Milt Reynolds: Thinking Out Loud

Does your Local Neighborhood Food Store strive to keep its recycle area or container return area clean and safe? Let's recognize them! Here's how to do it: Make a point of looking at your local food store's recycle area. If it looks clean and safe, dash inside and tell the manager or assistant manager, "Thanks! The Recycle Area looks clean and safe!" And then, dash home and click your browser to this blog:  Add a comment telling us the name of your store (you don't have to say what town, although you can if you want), and why you thought their recycle area was worthy of a shout out. Remember, we're looking for positive comments. We want to recognize the good work of our local stores in maintaining clean and safe recycle areas. RAH! RAH! RAH!

RAH! RAH! RAH! My Neighborhood Food Store Recycle Area looks MUCH better! A quick run downtown to pick up some fresh pineapple and strawberries allowed me to take a peek at my latest adopted Cause...and it looks great! As I parked, I could see a couple of orange-vested store employees mopping the concrete floor surrounding the container-return machines. The bottlecaps were swept up, trash disposed, and the squeaky-clean floor appeared  hygenic, safe, and inviting. Thank you! Thank you, Neighborhood Food Store, for listening. I purchased my fruit and asked a clerk to direct me to the manager. She pointed me to Checkstand #5, where the Acting-Manager was working. As I stood near the end of the checkstand, Acting-Manager smiled pleasantly at me. I quickly told her, "Thanks for cleaning the Recycle Area; it looks much better!" She thanked me in turn and seemed to be genuinely appreciative of the gesture. Felt good. AND...it gave me another great idea! (This one...

Yesterday I visited the website of my Neighborhood Food Store (not their real name) and entered a comment on their Contact Us page, briefly describing my experience with the Recycle Area and including a link to my blog. Got a quick email response back today. Didn't expect one until at least tomorrow, today being Sunday. Thanks, NFS! They apologized for the mess (and they used that word, "mess"), and their message did not contain any bit of rancor or impatience or coldness. That's a definite plus...I kind of expected to get a demerit for not contacting the store manage directly. They asked for the exact location of the store. There's only one store of that brand in Hermiston...kind of a lame question to ask...but I Googled the store, snapped a screenshot of the listing and sent it to corporate headquarters with a note saying thanks, here's the address, and I resorted to only one short, snide remark which I quickly apologized for (but did not delete). Drov...

Dear Neighborhood Food Store, Looks nice. From this side. But walk a bit closer, just before the main entrance, and glance left, into the recycling area . Here's the view from the other end : Not nice. I shop here often. The aisles are wide and the prices are fair. Good selection of fresh and baked foods. Nice deli. Even a Starbucks. High-tech, too...they have several Self-Checkout stations...just scan the barcodes, swipe your card, and you're done. They have a Blockbuster Express video vending machine . Cool. But their recycle area is... atrocious . It's never very clean, and the machines sometimes don't work, but tonight it was at its worst. I had to dash downtown for a couple of cans of tomato soup. It was about 5:00 PM. I parked on the side of the store nearest the recycle area and walked through it to the main entrance, and returned to my car the same way. Almost scary. Certainly repulsive. I was halfway home when an idea struck me...