I had just parked my car, right in front of the road across from the NoFrills entrance and heard a cry out. Twenty feet from me an older Italian lady had just fallen and was laying down on the road in front of NoFrills. She was face up, lying on her back. Her left leg was outstretched and straight, right leg was bent at the knee , right foot flat on the ground. Her white purse was partially underneath her left leg and partially in between her legs. I did not see her fall, though I was first to get to her. There was a bit of blood on the ground and all over her hand. She was bleeding but not profusely. She wore a black sweater, top, pants and shoes. He wore a beige jacket, which had some blood on the front shoulder, presumably transferred from touching his wife’s hand.

The weather was clear, blue sky with a slight 15km wind. Visibility was very clear. There were no obstructions nor tripping hazards on the roadway. The roadway was clear of vehicular traffic.

I asked her if she needed help and she said “Yes”. She had just fallen, she had cut her hand and thought her finger was broken. There was an avulsion on her middle finger, palmar side, left hand about one cm in diameter. She wore a gold wedding band on her left hand, on her fourth finger. I saw no other cuts, but did not clean up her hand nor did I explore further. We did not move her. Her husband, hovering over her, could not get her up and was very distraught. They were speaking Italian, so I do not know what they were saying. Eventually others came to out assistance. Someone immediately called 911. I asked for and received some tissue, which I put on her hand to soak up the blood. Someone gave me three plastic bags, which I put under her head. I asked her if she felt pain anywhere else and she said “No”. She was breathing well and was moving her legs and arms. We all asked her to lie still and not move. She was worried that she would hurt her knees, as she had had a couple of knee surgeries within the last couple of years. The last knee surgery was one year ago.

The lady lay right beside the speed bump, with her left for almost touching the speed bump, body diagonally away from the speed bump, like the base of a italicized “T”. It is possible that she tripped on the speed bump and fell down. The speed bump, from my view, was in good repair, had no obvious tripping hazards on its edges and was properly painted in bright yellow. This gave it high colour contrast against the dark grey pavement. However I did not see her fall so I cannot say for certain that she tripped on the speed bump.

There was not much else we could do but wait for EMS. Others arrived, held her hand and calmed her down. The Chinese lady that called 911 had gone into NoFrills and bought some absorbent cloth in order to soak up the blood. I worked on the husband, trying to calm him down and asked him to be strong for her. He eventually collected himself up.

We were about 10 people in the middle of the road within Agincourt Mall. I was wary, as my expectations of Scarborough drivers is very low. As we were blocking a complete lane, I was expecting someone to run us over. Thankfully this did not happen. I had to remind a couple of bystanders to stay out of the other lane because cars were driving through. Maybe I underestimate the ability of Scarborough drivers?

As the lady and her husband conversed in Italian and as we gave assistance the best we could, it became apparent that language was not an issue. That their English ability was low was not a factor in getting help from strangers. This is a testament to the people of Scarborough.

The husband was overcome with grief. It took many minutes for him to collect himself. It was obvious that he loved her very much and did not know what to do to help her. This was touching to me. After he collected himself he went back to his car and got a box of tissue.

With our help the couple calmed down. The lady’s breathing rate had dropped to more normal and she was speaking more calmly. The husband was also much calmer and stood by while we all waited together for the arrival of the ambulance.

I am not surprised that strangers came to the assistance of this couple. This is what is expected here in Canada and what happened today. Still, it is heartening to see this happen in real life, and does reaffirm the goodness of society in general. If you were this lady, or if this lady was your Mom, you would want this kind of help from strangers.

While there was blood involved, no one touched any blood. The lady was assessed for life threatening conditions. The scene was secured. An emergency 911 call was completed, with a description of place, patient and condition. There was calm all round. Nick, the manager of NoFrills and two other male employees came out to take a look. A female Nofrills employee came back with a couple of pairs of latex gloves, which some of the more experienced bystanders used. These ladies turned out to be nurses from the emergency department of, presumably, Scarborough Grace Hospital, which is 2 km away. Eventually an ambulance came with two from EMS. They were gentle with her, took about 15 minutes and then drove away.

As far as I could see, the lady had no other injuries. She should be able to recover without issue. I wish her well. For all the other people that helped out today, good on you for helping a lady in need. Your karma has been fortified today! Emeitofu.

General Notes

Toronto has a varying climate with 4 distinct seasons and significant precipitation. In the winter we can get a snowfall of 20cm in one day. Copious amounts of rain can fall, as is the case today. It has been raining hard today. Toronto is expecting 10-20mm of rain, so much so that you still get very wet running from the car to the store.

