Time was
that when you entered a grocery store you approached a counter. A clerk greeted
you and asked what you needed today. As you read your list, the clerk went
about the store gathering your need items.
The clerk entered your purchases and put your money in the cash
register. The clerk then placed the groceries in the required number of paper
bags.
You then
headed for the meat counter where various meats were displayed. If you wanted a half-pound of hamburger,
that’s the exact amount the clerk doled out. If you wanted a roast of a certain weight,
and none of that size was in the counter, he asked the butcher to cut one of approximately
the size you wanted. And the company made a profit.
Later in the
supermarket, you did the gathering of your groceries. Meat is prepackaged. If only pounds of hamburger were in the
display case, or none at all, too bad. Meat clerks no longer exist. Take or leave
what an anonymous person has put in the counter. In
the decreasing number of cases where a meat counter exists, the prohibitive prices
tell you to go back to the prepackaged section. You placed your purchases in a
basket and joined the line at a checkout counter. The
cashier rang up the cost. An assistant placed your purchases in bags. And the grocer made a greater profit.
The cashier’s
assistant has disappeared. You are expected to package your own purchases. You may hand you bags but they prefer you bring
you own. And the grocer’s profits
improved greatly.
Today, the number
of cashiers has dwindled. You are
expected to do your own checkout, paid only by credit card and package your
purchases. And the grocer made a yet
greater profit.
During an epidemic,
the grocer cries poor mouth due to rising costs. And the grocer makes obscene
profits as a COVID profiteer.
