About two weeks ago, the UPS guy showed up at my apartment house and left eight boxes on the porch. I saw the boxes and out of curiosity, I looked at the shipping label to see who this stuff was for. To my surprise, it was for me! But I didn’t order it, it was a big mistake. I recognized the name of the sender, an internet purveyor of specialty food items; I had ordered from them before, but not for several months. So I went on line, and to my relief I didn’t see any unexpected charges against my credit cards. Then I shot an e-mail to the company telling them that it was all a big mistake, I didn’t order this stuff. They wrote back and asked me to open one box, get out the invoice, and give them the reference numbers. I sent that back to them, and asked them when I should expect the stuff to be picked up. Two days went by, no reply. 
So I wrote again, asking ‘when are you having this stuff picked up?’ Again, no response. So, I got out the invoice and decided that whatever this stuff was, it was now mine.
Actually, it was a lot of beans. Another customer had ordered big 25 pound bags of beans and grains from this company. I can’t figure out why; their prices per pound are almost twice what you pay in the supermarket (despite being bought in bulk). Well whatever, the stuff was now mine, por nada.
Actually, I gave three of the bean-bags and a sack of organic couscous to a homeless shelter that my brother used to volunteer with. That still left me with a good supply of lentils, black-eyed peas, wheat berries, split green peas, and white beans. I got them put away in my kitchen, but then I started thinking about the bags that the stuff came in. Most suburban people (like me) normally never see bagged foods in bulk. You see cans and plastic wrapped food in supermarkets, but unless you work in a warehouse or a food factory or an institutional kitchen, you never see 25 pound bags of beans. So here’s a picture of one of the bags. This is what it looks like, straight from the heartland of America (the bean company is in Nebraska). It definitely looks different. It didn’t come from coastal, urbanized America; it’s plain and understated, but colorful and creative in a certain way. Perhaps it’s something waiting to be discovered by the artistic crowd in Manhattan. Yes, I could see a special display at one of the big art museums, maybe the Whitney: “Straight from the Heartland: Bulk Bean Bags of America”.
Jim,
Could these high-priced items have been bought for some very fancy restaurant that charges an arm and a leg for two bites of food on a plate?
Then again, I’ve heard celebrities praising the “virtues” of eating “organic” on TV. But I wonder how truly realistic it is to expect the poor (or poorer) people in this country (of which I consider myself one) to “eat organic” as these foods are often way too expensive for my pocketbook. I have often wondered why it is that when companies take something OUT of their products, that is, actually put less into their products, the more expensive an item becomes. For instance: For many years I had to “buy diabetic” for my husband. It always amazed me that the cookies “without” sugar were more expensive than regular cookies. It seemed that anything designed for the diabetic (which usually meant sugar or some sweetener was left out and something like unsweetened applesauce was substituted) was always more expensive than the regular items. I’ve noticed the same thing about soap: Companies that now leave out water (thus diluting the soap) now charge more for soaps that are “3 x more powerful”; translation of that is they have left out the water and now have a less diluted soap. But they charge more for it. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a “go figure.”
And as to picking up the items: Most likely, the company has/had no intention of picking them up; it would probably cost them more to pick the items up and take them to the original individual who ordered them than it would cost to simply send out another order–which tells one about how over-priced the items likely are.
MCS
Comment by Anonymous — February 24, 2008 @ 12:29 pm
Jim,
Could these high-priced items have been bought for some very fancy restaurant that charges an arm and a leg for two bites of food on a plate?
Then again, I’ve heard celebrities praising the “virtues” of eating “organic” on TV. But I wonder how truly realistic it is to expect the poor (or poorer) people in this country (of which I consider myself one) to “eat organic” as these foods are often way too expensive for my pocketbook. I have often wondered why it is that when companies take something OUT of their products, that is, actually put less into their products, the more expensive an item becomes. For instance: For many years I had to “buy diabetic” for my husband. It always amazed me that the cookies “without” sugar were more expensive than regular cookies. It seemed that anything designed for the diabetic (which usually meant sugar or some sweetener was left out and something like unsweetened applesauce was substituted) was always more expensive than the regular items. I’ve noticed the same thing about soap: Companies that now leave out water (thus diluting the soap) now charge more for soaps that are “3 x more powerful”; translation of that is they have left out the water and now have a less diluted soap. But they charge more for it. As far as I’m concerned, it’s a “go figure.”
And as to picking up the items: Most likely, the company has/had no intention of picking them up; it would probably cost them more to pick the items up and take them to the original individual who ordered them than it would cost to simply send out another order–which tells one about how over-priced the items likely are.
MCS
Comment by Anonymous — February 24, 2008 @ 12:29 pm