___Both Price Chopper and NoFrills start new advertisement flyers today. Flyers are released on Thursday and take effect on the start of Friday. Unfortunately for both retailers, paper-based flyers are delivered to our house via the local newspaper at worst Saturday midday or at best very late Friday evening, after store close. There is, therefore, a loss of one day of exposure for their flyer due to the delivery schedule. Fortunately the internet-based flyers for both retailers are usually posted on Thursday noon. Price Chopper has been known to delay their internet-based flyer until Friday morning.

Price Chopper at Brimley/Huntingwood, Toronto, Ontario,Canada

___Price Chopper, Brimley/Huntingwood, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Objective: New flyer sale priced orange juice, potatoes and general weekly shopping. This Price Chopper is smaller in floor space, so product is at times squeezed together more than I would like. Though they carry the whole selection of products, it is a store geared to Chinese and Indian customers.

Today Price Chopper starts a new two week flyer. Normally the start of a flyer guarantees the purchase of sale items, but often shipments are late or the manufacturer has no product to ship. This week both my items were in stock.

It was raining cats and dogs outside, but the metal overhang of the store kept the shopping carts dry. My sons sits in these carts, so a wet shopping cart is unacceptable. We have been known to leave retail stores that have wet shopping carts for this reason, most notably Home Depot. Today the carts were neatly ordered in two rows, I put my money in and got a cart in good working order, just like I should. This fact surprised me at the time, which probably means it does not happen often enough.

My search for the advertised sale priced potatoes started, logically in the potatoe section, where there was no sign of the sale priced item. Hmmm, the next logical place to look is the front of the store near the entrance, and this is exactly where I found them. The potatoe section has large bins of their regularly sold brands, with no place for these sale priced potatoes. It would have been better to have at least a sign and some stock of the potatoes on sale.

Frozen orange juice should logically be found in the freezer section, and it was. There were three variations of the same orange juice,all available, well merchandised and priced.

Recently Old South frozen orange juice has changed its packaging from a cardboard sleeve with aluminum ends to an all plastic container, and in doing so decreased the volume of their product by 5% while increasing their price. Did you think I would not notice? We are not amused. This has not been competitive enough for me, so I have been avoiding the brand. When all your competitors are offering more juice for the same price, you should follow suit. I am also unsure of the safety of the all plastic container and prefer the cardboard and aluminum wrapper. Most other manufacturers still use the older packaging, so I need not change to the newer plastic container.

In following the orange juice market I have noticed that within the last year frozen orange juice has rarely gone on sale, while regular unfrozen orange juice from concentrate regularly goes on sale. Regular unfrozen orange juice from concentrate varies the most in price. Regular unfrozen orange juice not from concentrate is by far the most expensive but sometimes goes on sale. In a blind taste test of family members, we tested 1) unfrozen not from concentrate, from China, Huiyuan brand, 2) unfrozen not from concentrate, 3) unfrozen from concentrate, 4) frozen from concentrate. Overwhelmingly the favourite was regular unfrozen not from concentrate. The Chinese orange juice brand uses an orange that is tarter than we are used to here in North America, so it was called out by my kids. Personally I don’t mind it.

Testers found no difference in taste between unfrozen from concentrate and frozen from concentrate. We use tap water filtered with a Brita filter. Such simple tests can help you determine whether the extra cost of unfrozen orange juice is worthwhile. We no longer purchase unfrozen from concentrate orange juice.

Other items that we sought were easily found and purchased. There were no employees packing out merchandise during my shop. Checkout was quick and efficient.

___Experience Rating: A. A good shopping experience with merchandise well layed out and priced.

NoFrills, Kennedy/Sheppard, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

___NoFrills, Kennedy/Sheppard, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Objective: New flyer sale priced ice cream, cheese and general weekly shopping.

Again it was raining cats and dogs, so I was glad to get under the store’s large metal overhang. Unfortunately for me, the metal overhang was leaking more water than the Titanic, and if it could have sunk, would have. Unfortunately for both of us, almost all the shopping carts were wet. The first row of carts seemed driest, so I inserted my coin but could not dislodge a cart from its brethren. In trying to get a cart free, I got my finger stuck in the cart and pinched it quite badly. It continues to throb as I write, over an hour later. I am unamused. In order to get a dry cart I had to move a group of 10 carts away. These carts are heavy and I should not need to do this much work to get an appropriate cart. Please, NoFrills, keep your carts well maintained and dry. Is this too much to ask from your customers?

