Minor things that bother you

[bm7]

Food packaging that proclaims that it's "gluten free" for something that clearly would not contain gluten, like fruit or nuts.

Similarly, things that say "non-GMO" when there are no GMO varieties. For example, popcorn and tomatoes are always non-GMO because nobody grows genetically modified versions of those plants. The worst offender by far however, is the salt packages that say they're non-GMO. Just in case you were worried that your sodium chloride might have had its DNA modified...

[wanderer2575]

We haven't ordered pizza since the virus struck.  Because if there's anyone I trust to be healthy while preparing my food, it's not those kids at the pizza place.

My wife has made homemade deep-dish pizza with yeast dough a few times.  That's pretty good.

Obviously do what makes you feel safe, but cooking food kills any potential contamination.  Especially since it would only be on the surface of the food, it would be killed immediately.

Chris

I'm just being safer about me not having to go into their place of business, or not having to worry about what the driver had while he was breathing in the delivery car.  I know they've said the virus doesn't survive on surfaces (like a pizza box) very long.  We don't sanitize our groceries as we bring them in anymore (after shopping at 6:00 am when the store opens because there's far less people there).  It just feels like something to avoid if we can.

Fair enough if you're not comfortable going inside even for a pickup, but I've never used a third-party delivery service (Grubhub, Uber Eats, etc.).  I'll go to the restaurant and pick up the order myself.  I don't have to wonder about what's happening during delivery, I can check to be sure it's correct and say hello to the staff, and most important to me is that the restaurant isn't screwed out of the profit by an unnecessary third party.  I also make sure I use the direct telephone number to the restaurant, not one generated by the delivery services -- if you use the latter, they take the fee even if they don't do the delivery.

[GaryV]

We support our local mom (sadly, not mon-and-pop since he passed away) restaurant with (almost) weekly takeouts that we pick up.  We trust them to be as careful as possible.  Although when they recently opened to 25% and then 50% capacity we are a little concerned with what those dining in might be breathing into the air.

But we got a GrubHub certificate this week, and used that, the first time ever using a takeout delivery service.  You can specify contact-free delivery - they drop it at your door.  (We have a single-family home - I don't know what they do for apartments.  You can specify delivery instructions.)

[JayhawkCO]

Food packaging that proclaims that it's "gluten free" for something that clearly would not contain gluten, like fruit or nuts.

Tito's vodka is my number one offender for this.  All liquor is gluten free. They became the number one vodka brand because of it too.

Chris

[wanderer2575]

Food packaging that proclaims that it's "gluten free" for something that clearly would not contain gluten, like fruit or nuts.

Tito's vodka is my number one offender for this.  All liquor is gluten free. They became the number one vodka brand because of it too.

Chris

Never underestimate the General Population that thinks it's doing good by following some obscure (and likely inaccurate) principle.

[tchafe1978]

Food packaging that proclaims that it's "gluten free" for something that clearly would not contain gluten, like fruit or nuts.

Tito's vodka is my number one offender for this.  All liquor is gluten free. They became the number one vodka brand because of it too.

Chris

Never underestimate the General Population that thinks it's doing good by following some obscure (and likely inaccurate) principle.

And the thing is, gluten isn't even necessarily a bad thing for most people, unless you're part of the 1% of the population that has celiac disease, or gluten sensitivity. So in essence, marking something as "gluten free" has essentially just become a marketing term used to sell more products to gullible people, the same way "fat free" was used when fat free items first started to become popular. These products aren't necessarily better or worse for you, but by companies getting people to think gluten free is a healthy thing for most people, they make profits. Items that wouldn't normally have gluten in them shouldn't be allowed to be labeled as gluten free. And then there are the products that are made gluten free that otherwise wouldn't be, and then are sold at a premium price. I can understand if you have celiac disease and wanting to eat those items, but if you're not, there is no point, as you're paying more for an inferior product. I've tried a few gluten free items and most of them have been very bland and tasteless.

[kenarmy]

Food packaging that proclaims that it's "gluten free" for something that clearly would not contain gluten, like fruit or nuts.

Tito's vodka is my number one offender for this.  All liquor is gluten free. They became the number one vodka brand because of it too.

Chris

Never underestimate the General Population that thinks it's doing good by following some obscure (and likely inaccurate) principle.

Idk about yall, but if i'm buying something for the first time and I see "Gluten-free" I already have it in my mind that it's probably nasty.

[TheHighwayMan3561]

That US 49 hasn't been decommissioned.

[kenarmy]

That US 49 hasn't been decommissioned.

You're just jelly that it's important unlike gross MN 61 

[Scott5114]

But we got a GrubHub certificate this week, and used that, the first time ever using a takeout delivery service.  You can specify contact-free delivery - they drop it at your door.  (We have a single-family home - I don't know what they do for apartments.  You can specify delivery instructions.)

The thing that irritates me about Doordash and Grubhub is that we have to go to extremes to get them to ring the damn doorbell to let us know that the food is there. They love to drop the food off and skitter away without letting anyone know, so that by the time we think "Huh, this sure is taking a while" and check the porch, the food has been sitting outside long enough that it's ice cold.

