“Remoted” Workday 202 / Day 305 (Friday)

Recently, a coupon landed in my inbox for $10 off a $25 order at Hannaford Supermarket. That is the kind of coupon that will get my butt to a store, especially when it’s located close to home and the coupon is expiring in a few days. Because I haven’t been reading the weekly flyer delivered to my inbox, the website was visited to check the sales. It was shocking!

There were lots of good things on sale that I actually like/want/use. Like shrimp! Cape Cod chips! And cheese! Dang, I love cheese, even though it doesn’t love me back, but I do not let this get in my way.

The cheese was enticing, but the advertised item that would get me out of the house, into the car, and over to the store was the current obsession, Beyond Burger, on sale for $3.99. A list was made in the store app, which meant, unlike most lists, as long as I had my phone, I wouldn’t forget or lose the stupid list. The app list notes which aisles the items are in. It’s not perfect and several items were noted two aisles off, and others were noted in aisle 14, which, it turns out, is not an aisle number that exists in the Dracut Hannaford.

Beyond Burger, the reason for being in the store, was listed in the app as “Meat Department – off shelf.” What the heck is off shelf?” There were no in-aisle coolers in the area, and after trolling the entire very lengthy meat wall, they were finally found, very much on a shelf in the meat cooler. It was an exhausting victory. And why aren’t they in the cooler near produce with the other meat substitute products? At least I’ll know next time.

Grocery store beer!

A turn at the back of the bakery to where English muffins and bread were located on my last visit many months ago delivered me to a short wall of beer coolers and shelves of wine. This is perhaps one of the best gifts from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to grocery shoppers in the Bay State. Unfortunately, I couldn't focus on beer when Beyond Burgers and cheese awaited.

The cheese quest practically required a map and a Sherpa and should have come with experience points and levels like a video game. Five locations holding cheese were found including a fancy cheese case on the outskirts  of the produce section with pricey wheels, slabs, and shreds of stuff; the packaged specialty meat and cheese wall near the refrigerated pasta with Italian salami and asiago cheese; a small refrigerated case opposite beer and wine with sliced turkey, ham, and lots of sliced Swiss cheese; the deli, where I overheard the clerk tell another customer that there was no Land O’Lakes cheese of any type, and then finally, across the broad and seemingly endless expanse of the store at the furthest possible location from the deli and all the other cheese, was the dairy wall and the cheese noted on sale in the ad. It was exhausting and the most activity I’ve engaged in in weeks.

The dairy wall held a treasure trove of cheese, and I got a lot of it. Sharp cheddar. Provolone. Mozzarella. Mexican blend. Round slices. Square slices. Shredded stuff. All the tasty basics except for American cheese, the perfect melt for the Beyond Burger. Oops. American cheese that is not the weird individually wrapped rubbery slices was all the way back across the store in the deli district and I wasn’t going back there.

Now, the deli drawer, the freezer, and the cabinets are overloaded. I may have gone a little overboard with the groceries this week. But I saved $10 with the coupon and earned 62 cents in rewards. Sixty-two cents!