There were many employees packing out merchandise. Often they are sloppy with their boxes and skids and can block the aisle so that your cart cannot pass. Sometimes they will block access ways between fixtures, such that they create one long 20′ aisle with one way in and one way out. Today there were some blockages but I was able to get my cart through. One employee was concentrating so much on merchandising that he failed to see that customers wanted to pass. I had to wait for him to wake up, but be did apologize. Ok, fine.

I found one of my favourite cashiers putting on sale labels for products reduced in the new flyer. She is one of my favourites because on cash she is competent. At least I have confidence that she will put the proper labels on the right fixtures. I wondered why this repricing was not this done earlier?

The sale priced cheese was readily available, properly merchandised and priced. This brand of cheese is new to the store. About two months ago this cheese was also on sale, but I could not buy any because supposedly the manufacturer did not send any to the NoFrills warehouse, so none of the stores had product.

Huge skids of Coke-brand product that were on sale last week were still on the floor, unwanted and unpurchased. At least they were still at last week’s sale price. Is there nothing else worthy in the new sales flyer to replace Coke?

We bought eggs, canned pineapple and salt, all with no issues. Checkout was also without issue. Still, my finger was throbbing.

___Experience Rating: C. I should not get hurt while on a shopping trip. Physically harming your customers does not put them into a great shopping mood and pretty much spoils the shopping experience.

___Wet or dry, sun or snow, all grocery retails should be able to adapt to changing weather. Today Price Chopper did a great job and NoFrills did a poor job. Year in and out, the weather conditions are similar, so why was weather such a large issue today?

___Nofrills, Kennedy/Finch, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Objective: Sale priced tetrapack apple juice and general weekly shopping.

This week Nofrills continues their two week flyer with an additional single page of specials. None of the products in the extra flyer were very appealing. I specifically searched for their advertised Allen’s apple juice in tetrapack, 24 x 200ml for $3.33. This sale product was not available in the juice aisle nor on the aisle ends, but was available in their overstock sales aisle. At least have a sign in the juice aisle to acknowledge that there is a sale on juice. Very little stock was left, so for sure they will run out before the weekend is over. The juice was well displayed with a price.

It took 3 tries to get a shopping cart that I could somewhat easily push. I’m tired of getting shopping carts that take great effort to push around the store. I find it a great waste of energy and distracts me from having a good shopping experience. Sure they have all wheels, but with a lack of maintenance the carts have cracked parts, some have wheels that lock up, or the wheels don’t turn easily. The one I chose badly needed oil. At least it did not squeak.

In general the store was merchandised very well and was clean. I was able to find all the products I wanted. Corned beef I usually buy was out of stock and has been this way for about two weeks. I still await regular or halal corned beef for $1.99.

Today there were no skids of stock waiting to be unpacked but blocking the aisles. I’m always amazed when staff block aisleways so cannot get my cart through. Once I was almost run into by a small electronic forklift. She was not looking as she backed up, but I was. Otherwise she would have flattened me. Her passing remark of “This machine is dangerous, please stay out of the way” was relayed to the store manager upon checkout. But today there were no theatrics.

Checkout was fast and efficient by my favourite cashier. I’ve been shopping here long enough to know who is good and who will work slowly, so I choose my cashier carefully. Some cashiers get flustered with vendor coupons, or store sales events. At $28 on a credit card, no signature was required. Cardboard boxes were readily available for customers, as expected and always appreciated from this store

___Experience Rating: B+ A good shopping experience with merchandise well layed out and priced. This is why I prefer shopping here.

Walmart, Kennedy/Sheppard, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

___Walmart, Kennedy/Sheppard, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Objective: 4 pack of “D” batteries, 4 pack of 9v batteries, apple juice.

Because it was early in the day there were few customers. There was no greeter. Shopping carts were plentiful and in good working order.

I have had terrible experiences with the electronic department of this Walmart. I found them on multiple occasions to be unhelpful at best and downright lazy at worst. On this occasion I found 3 associates yakking together, laughing out loud, with the main troublemaker in the middle. Is this coincidence? As such, I would never buy an expensive ANYTHING electronic from this store.

The battery aisle was clearly sorted by brand and then by battery type. I, however could not find a 4 pack “D” type in the brand I wanted. Other more expensive brands were available. As I walked the 15′ aisle I noticed that beside the battery display there was a separate and distinct “bulk” battery area, which happened to have my 4 pack. I don’t know why this bulk battery area was not merchandised with the rest of the batteries by brand and type, but if I was not such a particular shopper i would have missed it. At least all batteries were clearly priced.

