And that was almost the first thing I said to the cashier at Dominick’s Foods this afternoon.
I stopped there on the way home, because I needed to pick up some Pepsi (they have 24-packs on sale, 2 for $8.88) for me, and Macaroni and Cheese for my roomie, and I ended up picking up a few more things…including a box of Captain Crunch cereal, which I had a craving for. And walking across the floor in the cereal aisle was a little brown bird! (It flew over to the next aisle–frozen foods–when I approached it to get in range to reach the Cap Crunch. I saw it later perched on the “Frozen Dinners” sign in that aisle.)
So, when I got to the register, right after “I’ve got 2 cases of Pepsi in the cart.” (I wasn’t gonna haul them onto the belt.) I had to tell him “and I’m not insane but there’s a bird in the cereal aisle.” Turns out they knew this, they have traps out for it, and it’s been there all winter. But it’s smarter than they are.
As an aside, the bagger separated my purchases strangely, but in a way that made bizarre sense. Sweet food (doughnuts, cookies and ice cream) in one bag, crunchy food (potato chips, cereal and macaroni & cheese (hey, uncooke macaroni is crunchy!) in one bag, and healthy food (small tub of cut up watermelon, cantelope and honeydew) in the third bag. Strange guy…
Hmm, goes to show you should always carry a spoon. Ice cream with cookie topping chased by a doughnut? Yum.
BTW, there is a cluster of birds that live in my Home Depot. They lay food out for them by Lumber. I think it’s sweet…Not as sweet as my “driving home from the store reward” mentioned above, but hell, they’ve never poo’d on me.
I used to work in a music store warehouse years ago, and a couple of starlings took up residence in the rafters. We kept the doors open during the day when weather permitted, and just sort of hoped they would leave when they realized there was no food to be had.
BTW, when I bag customers’ groceries at Wally World, I generally try to keep more or less similar items more or less together. Produce in one bag, meat in another, stuff that would normally be used in the bathroom in another. A lot of the time I put highly perishable stuff in the same bag as frozen foods so it can be sort of refrigerated, in a half-assed cooler-pack sort of a way.
And I never, ever put ten pound sacks of potatoes on top of bread. I hear it’s common practice at Albertson’s, though.
When we went to Home Depot last spring we were in the outdoor area…ok, lots of little brown birds (it was to be expected) but suddenly out of no where a black and white CAT came rushing at one of the lbb! I turned to my dh and said “did you just see a cat pounce on a bird?” and he said “I think so”…so we pay for our purchases and I mention to the cashier “we saw a cat over by the annuals…” and she said “yes, we are trying to catch it, do you want it?” Ummm…no, but thanks for clarifying that there was indeed a cat…Margo
My Home Depot had a serious mouse problem last fall. I was shopping, ironically, for mouse traps when I saw a mouse on the floor. And other. And then many more. They were all over the shelves, scampering over the mouse poisons, and (apparently) noshing on all the bird feed. There must have been hundreds. Gave me a good insight into what happens when you start with two mice and add an unlimited food supply.
I mentioned it to the cashier but they’d already figured it out. Probably because of all the shrieking customers.
The only problem I had with the bagging was that if the ice cream carton started sweating, it was gonna seep into the box of doughnuts and ruin 'em! So, when I got to the car, I put the ice cream in the bag with the melons (they were in a plastic tub about the size of a soup bowl, so there was plenty of room and they were safe from getting wet).
You’ll have to drive fast, Witch, the sale ends today.
I’ve always wondered what they did about the birds pooping on the merchandise. The stuff on the high shelves must get covered. I’ve also wondered what the poor birds do for water.
Every Home Depot and Lowes seems to have their resident flock of birds. It’s part of the ambience.
Last year, at a nearby WalMart, a duck decided the garden-supplies area in the parking lot was a great place for a nest. The store people graciously fenced off a little area around the nest until the brood was hatched.
There was a bird in my college the other day. I was walking by the doors and it fluttered out in front of me. I let out a soft kinda shriek and then looked around like, “I’m not really crazy! Anyone would scream when confronted by a bird in the middle of the hallway!” A random student walked by just then and did a double take when he noticed the poor thing, which was freaking out. We looked at each other like, “Dude, there’s a bird in the building!” Ah, mutual bewilderment! It brought us together in kinship for a moment. I have no idea how the bird got in. It’s not like the doors stay open for any length of time, and it was the middle of winter. Musta been a quick little bugger.
