Lost in Translation

I admire people who can speak and write in more than one language.  It's a skill I have never mastered, although I am told that my maternal grandfather spoke six languages, and several of my paternal cousins and an uncle are bi-lingual. Additionally, my father was bi-lingual, and my mother spoke two languages fluently and had some knowledge of a third.  My mother in law was also bi-lingual.

I took Spanish in junior high (now called middle school) and one year in high school but it never stuck. 

Something that has always fascinated me are instructions for a product manufactured in another country.  Often enough, the English instructions have obviously been translated from another language, and enough times, something was lost in translation.

Here's one recent example.

I wanted to purchase a couple of collapsible bottles to take on trips.  Amazon was having a lightning deal on a two pack of collapsible silicone water bottles.  Perfect!  But I didn't read many of the reviews, and I should have.  A lot of them complained about the smell.

I ordered them and they came the next day.  I took them out of the packaging, opened one up, and was almost knocked over by the smell.

It was....not pleasant.

The manufacturer was obviously aware of this, because the above smell removal instructions were enclosed.  I wasn't able to get a good picture but it reads as follows:

"Due to our bottle is made of platinum silicone, its normal That there may exsit slight natural silicone smell. We suggest below method to improve if you don't like it:

1. Boil the bottle in hot water for 5 minutes, dry it and then smell removes.

2.  Fill the bottle with 2 gram or more red or green tea and at least 80% of 90degrees C or higher hot water.

3.  Close the cap and seal the bottle for 2 hours, discard tea and water try it naturally.  Then smell is basically removed."

Leaving the translation issues to one side, I can either boil the bottle (I was a bit leary to do that, although the website description says it will take temperatures up to 200C (392F) ) or use the tea method.  I had green tea in the house.  Red tea, I assume, is roobios, and I do not have it in the house.

We in the United States aren't metric, unlike almost all of the world.  So, at the risk of losing all of my readers, some math:  a cup of water is 240 grams, which is also 240 milliliters. (Why can't our system be logical like this?). I am supposed to put two milliliters of liquid, which is about .40 teaspoon, into this bottle.  A 20 oz bottle can hold about 120 teaspoons.  I'm terrible in math, but I have a feeling I'll need a lot more green tea than .40 of a teaspoon to remove the odor.

So what am I doing now?  I went online and saw a recommendation for filling the bottle with half white vinegar and half water for "a while".  Some reviewers used this method with varying results.

If that doesn't work maybe I'll try filling it with hot green tea.

It's interesting, too, that the instructions suggest green tea and the product is made in China. But I also feel like something was lost in translations.

The instructions made some kind of sense after several readings and translations of metric to our outdated system.  I think.

Wish me luck.

Going Going Almost Gone

A story of these times....

Years ago, we visited Cape Cod and went to a store in Hyannis (the largest village in the largest town on the Cape).  It was love at first shop.

Several years later, the Christmas Tree Shop opened a store where I live in the Southern Tier of New York State.  They actually started on Cape Cod (not the Hyannis store) back in the 1950's.  They were acquired by Bed, Bath and Beyond in 2003 and underwent a big expansion.

Yesterday I went to its going out of business sale.  Going, going, almost gone....

I wasn't surprised.  Bed, Bath and Beyond preceded them in closing.  But I really knew, a year or so after they changed ownership in 2020, that we were seeing the end of the road.

We've all been to going out of business sales.  In the past few years, the pace seems to have accelerated.  But this one was different.

We were faithful customers of the pre-2020 Christmas Tree Shop.  We knew we could find things there, not just for Christmas, but year round.  Our list included paper plates, cups, and napkins for various holidays and seasons, tablecloths, placemats, herbal teas, coffees, stocking stuffers for our son (a nut lover), an occasional rug or curtain, cake mixes, kitchen gadgets, gardening items, and the unsalted whole pistachio nuts I snacked on at work.  

Sometimes there were real finds, things that only turned up once, and those were some of my favorites.  Smoked salmon from Alaska.  Expensive-in-stores-but-not-here celebrity tomato sauce.

The Christmas Tree Shop was always a stop for us on Black Friday because you got a special coupon if you got there before 9am.

