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At the Store

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Clarissa

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You know what I hate? When people change everything around in a store where I frequently shop. I have the store’s layout arranged clearly and neatly in my head, and it’s very disorienting to find that it has been rearranged.

Today I discovered that, for some unfathomable reason, the Russian corner of the Global Foods store has been changed. What used to be on the left was now on the right and vice versa. When this happens, I get very confused and forget where I am and for what purpose. So I started flailing around, trying to remember what I needed. Of course, as bad luck would have it, there were several Russian people there giving me nasty looks. And this confused me even further making me feel like I had thick fog in my head.

I have no idea which enemy of humanity decided to disorient and annoy customers in this way.

20 responses to “At the Store”

  1. David Bellamy Avatar
    David Bellamy

    I agree. Resets do increase sales, at least in the short term. They also make me much less likely to shop at the store in the future.

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  2. musteryou Avatar
    musteryou

    Those Russians are really unpleasant and probably smelly too! 🙂

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  3. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    “I have no idea which enemy of humanity decided to disorient and annoy customers in this way.”

    Periodic transformation of the layout is something large stores do to affect a variation of the “Gruen transfer”.

    “that split second when the .. intentionally confusing layout makes our eyes glaze and our jaws slacken….. the moment when we forget what we came for and become impulse buyers”

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gruen_transfer

    Short story: Nothing in a large chain store is by accident.

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  4. ladyfiaran Avatar
    ladyfiaran

    Did my comment show up?

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  5. ladyfiaran Avatar
    ladyfiaran

    I was just asking if either of these guys would be considered Russian by Russian people, I hope this isn’t too off topic:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nail_Yakupov
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_Galchenyuk
    Yakupov is Tatar and Muslim and Galchenyuk is an American whose parents are from Belarus, yet the press keeps calling them Russian. I just wanted to know from the horse’s mouth, so to speak, it’s been bugging me for a while.

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    1. Michael Blekhman Avatar
      Michael Blekhman

      They are as ‘Russian’ as Americans or Australians are ‘English’. Many Americans (not all of them, thank God) use the word ‘Russian’ without understanding what it means. Well, many Russians don’t know that either. 🙂

      Michael Blekhman

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    2. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      The most popular talk show host in Russia who sees herself as somewhat of an expert on the US recently informed her audience that every American has the minimum of $360,000 in his savings account.

      So the degree of mutual ignorance is pretty much the same.

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    3. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      No, of course, no Russian would refer to a Tatar as Russian.

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      1. ladyfiaran Avatar
        ladyfiaran

        Thanks for the reply, but the North American press keeps referring to Yakupov as Russian and I was wondering if someone who is Russian would. And when Galchenyuk first started playing, the press kept referring to him as Russian when his parents are from Belarus and he was born in the US, now they efer to him as American after he played for the US team in the World Juniors. Thank you for clarifying this, ma’am 😀

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      2. cliff arroyo Avatar
        cliff arroyo

        I see now that I was answering a different question: Does calling them Russian make sense for NAmerican media?

        I still think it does to some extent for the Tatar. He might not be an ethnic Russian but he has (or at least had) a Russian passport and played for the national team).

        It’s also funny that for the purposes of the questioner, you are Russian…

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        1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
          bloggerclarissa

          “He might not be an ethnic Russian but he has (or at least had) a Russian passport and played for the national team).”

          – In that passport, though, he had the word “Tatar” in the “Nationality” section.

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  6. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    There’s some justification for the first one since he was born in Russia. Tatarstan was not a separate soviet republic but a part of the Russian federation.

    IINM Russian speakers always distinguish between ethnic Russians (which he’s not) and citizens of the Russian state (which he was and maybe still is).

    There’s no real justification for calling the second one Russian, though to be fair I can’t think of any special reason that most US media should care about the difference between Russian and Belarusian. Most European media don’t really distinguish between Britain and England and that’s a lot closer…

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    1. ladyfiaran Avatar
      ladyfiaran

      Thank you very much, sir 😀

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      1. cliff arroyo Avatar
        cliff arroyo

        Well the person you actually asked might have a different take on things….

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  7. bullshiter1 Avatar
    bullshiter1

    At 10 cause am late

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  8. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    “- In that passport, though, he had the word “Tatar” in the “Nationality” section.”

    But how fair is it to expect NAmerican media to understand the rules of nationality that prevailed in the CCCP and it’s descendent states?

    I know/understand more than most in NAmerica but it seems a little….. how do I put this?……. insane? For most in NAmerica the idea of separating out ‘nationality’ and ‘citizenship’ doesn’t make a whole lot of sense (diplomatic understatement).

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    1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
      bloggerclarissa

      Of course, one can continue to see no difference between Spaniards and Mexicans, Russians and Tatars, Japanese and Koreans, etc. But the result of this ignorance is a tragically horrible foreign policy and a complete loss of international prestige.

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    2. ladyfiaran Avatar
      ladyfiaran

      Really, they would have that in the passport? That sounds weird coming from my Yank self, most of my fellow Yanks seem to think that you are an American or not, the idea of putting someone’s ethnicity on a passport sounds kind of strange

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      1. bloggerclarissa Avatar
        bloggerclarissa

        God bless America but this is the reality elsewhere.

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  9. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    The difference between Spaniards and Mexicans is not really applicable (and neither is Japanese and Koreans). These are all separate independent countries (not to mention that Spain and Mexico are on different continents).

    Tatars in Russia are citizens of the Russian state (whatever one’s opinion on the Russian state).

    Of course specialists in the area need to know the difference, but why should anyone else care?

    It’s like saying no one should refer to Salvador Dali or Montserrat Caballe as Spanish because they’re Catalan….

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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