2008 May | French Vanilla Iced Coffee

The other day I went to a grocery store to stock up on hamburger. They had a sale on 93% lean hamburger, which is the only one I’ll eat. $2.69 a pound, and I generally pay twice that amount. Sl, I was all ready to stock up.

In the meat case they had packages with 2 patties each, and they weighed a pound. They had packages with 3 patties each, and they weight 1.5 pounds. It’s not rocket science to know that each patty was approximately 8 ounces, or half a pound.

Right?

So, I asked someone in the meat department — a middle-aged man — if I could have some made up at 5/6 ounces each. I was told no. I pointed to the sign that said they would be glad to help the customers with special requests, but he went in back and the meat manager yelled at him that they didn’t have time.

I asked what other size they came in, and this guy told me the 4 ounce package that was on the shelf. I told him they weren’t 4 ounces and he insisted they were. I told him there were 2 in a package and it weighed a pound, and he said, “see? 4 ounces each.”

I told him there were 2 patties at a pound, making them 8 ounces each, and after a bit of chat he said, “well, I flunked math in school.”

No, really?

I’m told to shop around for a bit as it will take them a while to make up 5 pounds of 4 ounce patties. (I watched another kid come out of the back, grab the 8 ounce patty packages, and take them in back, obviously they were just reissuing them).

When I came back, they looked so good I asked for more. This confused the kid totally. I said, “93 lean , 4 ounce patties.” He asked how many pounds, and I told him 3 pounds. He then says, “ok, 4 packages.”

At this point I was scratching my head and wondering why people in this particular town and this particular store (out of town, not local) hired people to work in the meat department, where ounces and pounds and addition/subtraction is needed.