The shelves and coolers at Stop & Shop have a plethora of pickles. There are dill pickles aplenty: hot dill, kosher dill, hamburger dill, and baby dill. There are half sours, bread and butter, and sweet gherkins; many of these come in spears or in chips. A wonderment of pickles — but no Hearty Garlic.
Hearty Garlic pickles were my go-to favorites until a few years ago, when they suddenly disappeared from their usual place in the cooler. I shrugged this off as I do so many of the changes around me, ascribing it to the mysterious forces in the universe that make things vanish for no apparent reason — like the foghorn out at Long Point and the noon whistle here in town.
But one day a few weeks ago, just for the hell of it, I went up to the “solutions desk” and inquired about this mysterious disappearance. The staff behind the counter were friendly and helpful but could not give me a solid answer. One even suggested that my favorite pickle had never existed — as if someone could make up a Hearty Garlic.
It got me to thinking about the entire enterprise that is Stop & Shop. I took a walk around the store, from produce to the floral department, the seafood section, and the meat displays, up and down the aisles, past the deli counter, into the far room with paper products, cosmetics, and the pharmacy. The sheer volume of stuff that can be found there is astounding. I counted 14 different kinds of apples; I stopped counting cereal varieties when I hit 50. (I’m talking about the Stop & Shop in Provincetown. I know the Orleans Stop & Shop, where many readers go, is far larger and even more astounding.)
Just how do all those shelves and bins get stocked and maintained? What a monumental task! I found out, from the manager, that there is a regional distribution center in Fairhaven. Huge trucks leave from there and appear at our store, usually around 3 a.m. Unloading and stocking takes place in the wee hours and then throughout the day.
Of course, there is a “state of the art” computerized system that directs all this, but it is achieved by the efforts of a dedicated staff. This small army of people, working the registers, monitoring the shelves, carting out food, occasionally mopping up a spill, greatly expands in the summer, when J-1 visa students join the ranks. You may deal with someone from Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Romania, or, of course, Jamaica. These bright, enterprising people lend a certain energy to the place, but they still have to learn to keep up with Barb, 84 years young, who has worked the checkout for 15 years.
Many other neighbors can be found working there, including, a while back, a selectperson and, currently, our town moderator. Melanie, the self-described “store ambassador,” can be found in holiday attire at various times of the year. There is an “employee appreciation day” when the flags of all the countries represented by employees are flown; the store also celebrates Jamaican Independence Day. (Stop & Shop provides housing for many of its foreign workers.)
Stop & Shop is part of our town. This year, for the first time, the store had a giant Lego Food Truck in the Carnival parade and distributed over 700 hot dogs and sodas. The employees participated in the Toys for Tots program, donating over $6,000 worth of toys to the police dept.
But it is the day-to-day operation that brings the store into the community. Long ago we were all hunters and gatherers; roughly 12,000 years ago agriculture slowly began to evolve; as farms became established, so did farmers’ markets, and townspeople flocked to them for all their foodstuffs. The focus was not just the produce and meats but the people gathering to get them.
So it is today. I am not the first to note that without Stop & Shop I would not have much of a social life. Friends and neighbors are around every corner, in every department. Even in summer, I come away from shopping refreshed. Almost all our food comes from this one place, and almost all in our community go there to get it. In the simple act of getting sustenance, we come together. There is something holy about this fact.
Even without the Hearty Garlic.
