On 11/2/2018 7:33 PM, Wayne Boatwright wrote:
> On Fri 02 Nov 2018 09:58:03a, jmcquown told us...
>
>> On 11/2/2018 11:23 AM, Cheri wrote:
>>> "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.Â* 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."Â* 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!Â* In retrospect, I wonder how
>>>> they were supposed to have cooked it?Â* AFAIK grocery stores in
>>>> the 1970's didn't have the equipment.Â* They didn't sell
>>>> rotisserie or fried chicken, didn't have in-house bakeries.
>>>>
>>>> I felt a bit sorry for the manager.Â* I doubt he had any control
>>>> over the corporate advertising.Â* 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
>>
>> Oh I agree with you. I do remember the ads (television, maybe
>> some newspaper inserts) showing a beautifully cooked meal. "Let
>> Kroger do it for you!" Do what? Put frozen uncooked food in a
>> box? The entire premise of the ad was misleading. But don't
>> forget, this was in the 1970's. Was there truth in advertising?
>> I don't blame Mom for being angry.
>>
>> We (mom, dad, middle brother and I) didn't mind having steak &
>> baked potatoes for Thanksgiving dinner. In the dining room. We
>> used Mom's good china. Turns out Thanksgiving dinner isn't
>> about a turkey. LOL
>>
>> It gave us something to laugh about over the years. Remember the
>> Kroger Thanksgiving? LOL
>>
>> I'm sure if my mother was here now she'd laugh about it. As it
>> is, I'll never forget how she let that man know exactly what she
>> thought about the Thanksgiving promotion.
>>
>> I also remember a time around in the 1970's when she went to buy a
>> new car. She had been driving a five year old car, schlepping to
>> and from the Commissary on base to buy groceries. Sometimes
>> having to take us kids to school in bad weather. Dad decided she
>> needed a new car.
>>
>> I went car shopping with her. She found a new Chevy she liked.
>> We went into the office. She had just written out the check when
>> the sales manager said he'd have to call her husband to "get
>> permission". I was a nosy but informed teenager. I said, "She
>> doesn't need permission!" Mom pulled the check back and tore it
>> up. We left.
>>
>> When we got home, Dad asked, "Did you find a new car?" She told
>> him all about it. The salesman said she needed his permission.
>> My father blew his stack. He went into full Marine Colonel mode.
>> LOL
>>
>> Dad got the manager on the phone. He said "My wife does not need
>> my permission to buy anything! Her name is on the checking
>> account. It's a joint checking account. How dare you question
>> her ability to buy a car? We will be taking our business
>> elsewhere." GO DAD!
>>
>> An excuse the salesman offered for letting the business walk out
>> the door included me... he said I was "a loudmouthed teenager".
>> All I did was speak up when they said my mother needed her
>> husbands "permission" to buy a car.
>>
>> Jill
>>
>
> Back in the day my dad travelled extensvely. My mother's car was
> several years older than his and had historically diffcult problems.
> Talking on the phone to my dad, he told her to go out and trade in
> the car and buy a new one. She picked out a very nice Lincoln Mark
> IV and was ready to write the check. The salesman told her that they
> wouldn't accept it even if the dealership still had the car and
> waited for the check to clear the bank. Mom simply couldn't bother
> my dada bout this, so she went straight to the bank and had them
> issue a certified bank check. When she returned to the dealer they
> initially refulsed to take that in payment, but after talking to the
> sales manager they reluctantly did accept that check.
>
Amazing how one person's money was better than another. In each case,
should have been males/husbands rather that wives/mothers. With
legitimate bank checks. Male egocentricity from the good old days. Heh.

Jill