Food, she thought.: Politics Rears its Head Whilst in Pursuit of Morning Coffee

CNN and 7-Eleven have paired up to make money and measure our party/candidate affiliation. CNN has sponsored Obama and McCain cups to all the convenience stores, with the stores tracking how many sold.

Apparently, every vote counts even though that is not always true in the general election.

I frequent 7-Elevens in my travels and admit to a liking for weak coffee and the occasional truly unhealthy non-dairy creamer. In recent weeks I have noticed a geographic trend with regard to cup dispersal.

In the Inland Empire, McCain cups are typically stocked 2/1 over President Obama's cups.

I don't find this particularly shocking and was told overtly at this 7-Eleven in Hemet that the reason they have more McCain cups out is because those are the cups that sell. Which begs the question, if they are selling more McCain cups wouldn't they have less? Or is someone just too lazy to get them or too dumb to realize that this stocking strategy makes it look as though they might be out of President Obama's cups? I don't know about that. I do know the sales ladies and the owner were incredibly hostile to my picture taking, to a humorous extent.

I am wandering about the store shooting a couple pics, and when we get to the register to pay for our $22 worth of water and ice cream sandwiches, the cashier holds the phone out to me and says "My boss wants to talk to you." Is this supposed to scare me? I am not in high school and this is not the Principal's office. Nearly 10 years teaching in public school in Crenshaw leaves me as someone who doesn't scare easily.

They carry Spam.

And the much loved Campbell's Pork n' Beans. At any rate, I speak to the owner and he asks my name, where I live and for my business card, all in a very threatening tone. Ok, because I am going to give you my real name and of course I am going to leave you a business card. It must be hard to sound authoritative when talking over a phone held together with electrical tape. I did not feel threatened. My husband also speaks to him, and funnily enough the owner does not threaten to come down to the store in person. It's easier to sound threatening than to back your threats up by getting off your couch on a Friday night. And as far as I know, I wasn't doing anything illegal. Granted, I should have/could have asked for permission.

They carry a very thoroughly stocked ice cream sandwich section, by the way.

However, the ice cream in these Toll House ice cream sandwiches was very low quality. The cookies were good though. The cashier ended our confrontation by asking me how I would like it if she followed me around taking pictures of me. I responded by saying, I am a person and the store is an inanimate object, so this is not a valid analogy. She disagreed, or simply misunderstood my perspective. Her eyebrows needed waxing.

I always love a good butcher department. The weird thing is that they were NOT tracking the number of cups sold. At this location they are simply selling the cups and not making public to ratios sold. Which again, begs interesting questions. They will remain unasked.