Lost in the Supermarket

Some observations from a recent trip to the supermarket in (what else?) bullet form:

• The first couple things I noticed were in the cereal aisle. Apparently there is a new charm added to the Lucky Charms roster, the hourglass. I'm not quite sure what the significance of this is (how is an hourglass lucky?), but I found it interesting nonetheless. That said, I think there are too many types of Lucky Charms these days. Back in the day it was a huge deal when we got the red balloon to up the number of charms to six or so. Nowadays it seems like they add a new one every other year. Oh well, I went through my Lucky Charms phase a few years ago and never looked back. My parents would never buy us any sugary cereals when we were kids so I got all the Lucky Charms and Cocoa Puffs out of my system in college. I recently had Cocoa Krispies though, and they were pretty fantastic.

• Something else that caught my eye in the cereal aisle was an advertisement for a free American flag on a Corn Flakes box. For some reason I felt inclined to take a closer look at the offer, perhaps the Olympics have me feeling a little extra patriotic. Turns out it was hardly an offer for a free flag. It required a ten dollar donation to Camp C.O.P.E., a camp for children with parents in the armed forces. I'm by no means trying to say I am opposed to the camp or people donating to it, I just thought the word "free" was a bit misleading. What it most likely comes down to is that fact that I'm a dick.

• Finally, while walking towards the end of the juice/bread product aisle I was a bit surprised to see that the Halloween decorations/merchandise was on full display. Call me old-fashioned, but is it crazy to wait until at least August 31st, when Halloween is a full two months away before we start pimping Halloween stuff at the supermarket. That is, unless there is an upcoming shortage of plastic Jack-O-Lanterns that I was unaware of. We are in a recession and all. But who needs those things anyway? They don't hold nearly enough candy. A pillow case is a far superior option.