Scary shopping carts....

[DavidT]

Fortunately I have never had a tv so I'm relatively immune to such nonsense.


Never in your life? Wow, that is unusual.

I am seriously considering getting shot of mine, actually, off to bump a thread about this right now :)

We had tv in the family home, ie, my parents', but since leaving home at the age of 17, no. Indeed, I rarely watched tv even as a child; very, very little on tv held my interest.

I always liked the real world :thumbsup: and had a great time playing outside and being adventurous :dizzy: and getting into trouble...:lol:

I've played music all of my adult life: that helps fill up one's time!

Curiously, someone asked me about this at work this morning and they were surprised at (a) no tv (b) no newspapers (c) barely any radio. We live out in the country and the peace is entertainment enough! Plus I don't want to support hype, no way.

Ms_Derious: do it! the gogglebox is an evil life-sucker. Empower yourself.

[DiaShel]

I agree with David. I've gone several years without TV and I don't miss it at all. I hate the thought of how much time people waste in front of it. It just seems sad to me.

[shellymi2nv]

It seems most American children will eat nothing but chicken nuggets, fries, grilled cheese and cookies. I think, if the kid never had these things then they will eat good foods.That is very true. My child (now 14) never ate that cr#p when we went out for meals. He either shared what I was eating or got an appetizer that was (relatively) healthy.

And who was the idiot that decided a kids meal should ONLY be chicken, hamburgers, cheese.... Watch them freak out when they see a child EATING SALAD! :eek: The way restaurants market to kids (especially BK, McD etc) should be outlawed!

Now of course (since he's 14) it's 1 from column A, 1 from column B, 1 from column C and by the way, do you have some fruit for dessert? I swear it costs more to feed him a restaurant meal than my monthly mortgage! :thumbsup:

[Veggie671]

I saw earlier in the thread where people were laughing about the Activia commercials. I have issues with commercials that tell us good moms feed their children .......(ad some sugar and dairy laden substance here). The food that they market as nutritious is insane. I am a big fanatic about limiting the amount of sugar I get to fruits and the occasional vegan dessert. This all came about when I started noticing that pretty much every prepackaged food has some sugar content in it, even when it's not supposed to be sweet. The part that drives me the craziest is that people think that they are feeding their kids good and healthy food when all they are doing is giving them gobs of sugar every day, and don't try to tell them otherwise because you end up as the crazy vegan lady who must have half her brain eaten away from the malnutrition she must be suffering from.

[DavidT]

Many products (that's the right word, some of it isn't really food!) these days contain milk or one of its derivatives too, even (like Walkers salt and vinegar crisps) foods traditionally made with no milk, such as many soups.

There are dairy farmers here moaning that they sell milk for less than it costs to produce; there are manufacturers who utilise these 'cheap' products as bulk; we spend colossal amounts of our taxes subsidising the whole chain of production; supermarkets make obscene profits; we're a crazy, mixed-up species.

[Ohn0es]

Many products (that's the right word, some of it isn't really food!) these days contain milk or one of its derivatives too, even (like Walkers salt and vinegar crisps) foods traditionally made with no milk, such as many soups.

There are dairy farmers here moaning that they sell milk for less than it costs to produce; there are manufacturers who utilise these 'cheap' products as bulk; we spend colossal amounts of our taxes subsidising the whole chain of production; supermarkets make obscene profits; we're a crazy, mixed-up species.

I've noticed this too. Like "non-dairy" coffee creamer that contains casein. How can it be non-dairy if it contains dairy products? :mad:

[Veggie671]

Why on earth would salt and vinegar chips need a milk derivative? I suppose it's for the same reason that our Kettle salt and vinegar chips have sugar in them. I am currently reading a book called "Fat Land, How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World" and it talks about how many of the additives only do things to make the food have a better texture or color, or make it so it never breaks down, even after thousands of years. All right, so I exaggerated on that last one, but the book is pretty decent and shows that all of these additives are generally for aesthetic purposes and nothing else. I'm glad I jumped off of the processed food bandwagon a long time ago.

[Veggie671]

To add to my last post, the book also talks about how addictive sugar is and the reason it's in many foods that don't need it is because companies found if they put it in, people would buy more. Really scary how greedy large companies can be.

[DavidT]

Veggie671: there's a separate thread about Walker's Milk and Vinegar Crisps.

[Veggie671]

Thanks David, I perused the other threads and think I've come to the conclusion that if I ever want to eat chips/crisps again, I'll just have to make them myself. Better go invest in a deep fryer!

[Daffodil]

b/f and I are always fascinated when we go to supermarket. You can guarantee if you look down the crisps/chocolate/biscuit isles it's mostly full of fat people! (not that we don't buy the afore mentioned items ourselves from time to time) but there are seldom slim people in these isles.

[timberly]

Next time I got to the grocery store I want to compare the size of the people in the junk food isle to the people buying produce. Maybe if I ask nicely they'll line up and stand back to back for me.

[Veggie671]

I'd pay money to see that!

[pat sommer]

Supermarkets are strange and wonderful to me when I visit California.
I fill up on the weirdest ethnic seasoning and unknown veg and that causes great fun at check-out!

But how tragic these airplane-hangers are: filled with non-food and sodas.

UK was even worse when it came to ready meals. M&S had nothing that wasn't wrapped and boxed and overpriced -not even a loose apple.

[Veggie671]

I always get the "stinkeye" when I start unloading my cart full of random produce as the checker usually has to look half of the stuff up, or ask what it is. I guess they prefer the packaged things as they slide nicely across the scanner without any extra effort.

[Daffodil]

I always get the "stinkeye" when I start unloading my cart full of random produce as the checker usually has to look half of the stuff up, or ask what it is. I guess they prefer the packaged things as they slide nicely across the scanner without any extra effort.


yeah it's funny when the young check out assistant looks at the veg vacantly and has to ask me what it is!! lol

[beanstew]

yeah it's funny when the young check out assistant looks at the veg vacantly and has to ask me what it is!! lol

I've had that three times now with Leeks!

The person in front of me in the queue today had Oranges and the checkout assistant didn't know what they were! :eek:

[Gwydion]

^ Happens so often!

"What's this?" Err, ginger :umm_ani:

[Roxy]

I work in the produce department of a health food grocery store. We continuously have problems with the cashiers not being able to recognise different fruits and vegetables.

[Daffodil]

^you'd think that would be a big part of their training apart from operating the till!

[RubyDuby]

Isn't there a weigh station to print out stickers... or a twisty tag for the customers to write the produce #'s on?

[DavidT]

I work in the produce department of a health food grocery store. We continuously have problems with the cashiers not being able to recognise different fruits and vegetables.

Well it's a great training ground then! They'll go out into the world more educated.

The biggest problem I see with cashiers is what to do in a power cut. Mathematics doesn't come across to me as a strong skill, generally, amongst cashiers.

[DavidT]

Next time I got to the grocery store I want to compare the size of the people in the junk food isle to the people buying produce. Maybe if I ask nicely they'll line up and stand back to back for me.

An interesting exercise. Ever see In Bruges? Not a particularly pleasant film overall but there are a couple of funny moments involving weight problems.

[DiaShel]

Isn't there a weigh station to print out stickers... or a twisty tag for the customers to write the produce #'s on?

I've never seen that. Some things have stickers, like apples and peaches but most don't. I used to be one of those cashiers, completely clueless.

[pavotrouge]

A friend of mine once bought a pot of basil and almost forgot it at the till... the cashier called him back "Dude, you've forgotten your flowers!" :D