For Crying Out Loud, Picking Chicken Can be a Hassle

Old Fashioned Values Have Value

Someone I know works at a local grocery store in the deli. The store has a special cheap chicken deal one day a week when you can buy a certain pre-selected mix of chicken for a couple dollars off the regular price. It is a big deal. They sell a lot of chicken on those days. At the same time, the margins are low, the deal is the deal--no substitutes! 

My friend was packing up those orders for chicken lovers, but she was constantly getting requests from people to mix up the pieces according to their liking. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that if you just go pick the pieces willy nilly, the cheap chicken deal falls on its face for several reasons. It could be that people are requesting the larger more expensive pieces so that the store loses money. Or the planning that goes into the cooking fails and they run out of pieces so that the folks who are willing to play by the rules can't get the chicken they want.

But it doesn't stop people from belittling workers at the counter and insisting they fill the orders according to their individual wants.

It's one of those head-shaking complications that you see in our world today. People want they want even when it hurts the other person, even when it can cause the other person to lose their job. Even when it is unfair. 

In years past, I suppose I would have found something of humor in the situation, but I know the woman who has to deal with these customers and I am not amused. 

Lawrence Norris is the author of  Callaghan Goes to St. Cajetan and The Brown and White in paperback and on Kindle. He has not written a book on working in the deli.