 But, under the new ownership, it was never the same.  We mainly stopped going when they were no longer selling many of the items we wanted, or when we found that the food items they had in the rapidly shrinking food area were now more expensive than at the supermarkets.  

Yet, we had been there a couple of weeks before they announced their closing, hoping we would find something we wanted.

The charm had disappeared.  So had most of our reasons for shopping there, alas.

Yesterday, I found I wasn't the only one who felt that way. As we looked at what remained, I heard snippets of conversation, shoppers talking to each other about how sad they were to lose the store, especially the store before the ownership change.  Not only that, but I overheard a couple of conversations between shoppers and employees where shoppers expressed their love for the store.

At the checkout, I told the clerk we would miss the store.  Her response:  she will miss the shoppers.  I must have looked surprised.  She said it was rare to find any shopper who wasn't friendly.

People were happy to be in that store.  Online isn't the same.

We need a lot more happiness in our daily lives.  I'm glad her employee experience was a good one.

More and more, we are forced online.  Online shopping seemed so great back when, but this is the unintended consequence.

Now, the Christmas Tree Shop moves onto the list I keep mentally of stores, both local and chain, that I miss, and will continue to miss.

Are your favorite brick and mortars going, going, almost gone where you live, too?

Old Fashioned Thinking

No, I'm not referring to the drink, although I could have used one yesterday afternoon, just trying to help someone.

I can always use a tree peony, flower, though.  My very first flower from a plant purchased a couple of years ago.

The Last of my Tulips

Let me tell you a little story about modern life and online shopping.  But before I do, let me take a deep breath...

...because, as the saying go, it was educational.

I wasn't working yesterday, and, after my appointment with my chiropractor for my latest back issue, we decided to travel to the local (if you call 30 miles/48 km local) "Amish" store, and a nearby nursery/farm store, where I was hoping to find something.  The trip was a little hard on my back, and spouse and I were fairly exhausted by the gardening we (especially he) had done the past few days.

So, I ended up resting my back on the couch, and spouse went out the front door to do something.

Spouse came right back with a plain, open, brown paper bag he found on our front porch. Plain, as in no logo. Open, as in "not even sealed or stapled".   Inside were two brand new Fruit of the Loom bras. On the bag there was a label, with the name "Ambient", an order number, a couple of other numbers, and a customer's name - an initial and a last name.

Not mine.

The name wasn't familiar but then again, I really should know my neighbors better. (That's a story for another time.)

 I grabbed my laptop and did a Google search for the name.  I came up empty.  Then I Googled "Ambient" and found it was a delivery service for Wal Mart.

We have two Wal-Mart stores in our area.

I picked one, and called it.  After listening to the obligatory recorded greeting, which offered to tell me all about their COVID-19 policies, I finally maneuvered the phone tree to a real person and explained that I had someone else's bra delivery, although I wasn't sure which store it was from.  "I'll connect you to that department", he said.   No one ever answered, and after three beeps, I got disconnected.

So I posted on Facebook asking for advice.  Several people responded and I thank them for information they gave me. (If you, dear reader, was one of them, thank you!) One of my Facebook friends gave me a link to a Walmart chat function. But I couldn't use it without some fumbling around their site first, because all I really wanted to do was email them or call and explain my situation.  I couldn't find a phone number or way to email.  I finally found the chat button.

It started a chat with a chatbot:  the chatbot is in red.  My responses are in blue. The "Walmart bot" and "You said" came directly from the chat, which I wasn't able to do a screen capture of, but I could copy and paste it.

Choose a common issue from below or feel free to explain it in your own words.

You said

I received an order that does not belong to me. It was delivered by Ambient. I understand that is the service Walmart uses. I want the right person to get this order. The contents of the plain shopping bag are two Fruit of the Loom bras. Nothing indicates the store this belongs to.

Walmart bot said

I might be able to help you with that. Select an option below or choose something else to talk to an agent.

You said

It's something else

Walmart bot said

We will need to connect you to an associate to finish helping you with this issue. Please provide the email address for your Walmart account.

You said

I don't have a Walmart account. I got an order left on my doorstep. It is not mine.

Walmart bot said

That doesn’t look like a valid email address. Please try again.

You said

(my email address).

Walmart bot said

That email doesn’t match a Walmart account or any Walmart online orders. Please try again.

Sigh.

