Month: July 2016

I’m not sure how to feel. I didn’t really know him.

I have a somewhat convoluted family. My parents divorced after I went away to college. My dad remarried too quickly, they broke up a few years later, then he married again to the woman he is still married to. While I know Susan well I really only know her kids in passing – my stepbrother and stepsister. And of course I know their “significant others” (spouses or fiancees) even less well.

Hard to believe Dad and Susan have been together almost 30 years now. I attended their wedding, and took the picture they still have on the mantle. So when they asked if I could take pictures of Laura’s wedding (the stepsister mentioned above) I said sure, though the date wasn’t exactly set yet. I found his name was Casey – I thought she was still going with Tom.

I met them both in the store since and asked about the date. She said they were still planning for August 19th, but there was a technical detail to deal with first – he wasn’t legally divorced from his previous wife. They didn’t seem to consider it much of an issue, I suppose it must have been an amicable separation as such things go. Though last I heard they were still waiting on the divorce …

And then two days ago my parents tell me he died of a drug overdose. Leaves me wondering how well Laura really knew him – or was the divorce going really badly? Not my right to ask, especially with Laura as distraught as she is (and as I said, I don’t know her that well). So I guess I’ll probably never know.

From where I stand, it’s a terrible mess I am probably better off not being involved in. But if I see her in the next month or so (not unlikely), what do I say – if anything?

I think I should ask the city council to change the signs outside town, the new ones to say “Welcome to Fantasyland”. This can’t be real, though it all has logical explanations.

The minimum wage in this state is $8.40/hour, and there was a recent court case that a city could not declare a higher “minimum wage”. But here in Findlay, that cart-pusher at Wal-mart makes $12/hour. Earlier this year Wal-mart raised their basic rate to $10/hour except at the two stores here in town. Why do we get $12/hour? Well, because Findlay has more jobs than people. As long as I can remember, we have had the lowest unemployment rate – and that’s for at least 30 years, The most common sign in town reads “Now hiring”, and Wal-mart corporate decided the only way they could hire adequate staffing was to pay more. Of course, now that we are paying more, we’re taking away the people who were earning less at other jobs …

Not enough to convince you yet (about the Fantasyland name)? Okay, yesterday at my store milk was selling for $1.09 for a gallon of any variety (whole, skim, 2%, even chocolate) and large eggs for $0.49/dozen. Why? Because we need to at least match or even beat other stores in town, and there is one particular “discount store” in town that insists on undercutting us. We match them, they drop their price, then we match that – your basic “price war”.

Speaking of “price war” though, the price of gas is cheaper on the other side of town. The gas station at the Kroger (large grocery chain in this area) versus the Speedway station across the street, both charging 20 cents less than other stations here in town. Okay, not quite like the price war we had 10 years ago – here in Findlay the price of gas never got over the $4/gallon mark.

Ten years ago was when the second Wal-mart opened (the one I now work at) along with its gas station, as a grand opening special they decided to undercut everybody in town by 10 cents a gallon. Probably work well against the typical independent gas station, but Findlay has something you don’t find too many other places – its own oil company. While Marathon is not as big as BP or Exxon/Mobil, it is big enough – and they weren’t going to be undercut. So when the national average hit $4/gallon roughly a month later, we were about 50 cents below that. And yes, for a change the company stations were all below the independents.

So you see, it all has an explanation – in fact, it all has the same explanation. But I’ve had customers tell me they are certain our prices must be the lowest in the entire country, hence the new name … it just can’t be real, right?