ball of confusion

we had this poster in our coffeehouse

Ten pounds of roasted coffee requires
4,000 to 5,000 coffee beans.

A pound of coffee yields about 40 cups of coffee.

A post by Merle a few days ago reminded me of a
job I had for a few years before I started at the
paper in SF. On this corner at 9th Ave and Clement
was Thom's Natural Foods. Since those days
they have moved to Geary Street near the Cliff House area.

When I started, I helped put the produce out on carts
in the front of the store. I was told about the elderly
folks hovering across the street, waiting for the old
produce that we would toss. We were to leave in a box
on the side of the building, and they would come and sift
through it. I noticed one lady who would push and shove the
others out of the way, and was told she looked for fruit, as she
made preserves and sold them. After awhile, I came to know a few
of the others, and ended up telling them when I was out there,
that I would leave one box, and to wait for that lady to go for that
one and I would leave a second box with better left overs for them.

This worked well and threw her off the scent.
Other times, while on a register, other elderly people
would come in a purchase 3 or 4 carrots or something.
I had a nasty habit of putting them on the scale and
ringing up another item at the same time and simply
dropping the carrots etc in the bag. One time I was caught
by one of the ladies and said "oops" but let it go.

Knowing the markup at the time, I figured they were
still making ample profits and they must have.
At the time, there were no large health food stores
and out in the avenues in SF, people walked and bused
most everywhere.

Working for Thom and his partner also
taught me how to interact with other
employees, which helped me in other jobs
through the years.

After my first few weeks, every Fri he would
pull me (and others) aside and tell us what a
good job we were doing, how our area improved and
how we interacted with the public and made sure
we received a $.25 raise. I left when I was close to
$9.00 hr and this was back in '77.

Roy Lichtenstein