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Day 714: Supermarket "improvements"
Mar. 1st, 2022 11:15 pmIn the past, our neighborhood supermarket had prided itself on not having any self-service stations. This evening, though, I was buying a few things and saw a man chipping away at the floor tiles where previously the two most compact checkstands had been, and I looked up to see two self-service machines waiting to be installed.
My first thought was, oh no, they won't be supporting as many cashier jobs. But then I remembered that our store is the smallest of its chain in the area, and if we want to keep having a supermarket in the neighborhood, they had better stay profitable. A few years ago they merged with another chain, which has a larger store at a much more prominent location that's just over a mile from this one, and it seemed miraculous that they didn't close our store. So I guess whatever they need to do, they should do.
Let's see. Today President Biden gave a fine speech (the annual State of the Union address) that in my opinion was only modestly partisan. Go Joe. Meanwhile, yesterday the editor of the fancy journal where I'd sent my paper (highest impact factor) suggested I send it to a more narrowly focused journal in the field. He used the phrase "I encourage immediate submission" to that journal, but since that journal allows fewer words than the first one I spent some time cutting the paper down a bit further. Then I submitted it this evening. Fingers crossed again.
Meanwhile, J. had sword class after work, and D. didn't have class today so didn't venture out into the rain. He spent an hour and a half listening to and rating other people's songs from his songwriting class - turns out there are 330 students. He had to rate the songs on overall quality and cultural relevance, which were both criteria they were told to use when writing the songs, but unfortunately some students wrote songs about their favorite football team or which sports they liked to play. We're hoping they'll be rating the second songs too, as D's second song is much better than his first.
My first thought was, oh no, they won't be supporting as many cashier jobs. But then I remembered that our store is the smallest of its chain in the area, and if we want to keep having a supermarket in the neighborhood, they had better stay profitable. A few years ago they merged with another chain, which has a larger store at a much more prominent location that's just over a mile from this one, and it seemed miraculous that they didn't close our store. So I guess whatever they need to do, they should do.
Let's see. Today President Biden gave a fine speech (the annual State of the Union address) that in my opinion was only modestly partisan. Go Joe. Meanwhile, yesterday the editor of the fancy journal where I'd sent my paper (highest impact factor) suggested I send it to a more narrowly focused journal in the field. He used the phrase "I encourage immediate submission" to that journal, but since that journal allows fewer words than the first one I spent some time cutting the paper down a bit further. Then I submitted it this evening. Fingers crossed again.
Meanwhile, J. had sword class after work, and D. didn't have class today so didn't venture out into the rain. He spent an hour and a half listening to and rating other people's songs from his songwriting class - turns out there are 330 students. He had to rate the songs on overall quality and cultural relevance, which were both criteria they were told to use when writing the songs, but unfortunately some students wrote songs about their favorite football team or which sports they liked to play. We're hoping they'll be rating the second songs too, as D's second song is much better than his first.