Lately my convenience store experience seems to be dominated by smokers, people who can’t understand the concept of the queue and those who think it’s a pet store or dog toilet.
It seems like a struggle here for everything (and everyone) foreign to either survive whole or become assimilated into the prevailing way of things. Dilution is the usual outcome and the convenience store (to me anyway) is rapidly sliding into the momma-poppa, vegetable market, cheap n’ cheerful mess kind of local store that served the purpose before the coming of 7-11. Now the masses have what they wanted. A slightly upgraded version of the momma-poppa store with extra services. Never mind clean, never mind hygenic. 差不多就好…
I used to like the zero-stock kitchen solution but I’ll go back to the western way of doing things and do a week’s worth of shopping at Tesco from now on.
[quote=“redwagon”]
I used to like the zero-stock kitchen solution but I’ll go back to the western way of doing things and do a week’s worth of shopping at Tesco from now on.
What he meant is that Tesco sold their shops to Carrefour and they will leave Taiwan within this year. So enjoy your Tesco as long as you can, but they just sell off their stock on Tesco products and than change to Carrefour.
What he meant is that Tesco sold their shops to Carrefour and they will leave Taiwan within this year. So enjoy your Tesco as long as you can, but they just sell off their stock on Tesco products and than change to Carrefour.[/quote]
Yeah, that’s what I meant. Sorry if you didn’t already know, redwagon, but Tesco is in the process of getting rid of all their stock as Carrefour takes over. So… buy all those Tesco-specific products while you can.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. Tesco closing down is one of the things that has depressed ME recently.
Oh great. No wonder the selection at Tesco has been veering local so rapidly. Bummer. Carrefour is rapidly becoming nothing more than an indoor fish market. At least (so far) they are controlling the smokers and dog owners. I wonder how long that will last.
When the hell are they going to open a Costco down here?
Sorry to hear that man. Where I live 7-11 (two of them), Ok, and Hi-Life are all nice and clean. Maybe because we students don’t tend to have dogs? Also, with so much choice there are seldom any queues and the placesactually face competition.
7-11 has a no-dog policy, or at least that is what the sign on the door says. Yeah. Right.
The umbrella rack is not there to stop you taking your wet, dripping umbrella into the store. It’s there for your convenience so you can shop with both hands (better for business). I think I could probably drag the bleeding carcass of a dead whale around without anyone saying a word about it.
It annoys me when the hired-help cashier ignores the smokers and dog-draggers or serves the queue-cutters first, but I don’t expect much from people on minimum wage. Actually I call it good when they don’t burst out sniggering or run into the back of the store. It does however make me furious when it’s the actual owner doing the ignoring.
Example.
RW has to step over dog poop in aisle 2, calls cashier.
Cashier: …
RW: Can you please clean this up and ask the dog owner to leave?
Cashier: …
RW: Please get the manager out here.
Manager: What’s the problem?
RW: Dog poop in aisle 2. Unhygenic. Please do something about it. (pointing at dog and owner now browsing aisle 1).
Manager: Um, well, I don’t think the doggie did it on purpose…
RW: Hardly the fucking point is it? :fume: :fume: :raspberry:
I just don’t want to buy food that’s been sitting around where people are smoking or animals are doing god knows what. Is it too much to ask that the store enforces it’s own rules on this? Apparently so.
Here’s another story for you. Local supermarket, Shinnong or something. Woman is walking around with her armpit dog in a shopping basket.
RW: You know that the next person to use that basket is going to put food in it, right?
Woman: Uh, yes. And?
RW: I don’t think I would want to eat food from a basket that your dog’s ass has been on.
Woman: Uh, sorry. (makes no other move)
RW: Please take your dog outside and I’ll request the manager makes sure your basket gets cleaned properly.
Woman: But he’s very clean. The basket isn’t dirty.
RW: If your dog’s butthole is so clean, prove it by kissing it.
Woman: … (leaves)
In fairness I spoke to the manager about this and the next time I went there all the baskets had been scrubbed like new. However, two weeks after that there were dogs in the store again.
I know a few westerners who wander in and out of our local convenience store with their pooches in tow. Wouldn’t matter if it was my dog 'cos his turds smell (and taste) like peaches, but I leave him outside where he can piss people off by just existing.
Have you tried the ‘he might bite me’ routine? That’s the usual objection to dogs. Cleanliness doesn’t seem to cross people’s minds. Or you could try and bring in a news story about someone dying after getting contaminated by poop, just as long as you make it clear that it wasn’t ‘acceptable’ poop like my dog makes.
My last girlfriend used to collect turds, and even followed my dog around with a plastic bag hoarding them for herself instead of leaving them lying around for the local kids to play with. (Maoman does the same with his dog too.) When I asked her what she did with them she said she kept them under the bed. I’ve never dared look, but she assures me they’re sorted by size (north-south) and consistency (east-west) is a sort of scatter-graph.
Maybe you could take this opportunity to start a new hobby?
[quote=“Loretta”]
Have you tried the ‘he might bite me’ routine?[/quote]One look at me and they know I’d bite back, so the fear angle ain’t gonna work for me. My wife is however genuinely afraid of strange dogs, so yes I have tried that approach before. Same result of course. “Paisay, paisay, paisay”… and return to default behaviour pattern.
[quote=“Tigerman”][quote=“redwagon”]
One look at me and they know I’d bite back…[/quote]
I dunno… Dofu sure wasn’t afraid of you… [/quote]I meant the managers would think this, not the dogs. Dofu is much more intelligent than the average 7-11 manager.
It’s sad but true, lot’s of people in Taiwan have absolutely no idea about hygiene, proper food storage, proper food hygiene or handling, cleanliness … zip, nothing … not even when highly educated
Well, public health education programs in some countries such as the UK have done a pretty good job.
But there are still quite a few people who don’t know or don’t care.
Thinking of the pub I used to work at where the staff had to eat ten-day-old beef stew, and the boss would bring in a crate of slimy, rotting lettuces from which we were supposed to salvage some edible leaves for salads to serve to the customers. Thinking of the awful smells from round the back of various takeaway restaurants.
Also thinking of the fact that many of us probably don’t put raw meat in a separate compartment in the refrigerator and don’t use separate utensils and chopping boards for meat and other things.
Watching TV the other day: Floyd cooking in India. He was just rinsing his hands in a bucket of water. I’d hope there was some disinfectant in there but I’m not sure.
So I don’t think that any one place has a monopoly on lack of food hygiene.
At least (so far) they are controlling the smokers and dog owners. I wonder how long that will last.
