November 3rd, 2009
The days of pureed peas and lukewarm meatloaf are gone at today’s retirement communities.
So says the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, which is hosting its own “Iron Chef” competition Monday through Wednesday at McCcormick Place Lakeside Center in Chicago. The group has 5,300 member organizations.
Christina Fox of Wesley Willows Retirement Community in Rockford is among competitors from the Chicago area and Maryland and California as well who will race against the clock to create dishes using a secret ingredient. Area chefs will judge their culinary creations.
I’ll follow up to see how Fox fares.
November 3rd, 2009
Are you scared of self-checkout machines?
I’ve used the one at the Hilander (a Kroger store) on Main Street and Riverside Boulevard in Rockford just once. I tend to avoid it because I don’t want to make a mistake and feel foolish. I’m not alone.
Researchers studied the patterns at a lane of self-checkout machines in a Kroger Co. grocery store in North Carolina, and interviewed the users afterward, according to this Daily Finance story. “They found that shoppers felt more comfortable ringing up their own purchases if they were alone or in a crowd. But if there was just one other person waiting in line behind them, they felt more pressured and less confident and were less likely to use the machine again or recommend it to others.
“Retail Banking Research estimated the number of self-checkout machines in the U.S. will grow to nearly 192,000 in 2011, more than tripling the 59,000 that were in use in 2007.”
Yikes. We best shed our fears of embarrassment and get with the program or we could be waiting in lines longer as retailers increasingly cut checkers to cut costs. We can do it. Remember, some of us didn’t used to pump our own gas, either.
