Dear Kroger in Carolina Forest

Dear Kroger in Carolina Forest,

I have been shopping in your fine grocery store for nearly six years and, for the most part, it's been a great experience. Your selection is good. Your meats have always been yummy. I appreciate your array of organic products and the Private Selection and Kroger brands have rarely disappointed me. So thank you! I will continue to shop in your store and suggest it to my friends. However...and you had to know one was coming...why, oh why, does your produce suck? Specifically your apples?

I can not tell you how many apples I have painstakingly chosen only to come home, cut through them and find brown mush throughout? At this point, I can't help but to wonder if it's a problem with your distributor. Your strawberries are always crushed. Your raspberries, invariably, mold within two days of purchasing them regardless of the fact they go from your refrigeration to mine within a 30 minute time frame. It's so frustrating because you have such a great selection of fresh produce, but I can't enjoy it!

I realize I could probably return to the store with my receipt and said fruit to get a refund or exchange, but I'm, admittedly, lazy. Besides, what good would it do to bring in a brown apple? Usually when I discover the problem I'm in the throes of making my daughter's lunch and couldn't make it over to the store for an hour or two, at which time the cut apple would be brown anyway.

Now that I have this off my chest, I want to say that I'm always pleased with the courtesy and helpfulness of those you have working in the checkout area. I'm not sure if you have happy people working for you or if you train them to make me feel like they're happy to help me.

Your pharmacists rock. On several occasions they have, in my opinion, gone above and beyond what I expected of them. They are conscientious workers who care about their customers care. I even had one of them phone in a prescription, my insurance and health information over to Walgreens in Carolina Forest because you did not have the drug. He said, "I chose that pharmacy so you didn't have to get off Carolina Forest Blvd." How great is that? The most obvious financially motivated thing he could have done was phone it in to another Kroger in the Grand Strand area, but he honored the fact that I would probably want to stay close to home. How fantastic is that? I will return to your pharmacy over and over again.

I also am so proud and pleased that you employ those who may have some challenges. I'm sure there is a more politically correct way to phrase this, but the warm sentiments are there regardless. The folks I've come in contact with have been genuinely helpful, pleasant and productive. Your willingness to offer such employment opportunities is heartwarming and so very supportive. I have a friend whose son has Downs Syndrome and she cried when I said how proud a few of your employees' moms must be at the wonderful job their doing.

Thank you, Kroger, for all of your wonderfulness. Just please investigate why you're having produce problems.

Where to begin now that it's all over

As I'm sure you can imagine, we're back from Disney World. The vacation happened. So did Christmas and I'm still here to talk about it. If I thought I was stressed in my last post, hang on to your hat, it got worse.

Before I even begin, there's irony to be noted. Just the day before I sat in traffic on Carolina Forest Blvd, attempting to make a left onto 501 towards the beach and I said aloud, "I need to blog about the honest idiots on this road!" Let me set the scene...

There are three lanes of traffic on Carolina Forest Blvd. The right lane is for right turns only. It's clearly marked as such. The center lane can either go straight through the light or make a left. The left lane is for left turning only. What folks will do, though, is turn right out of the Kroger parking lot with the full intention of blocking traffic in the right through lane because they're waiting for someone to let them into the stopped traffic which is waiting to make a left when the light turns green. People will sit precariously stuck in the way of oncoming traffic to make that light. That forces others to use their 4WD and off-road to get around them if they want to make a timely right. If they choose not too, they wait the length of the light. It's infuriating. The other little trick these people pull is driving out into that right lane just as the light has changed with the full expectation that you'll let them in. I, if I can safely avoid it, do not. Jerks.

Now here's where I eat crow. Evidently I am one of those crazy drivers, just of a different variety.

Three days before our trip, I was trying to make it through that light to make a left onto 501. As we were approaching, the light turned yellow, but still with plenty of time to get through. The gal in front of me aggressively whipped around the slow-moving car in front of her and sped off. I followed her, but at the last possible moment, she made a split second decision to stop and slammed on her brakes. I did the same but the road was wet, I skidded a bit and bump...metal touched.

At this juncture I can say, with an honest heart, that I'm beyond thankful to God no one was hurt. But if you asked me on that day, I was drowning in "this sucks!" so much that I couldn't see that forest from the trees.

I, of course, got a ticket. I, of course, will now have two points on my license. My, of course, insurance premiums will go up. I, of course, sat there waiting for the police to arrive knowing for certain we would not be traveling to Disney World. Our other car is 11 year old and is driven approximately 6 miles a week since my hubby has a company vehicle.

Never in my life have I had such a visceral reaction to stress. The gal in the other car was very polite and even somewhat nice. Despite the fact that I still contend she contributed, she had every right to be quite mad at me. Instead she commiserated. I, for fear of vomiting on her, barely spoke.

When the police officer arrived, he, too, exceptionally nice. If I could remember his name without digging out the paperwork, I'd give him a personal momorable mention. Unfortunately, at the time, I barely answered his questions for fear I would puke.

I held it together until I got home from the whole thing and called my dad. Suddenly I turned into a 16 year old and burst into uncontrollable tears. What the heck had just happened? It felt surreal. Was it a bad dream? There is no way I had just, theoretically, caused an accident. I'm an excellent driver! I don't speed. I'm cautious. I was devastated.

When hubby came home from work that night, he quickly determined that the damages were worse than he originally thought. It was decided that we would drive our old clunker down to Disney World, which made me nervous. But that was if I could get ourselves together enough to even go. I was in a dark dark place those days.

The good news is that I received tons of support from friends and family. I worked through the process of calling my insurance company and submitting the necessary information. I still cried on and off.

Again, I'm so thankful no one got hurt. But car accidents super suck.

I'll write later about the trip. There are lots of high points in that tale.