They need to get their story straight

On the news around here, is a big story that Whole Foods (a/k/a the Wal-mart of organic food) has recalled its ground beef due to a breakout of E. coli. I drove by a local WF yesterday and they had a big banner on the exterior of the building announcing a special on ground beef. Either its recalled or its on sale. I am not sure which. And I am not sure if it can be both recalled and on sale. If you have any of this ground beef sold between June 2 and August 6, you can bring it back for a refund if you have a receipt. I hadn't thought that receipts were usually required for refunds in recall cases but they apparently want them. You would think if you brought it back and it had a WF sticker on it, you could get your money back without a receipt.

You might have noticed I am not a WF fan. I do consider them to be the Wal-mart of organic food because they have done a darned good job of putting smaller local companies out of business or swallowing them up. They may pay their employees decent wages and benefits and don't experience more than their share of bad PR. However their products are expensive and come with giant carbon footprints.

There used to be a nice local chain around here called Bread and Circus. They started in the 1970's with organic food. They were a little bit more than a regular grocery but not outrageous. WF bought them and now they are gone. No traces of them left. There was another little local chain, Wild Oats, that tried to combine organic and traditional grocery (you want your Diet Coke and Doritos with your organic lettuce). They were bought by Star Market and integrated into Star Market/Shaws and also kept separate as Wild Harvest. WF is now attempting to buy them. But there is a court injunction against this merger.

The Wild Oats concept was great. I don't know anyone who can do all their grocery shopping at an organic grocery because they just don't have everything. Everyone was forced to alternate regular and organic grocery trips. Another thing they tried to do was sell organic food at reasonable prices. I could do all my shopping at Wild Oats.

Another interesting thing about this beef recall from WF is that you would think with their 'organic, healthy, homemade' image, they would get their beef locally or even grind it in the store. No, this recall is based on beef from a Nebraska meat packing company. So why pay their prices for beef that is just as processed, handled, and transported as any other beef you get elsewhere?

Well enough about that. (They just really tick me off and I won't shop there.) Another one who needs to get his story straight is the cat. He is an indoor cat. But why was he caught in the front yard outdoors, twice yesterday???? He seems to think he is an outdoor cat. His food dish is indoors that should make him stay inside more often. These pictures are of his very stressful morning yesterday. First he had to subdue the catnip toy. Then he had to take a serious nap to recover. His substance abuse problem is emerging.

Yesterday we actually attempted to have a social life. We went to a friend's house and saw their new baby and new house. It was actually nice to get out and see people. Murphy's law - there was one little tiny rain storm that passed through the state yesterday afternoon. It went over their house and not really anywhere else.

Today we are going to buy cheap gas. There is a grocery chain around here (Stop and Shop - yes, I know they are part of a big chain but unlike WF their prices are somewhat reasonable and they don't have a holier than thou attitude) that has gas stations now. Apparently, shop at their stores and get points towards money off your gas price. I think I earned 50 cents off per gallon. That is definitely worth taking a detour on the way to run errands today to get cheap gas. Okay, my life is really boring if buying cheap gas is all I have to talk about.