"jmcquown" > wrote in message
...
> On 11/1/2018 1:26 PM, Cheri wrote:
>> "jmcquown" > wrote in message
>> ...
>>> I've told this before but it is always good for a laugh.
>>>
>>> One year in the mid 1970's my mother decided she didn't want to cook
>>> Thanksgiving dinner. She kept seeing ads on television from a nearby
>>> grocery store, Kroger. "Let Kroger Do It For You!" All the work. All
>>> the side dishes. Just pick it up!
>>>
>>> This was before the Internet, folks. This was before Cable TV. She saw
>>> ads on TV for local stores and store promotions. We only got four
>>> television channels. CBS, NBC, ABC and PBS. Local advertising.
>>>
>>> She used the phone (OMG, a land line) and called the Kroger supermarket
>>> in Bartlett, TN. Said she'd seen the ad. She ordered a Thanksgiving
>>> dinner. Roast turkey, mashed potatoes, dressing, gravy. Two sides and a
>>> pie. To be picked up around Noon on Thanksgiving day.
>>>
>>> My middle brother and I went with her to pick it up. My brother was
>>> loading the box into the trunk when he said, "This feels very cold." We
>>> opened the box in the parking lot... what was in the box? Frozen solid
>>> food. A frozen *uncooked* turkey. Frozen everything side dishes. With
>>> instructions on how to cook all of it.
>>>
>>> The television ads (I remember them) made it sound like it would be a
>>> fully cooked meal. Just bring it home and plate it. It definitely was
>>> not that.
>>>
>>> I have rarely seen my mother display anger in public but she did on that
>>> day. She told my brother to grab the box and she marched back into the
>>> store. I was trailing behind thinking "Uh oh." LOL She gave the store
>>> manager what for. She cited false advertising. She asked what the heck
>>> was she supposed to do with this box of frozen solid uncooked food? At
>>> Noon. On Thanksgiving. She demanded and got her money back.
>>>
>>> A cautionary tale based in reality.
>>>
>>> We went to another grocery store and bought some NY strip steaks and
>>> russet potatoes. We had broiled steaks and baked potatoes for
>>> Thanksgiving dinner that year.
>>>
>>> Jill
>>
>>
>> Damn, I would have been ****ed too! I have ordered hams and things, and
>> have been tempted to order a pre-cooked holiday meal when just the two of
>> us, but never have. I assume that they are fully cooked. LOL
>>
>> Cheri
>
> It certainly came as a surprise! In retrospect, I wonder how they were
> supposed to have cooked it? AFAIK grocery stores in the 1970's didn't
> have the equipment. They didn't sell rotisserie or fried chicken, didn't
> have in-house bakeries.
>
> I felt a bit sorry for the manager. I doubt he had any control over the
> corporate advertising. For all he knew she was planning to cook it the
> following weekend, plenty of time to thaw out the turkey and containers of
> side dishes.
>
> Jill


True, but how much trouble would it have been to list it frozen, ready to
cook?

Cheri