Photo courtesy Lunds & Byerly's


Here in Minnesota we have Lunds & Byerly's, a family owned grocery chain. Lunds & Byerly's prides itself on the shopping experience they provide for customers which includes free samples, free cookies for kids, in-store cooking classes with noted experts (at the St. Louis Park location), courtesy grocery carry out and home delivery. I shop at the Ridgedale Byerly's frequently on my way home to St. Paul from Minnetonka.

So, I was there recently with my daughter and, as is our norm, I asked for a cookie for her (she is 12 years old and still loves getting the kid's cookie at the grocery store and the free lollipop at the bank but often feels shy to ask for one.) The bakery specialist said "Of course!" with a big smile and a gracious manner. She had a sheepish look on her face when she handed my daughter a very small cookie though, and added as if in apology,  "We're having to give out smaller cookies now because of the recession."

I would probably have just thought they were sampling out the mini cookies if she hadn't said anything (if it were me, I wouldn't have said anything — why bring thoughts of the recession to your customer's mind when she's shopping?). But knowing that they were doing that, I started looking around to see what else they might be skimping back on and — sure enough — no samples!

I am not complaining. It is not like consumers are entitled to food samples and free cookies. I am just making an observation: you know you are in a recession when the cookies shrink and the samples disappear.

Photo of goat courtesy of Kentucky College of Agriculture

A cake a dog and a goat

And here's a story about a different type of  "free sample", one that involves a cake, a dog and a goat.

The Capital Times reports:

Goat breaks into home, eats cake

TOWN OF WESTFORD — What do you get when a goat follows a dog into a house?

For Sherry Shirley of Westford, the answer is a big mess.

When she opened the front door of her home on Lake Road to let her dog in Saturday morning, a full-grown goat burst into the house, jumped onto a kitchen counter and helped itself to a freshly baked chocolate cake, according to the Dodge County Sheriff's Department.

Deputies responded to a call from Shirley at 11:43 Saturday morning, but a neighbor had dragged the goat from the home by its horns before officers arrived, patrol captain Molly Soblewski said.

"The goat didn't do a lot of damage. It knocked some dishes to the floor that broke and began eating the chocolate cake she had just made," Soblewski said.

The chocolate cake caper, however, was far from a perfect crime. Deputies followed the goat's tracks to a nearby farm on Mill Road and had it behind bars by 12:35 p.m. Saturday.

Soblewski said the owners of the goat will not be cited.

"It was just an unfortunate circumstance," she said. "I feel sorry for the lady, but it is kind of funny."

So, I guess Ms. Sherry Shirley of Westford  can now say that her baking is so good that a goat once broke into her house for one of her cakes.