Saint John — Ruth Timothy went into her local Superstore on Sunday at 3 p.m. to pick up a few items she still lacked for her Thanksgiving dinner. She got her gravy mix, her cranberries and vegetables, but when she started looking for the beloved Stove Top turkey stuffing, things took a turn for the worse.
“I started going up and down every aisle looking for the Stove Top and I couldn’t find it anywhere. I was reading the signs overhead, but none of the descriptions said anything about stuffing mix. I don’t know if it would be with ‘packaged meals,’ ‘soup mixes’ or ‘gravies and sauces,’ and I couldn’t find it anywhere.” Timothy had 9 family members making the drive from Dieppe for the dinner at her house on Sunday evening, so she was starting to panic.
“I couldn’t find anyone to help me at all, so I went over to the place where they sell the fresh meat and asked one of the boys there for some help,” she said.
“I didn’t know what she was talking about at first,” Robbie Smith, the store’s assistant meat manager, told The Manatee. “I thought she was looking for an actual stove top at first and I told her we didn’t sell them here.”
“That boy didn’t know what he was talking about,” Timothy related in a huff. I’ve bought Stove Top there hundreds of times before.”
Luckily, a grocery clerk was walking by and overheard the conversation. Mark Peterson has been with the Superstore for 18 years and was glad to help Mrs. Timothy find what she needed. “I heard Robbie telling her that we didn’t sell stoves, so I came over to see if I could sort things out. Robbie means well, but has trouble listening to our customers sometimes. I took her to where the Stove Top was supposed to be, but unfortunately we had run out earlier in the day I guess.”
Mrs. Timothy was a little disappointed, but did have a couple of different options in front of her. “They didn’t have the Stove Top brand, but they had that PC stuff, and they had one called Stuff N Such, so I picked that one. I never trust those store-made brands.”
Ruth finished off her Thanksgiving dinner preparations just as the guests started to arrive. Everyone gave their thanks and then dug in to the decadent meal before them. Unfortunately, the delicious meal that Ruth had slaved over for hours beforehand was overshadowed by how much everyone hated the Stuff N Such.
“That stuff is terrible” offered her brother Bill. “You can’t compare that to Stove Top, that’s for sure. Next year we’ll be having dinner at my house I think. Marilyn, my wife, she knows how to make a terrific Stove Top.”
Everyone left disappointed, with Ruth vowing to never again leave her Thanksgiving shopping until the last minute.