I heard it again yesterday. The woman on the radio was challenging people to give $50 to help people in Haiti and her reasoning was "it's easy for working people to find $50 in their budget. Just give up a few lattes." I am not trying to downplay the tragedy in Haiti or the needs of it's people right now. but why, oh why must the latte always take the fall? Why can we not say "give up the morning newspaper for a month." or "give up eating lunch out for a week."? I think all baristas, cafes and Starbucks should mount a marketing campaign to combat the smear campaign that lattes take whenever someone is talking about trimming their budget. It's just not fair! (and I don't really drink them!)
When I was growing up one of the things that we loved to do at the grocery was go to the bent can "aisle". This aisle could be a shopping cart or shelf space - never a whole aisle and always in the back - with reduced sale items. When I moved to NYC I learned in my Food Safety Class that you shouldn't eat bent cans because they promote salmonella (I think). This made me think 2 things: why did my mother try to kill us as children and why are they bent cans for sale for the full price at my neighborhood grocery? The first question was dismissed as we all survived, but the 2nd is still a real question (sometimes the only option for something is bent cans!). Well, this summer I found the reduced aisle at one store - it resulted in me buying a box of cereal that included a rebate for more than the cereal cost me ;-). And last night I hit it again. This time stocking up on goodies like diced tomatoes, black beans, pears and a can of pigeon peas. I've been noticing...
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