ISO Generator or Ice Cream Scoops

If we are hit by a storm any time soon that knocks out our power for any length of time, my family will be hosting an ice-cream party for the ages. No, we won’t be celebrating our lack of modern conveniences, but rather trying to consume a cache of the dairy delight that is incredibly disproportionate to the amount of other, more practical, foods in the house.

Normally, we would not own enough ice cream to supply one of those trucks that blares creepy music around unsuspecting neighborhoods, but the recent demise of the Killearn Albertson’s proved too strong a temptation.

After driving past the board-toting, earbud wearing, profusely sweating people providing roadside reminders that the discounts were increasing by the day, we finally stuck our heads in during its final hours. On the last Saturday, after my wife came home with a decent collection of marginally useful food products at 90 percent off, I grabbed my hat and jumped in the minivan with one goal in mind – score some cheap ice cream.

Inside, the store already had a moved-out odor, and there were large piles of sand on the floor – I assume leftover from bags recently used to protect the store from rising parking-lot waters resulting from Fay. It just added to the ambiance.

I headed for the near-empty coolers and bumped carts with those cleaning up on some kosher foods and bakery deals on leftover cakes and pies. With some searching and a distinct lack of pickiness, I pushed our ice cream total for the day to around 20 half-gallon cartons. It was all Breyers and Edy’s, but most of our favorite flavors were long gone.

At around 50 cents a carton, it was still quite the deal, even though they were slightly squishy and some certainly appeared destined to be used only for some creative shake concoction. I even grabbed three cartons of what I later discovered was a cherry-flavored frozen dairy dessert – whatever that is. I am still the only one who will eat it – and that is strictly out of a sense of duty.

So what happened to Albertson’s? I do not have any inside scoop on its corporate health or profit margins, but I do know one thing. It was pretty gross in there. I know people who shopped there, and I don’t think they are gross, but on the rare occasion I stopped in that Albertson’s, I could not wait to get out. Even the checkout was weird. Your groceries were placed on a spinning counter that was very small, and your cart went on one side while you stayed on the other side. It just didn’t make sense.

I hate to hear about the demise of any business – especially if it is locally owned. I feel like regardless of the nature of the business, we all have a kinship in trying to create something significant by providing a product or service that makes people’s lives better or other businesses more successful (which of course, makes their lives better).

So if you are still plugging along, congratulations and stick with it. Over the last few months, there certainly have been times that I have questioned my immediate future, but I am still here and I even found time to crank out this blog – which is a good sign.

So don’t give up, focus on what you do best, keep networking and provide the kind of customer service that your customers love to brag about. And I guess, don’t be gross. I don’t have the energy to sift through your stuff for the last, half-melted carton of Rocky Road.