Bajaespuma (low sudsing) is available at most Mexican supermarkets in Mexico. Cross the border and there you are. Many Mexican towns now have Wal-Marts, and they carry the full line. BTW, Ariel products are available in Germany in many formulations. It seems to me, however, that most laundry soap is regional. For example, Persil is available here in most any formulation, but it is not made by Unilever as I believe it is in the UK. It is made by Henkel, but it all the familiar varieties such as Megaperls (which are more expensive than regular Persil powder). Another thing I've notice about the EU, at least in Germany, is that many more national products are available at their large stores. For example, if you go to buy an alarm clock, there is no shortage of German alarm clocks on the shelves. In the states, you'd go nuts trying to find one not made in China. Of course, their stuff is a little more expensive, and they pay half their salaries in taxes and on top of that, they have a %19 value added tax. Yikes! For large purchases, we can bow out of the VAT (we don't use their healthcare, etc) which equates to a nearly 20% price savings. Another thing that's going on right now is Persil is celebrating 100 years in Germany with nostalgic tins. The tins are a premium that come with 200 grams of Persil. Collect all four! Here is a link that might be useful: Henkel GMBH

Hard question. There was a time I was a fan of Meijer's which is a superstore here in Michigan. They have every thing from Tofu to shells for my .30-06. Much of their advantage is simply turn over... the produce is fresh because they just recently put it out. In college I had 3 of them within a 30 minute drive... Okemos, Lake Lansing, and the old Lansing store. Recently prices have been rather steep on basic things like beans and rice. Walmart is my favorite because they are the only place open at 3am. I won't buy meat at Walmart... I used to buy the uncut round roasts but those went away. For awhile I could get decent lamb chops but I think I was the only person in the store buying them (Tuna loved lamb). We have a meat market in town that does nice pork. A 30 minute drive and I can get short loins for under $7/lb so they get most of my steak business. My "hamburger" I buy from a local dairy farmer which is currently $3/lb in one pound frozen packages... also get free hearts, tounges, and oxtails with my hamburger. Simply love oxtail soup. Local market had a baker that worked there for many years. When she retired the baked goods section just faded to nothing. The third time in my life a baker has retired and it changed my life. Growing up there was a wonderful bakery in the middle of town... cinnamon twists to die for. Then they closed and we had Stanley's. Then they closed so it is store bought bread or bake your own. Unions are not perfect but they can do good. Much of what is wrong with Unions is the direct planned actions of Management. A common stunt is to pick a Union worker and allow them to get away with anything... being late, poor work, being drunk, sitting around doing nothing. The idea is to make the normal workers angry at the Union for "protecting that guy". On the other side my non-Union employer has sent me for drug testing twice this year because I wear a respirator. I been sent for "medical" examinations and had blood draw 5 times this year by direction of the company. No I don't think people should be high at work and don't object to genuine concern about my health but things are getting a bit sadistic. Even after the company's comp Doc advised me to continue wearing the respirator the Plant Manager informed me the company does not think I need it. I now have written orders from my MD and if there is more trouble over this the next "doctor" will be a JD. Either God or the Devil loves me because my lawyers has been working for free... as the regulars here know I've a running battle over Safety issues (yes, I am the Safety person). : ) lyra

Grocery stores are always an interesting topic, I mean, we pretty much all have to deal with them don't we? I think customer service, in a grocery store or restaurant or retail store or whatever, is the responsibility of the management. IOW, if the management trains the employees well, you'll get good customer service. If not, you won't. I don't think that most people intuitively know how to give good customer service in every given situation. It takes training specific to the job for anyone to know their job, and a customer service position is no different. I worked in retail for years when I was in high school and college, and the store I worked at held periodic trainings on how to talk to the customer, how to address them, how to get help when you didn't know the answer, etc. So usually when I get bad service, I complain to the manager, and try not to mention the person as much (unless it's clearly attitude instead of knowledge) as saying, please train your employees to give good service. And here's my grocery store complaint: You know those dividers that you put between orders on the checkout line? First of all, they should not be black, the same color as the conveyer belt. They should be neon green or some other color that stands out so that the cashier can clearly see them even when there are groceries piled right up to them on both sides. I always put them at a diagonal leaving plenty of space between groceries because so many times, the beginning of my groceries get caught up in the previous customer's group. Ugh. Secondly, the cashiers should shove them all the way down to the other end of the belt, where the customer who needs it can reach it! If those two things would happen, I'd be a happier shopper.

Do what I did, register under a fake name but tell your friends and family who you are and make a fake birthday etc. I used my real first name so they'd know it's me and, even then, my daughter (who knew I was going to do this) asks me if I know Sheila ______ who is asking to be her friend. hahahaha when I reminded her she roared. I get no requests now. The upshot of doing this was I got 23 happy birthday posts on April 1st which is not my birthday. I thought they'd catch my joke with that date. NOT.