cheery cashiers

We have something here called food deserts. which are areas in the ghetto where there is no supermarket around for miles, and the only places people can buy groceries are at these little stores, mostly owned by Arabs and Koreans which don't offer the freshest of produce and whose prices are high, and every now and then one of them gets robbed and shot.

There are plans to entice grocery stores into that area, the latest one being a Whole Foods, which sounds a little odd, it being kind of pricey, but I have read of a Whole Foods that opened in the Detroit ghetto and is doing very well.

I like Whole Foods.  At one time a Whole Foods was the closest store to me and I shopped there until the Jewel opened up closer to me.  I'm not much of an organic or healthy food guy, but what I like best about it is the cheerful cashiers.  I don't know if the bosses tell them to smile or if it just comes naturally, but they are always cheery, and I am cheery back and I enjoy the exchange,  The cashiers at the Jewel are not rude by any means, and sometimes I can coax a smile or tell them a little joke, but usually I just want to pay for my food and get out,

I think what it is is expectations.  When I approach the Whole Foods cashier I am expecting good cheer and I come to them with a good attitude, and they, having experienced a long line of jolly customers expect me to be one too, and so they also have a good attitude.  At the Jewel I don't expect much cheer, so I generally don't go beyond a perfunctory nod, and they, expecting someone to just shove their money at them generally don't make chatter.

When I first moved to Herrin, I noticed that you didn't just shove your money at the cashier in the mom and pop store, in fact you acted like you were making a social call, and only after a discussion of the weather did you happen to notice that pack of gum in your hand, and pay for it.

That was kind of nice but it would have no place in the big city where everybody is in a hurry (and it's an odd thing where even if you have no reason to be in a hurry, you are because everyone around you is in a hurry).  Most all the Dunkin Donuts in the city are run by Asian Indians, and as immigrants do, they send back to the old country for relatives and put them to work in their stores,  I remember once the local one had this new girl and she was friendly and cheerful and you assumed she was just off the boat, and sure enough, within a few weeks she was looking bored and mumbling whaddaya want?

Like the Amish.  They have a couple booths in the farmers market downtown, and when you buy something from them and expect that Amish shyness and sweetness, but it has been rubbed out by all the mumbling Chicagoans who came before you.


That interspecies thing.  There is a great movie called The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill, about this hippie type guy who charts the wild parrots, and in this one group of red parrots there is a blue parrot, who seems to have lost his way, and the other parrots accept him.  And when I was at my friend Debbie's brother's farm, they had a pigeon hanging with the chickens like he was one of them.

I love those interspecies friendships that are all over youtube.  The cats and dogs are okay but no big deal, but I like the really off the wall ones like crows and kittens.