Metro grocery store guilty of deceptive packaging practices

The Metro grocery store (formerly LOEB) on March Road in Kanata is guilty of deceptive marketing & packaging practices, resulting in people believing they are receiving more product for their money than they might otherwise think they should be getting.

Here is what happened to me on July 22, 2009. I had breakfast at home that morning, but I was still hungry by the time I got close to where I work, so I detoured to the local Metro grocery store to grab a little something to nibble on, as I need to get a few other things there as well eventually, so I figured that I could do both things at the same place. Consequently, I found myself at the deli counter, looking at the sandwiches and the like. I came across a container with two seafood wraps in it, and that looked like it would be a nice snack to hold me over until lunch. I cheerfully grabbed it and the rest of my items, and cheerfully paid for them and continued to the office to eat this tasty-looking new snack. Here is a picture of what I purchased.

This looked pretty tasty to me! I was really looking forward to sinking my teeth into these two wraps. However, when I opened them up, I was greeted with a little surprise of the immorally deceptive kind. Here is what I discovered upon removing the paper surrounding the wraps:

As you can see, the scum-suckers at Metro’s deli counter, likely under the direction of management, took a single wrap, cut it in half, and then wrapped each half in such a way as to make it appear as though I was going to be able to purchase two separate wraps. Needless to say, I was most unimpressed. It should also go without saying that I will never purchase another wrap from Metro ever again.

It is bad enough that they feel the need to charge me $0.05 for a frakkin’ plastic bag, but they now feel the need to rip off the customers with the quantity of food they deliver too? I would have had no problem with a single wrap packaged in a single piece of paper, showing me exactly what I was getting. Then, I would have known that there was just one wrap, and I could have made the decision on whether or not I wanted to get one or two of them, based on my appetite at the time. Those scum-sucking frakkers took that choice away from me, and for that, and their disgusting lying ways, I will not easily forgive them. I know times are tough all over, but there is really no excuse for this level of customer abuse!

Maximum age to be a student?

It seems that in the city of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, there is a new rule for student bus passes. Apparently, OC Transpo, Ottawa’s public transportation agency, only considers a person under the age of 28 to be a “real” student, so any full time student over the age of 27 will be required to buy a pass at full price, regardless of income or scholastic status. This reeks of ageism against mature students and students going for Masters and Doctoral degrees. After all, being a full time student over the age of 27 is deemed to be a different class of full time student as one who is 27 years of age or less.

OC Transpo representatives claim that other transit systems around the country have a student cut-off age of 25, so they are being magnanimous by setting their cut-off age to 27. Isn’t that like saying that other places in Canada discriminate against many races, but here we only discriminate against a few? Being less wrong is not the same as being right, or even better. If we as a country want to have a more educated society, we need to stop placing artificial barriers in the path of those who want to expand their knowledge, and start to tear down as many of these artificial barriers as we possibly can.

For screwing over mature students, and for thinking less bad is the same as good, I have to rate OC Transpo’s student pass policy an EPIC FAIL!!

I’m back!

Sorry for the long absence.  For the last year or so, things have been, shall we say, challenging, for lack of a better word. But there have been some positive changes in my life too. However, this is really difficult to write. I have been out of practice due to a living environment that is not conducive to writing, and very few other options. However, as of a few weekends ago, I am much more mobile  in my computing, so if my home working environment is not helping, I now have options for relocation.

For this exciting privilege, I owe a great debt of gratitude to my parents, my sister, and my best friend for all chipping in and getting me this wonderful laptop for my birthday. I was so surprised by this great act of generosity that I was speechless and almost in a state of shock for several minutes. Now that I finally have Lappy (the name I have given to my laptop) set up and have software installed, I can now get back to something I have really missed - writing.

On that note, the world is saddened by the death this week of three icons of the 1970’s and 1980’s. First was the famous sidekick of Johnny Carson, Ed McMahon. He died on June 23, 2009. Then, on June 25th, 2009, Farrah Fawcett finally succumbed to the cancer she had been fighting against for several years. Then, as bad timing would have it, Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, collapsed in his Los Angeles home with what seems to be a cardiac arrest or some other possible cardiac problem. The world will know more after the autopsy is performed and the results are made public. It should not be forgotten that we also lost another icon of the 1970’s, David Carradine, of “Kung Fu” and “Kill Bill” fame, on June 3, 2009. For those of my generation, and my parents generation, it has been a very sad month indeed.

Consequently, with all this happening, and everything else that is happening in the world, I could remain silent no longer. It is time once again to rant and rave against the evils and injustices in the world, both real and imagined. Stay tuned. Things are about to get interesting.