I am not repeating my response, which expressed my frustration.  For the record, I don't have a Wal Mart account and I was getting nowhere.  (No, it wasn't profane or rude).   To Walmart' credit, the bot offered to call me if I provided a phone number, which I did, and a rep called in seconds.

To summarize the few minutes of conversations, I explained about this wrong order and Ambient, and emphasized I had no idea if this was a Walmart order because there was no way whatsoever to identify the store the order came from.  He asked me for the order number, which I gave him.

Then he asked me for my name.

I replied, this wasn't my order.  Knowing my name won't help you.  I want someone to know this order went astray and I don't know who the merchant was.

Making a long story short, the rep told me he couldn't give me any information about the order (which I can understand).  He told me to "recycle" (his words) the merchandise.  

I'm hoping that the order number was a Walmart order number and that my conversation alerted their system that the order wasn't delivered properly.  Later yesterday, Walmart sent me an email asking me to rate my experience with the rep and I I did - for what he was able to do, I thought he handled it well.

Another Facebook person told me "don't try any further" and that was good advice.  I imagine when that person doesn't receive the order, he or she will take it up with the website.

As far as the "recycle" advice the Wal Mart rep gave me, still another Facebook friend gave me some advice, which was quite interesting.  The world has changed so, over these past years.

In enough ways, I haven't kept up with our changing world.  Call me an old fashioned thinker. 

Shopping Chalk Art #WordlessWednesday

A store called Home Goods closed, due to Coronavirus, from mid March until last Thursday, when it reopened.

Someone had chalked some art near the store entrance, where people would be social distancing on line to get into the store.  Chalk art is nothing new during the pandemic but this is the first retail example I've seen near where I live in the Binghamton, New York area.

Staying positive can be hard sometimes.

When the store reopened, there was a long line to get in.  The black marks are social distancing markers.

Ariel? With a mask?  Why not.

We in my part of New York State are in "phase 3" of reopening.  Up to now, all our shopping has had to be online, with curbside pickup only, except for "essential" businesses such as those selling food or some other necessities.  Now, stores can be open at reduced capacity.  I haven't tried yet, especially after I saw those lines at the store above (they were closed when I took these pictures) the day they reopened.

Retail art.
Joining Sandee at Comedy Plus for #WordlessWednesday.

Brave New Shopping World

We did it to ourselves.

Macy's welcome sign - now it's gone

Yesterday, after work, my spouse and I went exercise walking in our local mall where I live in upstate New York.  Three of the four anchor stores have gone out of business, along with other stores.

The third anchor store, Bon-Ton (a department store) has been having its going out of business sale the last few (or so it seems) months. I understand it will close for good on August 31.  Macy's and Sears closed last year.  Nearby, Toys R Us closed its doors recently.  Across town, K-Mart had already closed.

While walking, I passed two other going out of business sales.

If the last anchor store, J.C. Penney, closes, we don't know if the mall will follow it soon after.

So what did I do after walking?  I went home ,watered my hanging baskets, and turned on my computer.  I wanted to head towards Amazon Prime's July Prime Day sale.  I've gotten some great buys in previous years.

Except a funny thing happened to me.  The home page loaded fine, but nothing after that.  "Sorry..." "sorry...." said page after page, each showing me one of the dogs of Amazon.

Barney, Rufus, Frank, Shadow, and more, were their names.

When you left Macy's they said this - but Macy's left us in 2017

Finally, I got on.  Around me, politics swirled, and uncertainty, and apparently, I wasn't the only one seeking escape.

After several tries, I got to the shoes I wanted.  They cost $13 more than they did on Prime Day in 2016.  I didn't buy them.

I looked at several other pages, once they loaded. Another pair of shoes looked promising, but, gee, I couldn't try them on.  It was a brand I wasn't familiar with.  I wish I could have reached through the computer screen to touch them.

Yes, I will continue to shop at Amazon.  I suspect many of you will, too.  We don't have that much choice, do we?  But then again, I started shopping with them so many years ago I can't remember when I started.  Not often, but out of convenience.   I know people who won't shop with them, out of principle.  But I'm not that strong.
I helped destroy retail commerce.

What a day yesterday was, for Amazon's fail and for other reasons. It's the world we have created for ourselves.  Like it or not.