BYO breakdown explained

For all who read last post about my BYO breakdown at WF, and are curious about the resolution of their sticky-note communication crisis, I stopped in today to get an espresso......

No luck. It appears that the issue has more to do with honesty than logistics: too many people get espresso drinks, then tell cashier at the main register to ring them up for a drip coffee.

So really, not much to do with the post-it sitch at all. Granted, I may get a new answer next week. Asked if they'd thought about having a separate reg at the coffee bar in the interest of promoting reuse, a "Whole Foodsy" value.....

"No, we don't really have plans to remodel anytime soon, so this isn't going to happen in the near future." Does it really require a remodel to stick a little cash box in?

In the vein of picking and choosing ones battles, prolly best to just move on from this one.

BYO breakdown at WF

In all my BYO years, I've never had the issues many friends have with someone refusing the cup, not being sure what to do with it, claiming they couldn't use it for hygenic reasons....

Till this morning at Whole Foods! The exchange was pretty absurd actually:

Barista: I'm sorry, we can't put any espresso drinks in your personal cup, only drip coffee, until we figure out a system for writing down your order to give to the cashier.

(uncaffeinated) Me: Couldn't you just write it down on a little sticky note to attach to my cup?

B: Yeah, so that's what were looking into, my manager is researching all the sticker options, but we want to make sure we don't leave sticky residue on your cup.

Me: (respectfully) How about just a little post-it note, I'm sure you guys have a thousand of them in your office, or even a piece of scrap paper?

B: Like I said, my manager is looking into all the different possibilities and trying to come up with the best system, in the meantime, we can't serve anything but drip coffee in your own cup.

Are you KIDDING me? Is this what happens when bureacracies gets over inflated, a total breakdown in reason? I wonder how long this "research" into the latest in sticky-technology will take......

"Mermaid Tears"

Mermaid tears.

Has a sort of tragically beautiful, poetic ring to it, much nicer than, say, "potentially poisonous plastic particles phouling up the ocean"

Phew, that was a wee bit too much on the alliteration, got carried away....

These so called tears, or plastic pellets, seem to be taking over our marine environment.

So this is not news to us who obsess about disposable plastics and their cursed longevity, but seems to finally be catching fire in the media.

To recap: petroleum plastics last a gazillion years, they wind up in the ocean by the boatload, where they attract toxic chemicals (PCBs, DDTs, etc.), and pose a sinister synthetic threat to our seas. Read more about it here.......