross profit,and are there to off set the low gross profit of the advertised loss leaders displayed on the end caps.
So if your looking for impulse sales. Why in hell would you risk losing a sale,by failing to put a sign on the display.
Back in the FNS hay day,even though we marked everything individually. Lack of a price sign would promptly bring the person responsible for the display, a swift kick right where the pants hang slack!
My next thought was the slovenly appearance of the clerks in all departments. Back
in the FNS days the male grocery clerks all wore white shirts and neckties,the females all wore pink smocks. In the perishable departments the personnel all wore long white wrap around smocks.
There was no problem telling the customers from the clerks, as there is today. Now
that sullen guy moving cans or packages around, might be a clerk,a vendor or a shop-
lifter. You'll never know,as most seem to be hard of hearing and in a sudden hurry to get to another part of the building.
This same appearance and attitude permeates the check out stands. In the FNS days
you actually had to know how to to operate a NCR cash register,do fractions and actually count out the change into the customers hand and say thank you! like you meant it.
Now in this day and age,here I have to say "honest to God". All the clerk has to do
is wave the part of the item that has the universal pricing code on it past the scanner. That's it. No thinking, the computer does that for him. And again I must say "honest to God" these geniuses manage to find away to stumble around this chore
like it was a mine field. Then when all is said and done, the computer spits out a mile long receipt, that has along with a list of your purchases, enough propaganda and empty promises on it to make the CIA proud. He then proceeds to wad up your change and the humongous receipt into a ball and slap it into your hand.
As far as the express register goes. In this day and age it should be referred to as the local. Because it sure as hell makes a lot of stops. Any manager who knows what
he's doing, puts his weakest link where it will hurt him the least. So the person who
ends up on the express lane,is not trying to make your life miserable.He or she can
do that with out trying.
Surprisingly, most things are still the same as they were fifty years ago. The same kind of shelving. The aisles just wide enough to get a pallet down them. The eye
straining fluorescent ceiling lighting. The coffin style meat cases with the tinted dome lights, that make the beef appear redder. The check out stalls and conveyors and refrigerated produce counters. The shopping carts,and tile floors.
F@#$%$%^&*()(*&^%$#@!~ing plastic bags,are of course new.
I could probably drag this narrative out a lot longer.But I am going to cut it off here. But I am going to come back at a later date to relate to you some of the interesting things that happened to me at the palace of fine foods. And tell you about some very interesting people I met, including my first wife.