As I walked to the cashier I noticed two additional battery displays. While most batteries displayed here were duplicates of the main battery area, an additional brand was not. I dropped the 4 pack I had previously chosen and picked up a different brand name.

Down the juice aisle I found my apple juice in can. The price was clearly marked, they had stock and the display was clean and tidy. To be sure I asked my daughter to price check a can. The nearby pole price scanner was broken and turned off, so she had to go to the kidswear area. This scanner has been out of order for some time. A vendor rep told me this was common, and from my observations I agree. At least the display of juice, unlike the last time I was here, had a clearly marked price.

I picked up 10 cans of apple juice. The cashier was fast end efficient, scanning one and doing a multiple to charge me for the 10 cans. In the past some cashiers insisted on me putting all 10 cans onto the conveyor belt so they could scan each and every can. This is such a waste of time. Thankfully this cashier realized that each and every can was identical. Payment was uneventful.

___Experience Rating: B. Walmart usually has very professional merchandising, allowing the shopper to conveniently find merchandise. I’m unsure why there’s this anomaly in the battery section. All wall scanners in the store should be in good working order. The pole of the nearest price scanner was only marked as having a scanner in the East-West direction, and not the North-south direction. No wonder I have problems finding scanners. Clearly marking scanners is inexpensive, so why not do it? And why has this scanner been broken for so many weeks?

___Shopping trips should not be gladiator style struggles between good and evil. A customer should be able to view a sales flyer at home, and along with his shopping list, find, select, purchase and pay for products with little difficulty. This is not much to ask, but seemingly very difficult to achieve.

If you are what you eat, then we are certainly not cow. At least not much, anyway. We’re not really big beef eaters, and never were. Hopefully this will bring us good luck in the Chinese year of the Cow, which starts on Monday.

It did not help when we learned of the Canadian mad cow scare, where the brains and spinal cords of cows were put back into cow feed. That’s bovine cannibalism, which is crazy when you think that cows are herbivores. Yes, mankind did lend a helping hand. The Canadian government did not even heed the learnings and warnings from Britain, where there was a huge and disastrous mad cow outbreak. Even Japan warned us. I guess our Japanese isn’t as good as it should be.

$1.20/lb, 1.5 lbs of ground beef, browned with onions

No matter, life goes on. There are hambergers from Johnny’s that are great. The kids eat hotdogs, but only ones with no milk or milk products. Sometimes we’ll get some beef at a resteraunt, which is Ok. It’s not often. A couple of times a year we do corned beef from Brazil  for breakfast. It’s a little salty, but the kids like it.

When we make the conscious decision to cook beef, we look to buying it either at the big box superstore or the local Chinese grocer. No Frills and Price Chopper are convenient and, if you watch what and when you buy, cost effective. The Chinese grocer has a meat counter, so we can get exactly what and how much meat we need, and fresh, not that they don’t package up more than we asked for.

My question is about quality. It’s the little things in life that you need to take care of. After all, this hunk of flesh is going down the hatch of your progeny. If the little weeds start sprouting an errant horn from their cranium, this might not reflect very well on you. There may also be the question of your ongoing reproductive capability.

Beef, once ground and then browned, turns its  fat from a solid to a liquid. Once this is done, if you throw it into the ‘fridge the fat will congeal and resolidify, after which you can break it up and throw it out. It’s not healthy to eat that stuff, oh my dear sweet Mary no, something about those bad saturated fats.

It’s my belief that, barring a high priced and well aged steak, the leaner the beef, the less the fat content, the better the quality. In practical terms this means that when you brown it, there is much less fat left in your pot. Empirical experimentation has led us to believe this is true. The price of beef, however, leads to some confusion. A 2 lb roll of lean ground beef from No Frills or Price Chopper, costs $2.50/lb. When browned, as a token of their appreciation you also receive a significant amount of fat left in your pot, very similar to the photos above. It is also disconcerting that you cannot see the beef because of the plastic wrapper. The same amount of fat, or less, can be had from ground beef from the Chinese store costing $1.20/lb. Buying the $3.00/lb beef at the Chinese store and browning it leaves almost no fat. This may not be a benefit when doing tacos.

We then ask ourselves why buy the more expensive beef at the Superstore when we can get better quality for a better price at the Chinese store.