Supposedly they send a notification through the phone that the food is delivered, but most of the time, we're playing video games while we wait, so we're not glued to the phone waiting for a notification. (Also, that wouldn't help people in other situations, like parents having to stay late at work and ordering something for their kid at home.) We started putting "Ring bell upon delivery" in the delivery instructions, and it was uniformly ignored.

This is the only thing that has managed to help.


Meanwhile, the local pizza places don't have to be told to do anything–they drop the food, ring the bell, then retreat to their car to make sure someone comes out.

[1995hoo]

If the pizza places are like the ones near us, they place the boxes on top of the insulated bag and then ring the bell. Placing them on the bag means they have an incentive to get you to bring in the food quickly so they can retrieve the bag and go to the next delivery. Other services like Uber Eats and the like often don't use insulated bags, so your food isn't all that hot to begin with (which is one of several reasons why we do not use them).

[Scott5114]

Have never seen them do that–we have a couple of brick posts at the edge of the porch, on either side of the door, that are about the size of a pizza box. So they usually just put the pizza there.

[1995hoo]

There's one guy from the Papa John's near us who even brings a little stepstool-type thing so he doesn't have to place the insulated bag on the ground. Outstanding.

But if we want to order from the good Italian place a few minutes away, we do curbside pickup. We get it more quickly than we do with Uber Eats or similar and the restaurant doesn't have to pay them a cut.

[wanderer2575]

The same television network promotional ads over and over and over EVERY SINGLE FREAKING COMMERCIAL BREAK.  Either some upcoming show, or my latest bane of the ads on all the Discovery channels for the Discovery Plus streaming service.  Enough already!

[1995hoo]

The same television network promotional ads over and over and over EVERY SINGLE FREAKING COMMERCIAL BREAK.  Either some upcoming show, or my latest bane of the ads on all the Discovery channels for the Discovery Plus streaming service.  Enough already!

SCOOP, there it is!

(Yes, I know you said "network.")

[texaskdog]

But we got a GrubHub certificate this week, and used that, the first time ever using a takeout delivery service.  You can specify contact-free delivery - they drop it at your door.  (We have a single-family home - I don't know what they do for apartments.  You can specify delivery instructions.)

The thing that irritates me about Doordash and Grubhub is that we have to go to extremes to get them to ring the damn doorbell to let us know that the food is there. They love to drop the food off and skitter away without letting anyone know, so that by the time we think "Huh, this sure is taking a while" and check the porch, the food has been sitting outside long enough that it's ice cold.

Supposedly they send a notification through the phone that the food is delivered, but most of the time, we're playing video games while we wait, so we're not glued to the phone waiting for a notification. (Also, that wouldn't help people in other situations, like parents having to stay late at work and ordering something for their kid at home.) We started putting "Ring bell upon delivery" in the delivery instructions, and it was uniformly ignored.

This is the only thing that has managed to help.


Meanwhile, the local pizza places don't have to be told to do anything—they drop the food, ring the bell, then retreat to their car to make sure someone comes out.

Even UPS and FedEx have gotten away from ringing the bell.  And they wonder why packages get stolen.  My daughter had a computer stolen from our doorstep while we were home. 

[texaskdog]

That US 49 hasn't been decommissioned.

You're just jelly that it's important unlike gross MN 61 

I wish 61 was an extention of 23.  If it's not US 61 anymore stop pretending it is.

[jeffandnicole]

Even UPS and FedEx have gotten away from ringing the bell.  And they wonder why packages get stolen.  My daughter had a computer stolen from our doorstep while we were home. 

It's been years since they've knocked the door at our place.  What's a little more annoying is that as we have a fenced in front yard, that they'll just leave it inside that first gate rather than bring it to the porch.  Some delivery drivers bring it up, some don't.  No consistency.

My wife has her own shop, and when we were on vacation a large package was supposedly delivered.  The stores on either side of us didn't get it.  I looked up the 'signature' and it was 6 random letters that didn't form a last name.  We informed FedEx of the issue, and they claimed it was delivered.  The ironic thing...it was a security camera system, that could've been used to determine if it was delivered!  The neighboring store did have cameras and we looked at the images, and it was pretty clear the truck never was there anywhere around the time claimed.

[1995hoo]

FedEx rang our doorbell on Friday, though I should note the package was perishable (seafood from Maine) and that might make a difference. UPS doesn't ring the doorbell, but I know they've always trained their drivers just to knock rather than wasting time looking for the doorbell since there's no real standardization as to where it might be (and we also have a storm door, so the driver would have to open that to knock). I've taken to loading the tracking info and refreshing it periodically when we expect a package so that I can go retrieve it when I see it's come.

What I find more annoying is the inconsistency some delivery services show. Amazon drivers sometimes leave things in front of the garage door instead of the front door–and our front door is on the ground level, so it's not like they have to climb a flight of steps to drop it off. Then lately UPS drivers don't use plastic wrap on rainy days, so it's a crapshoot what condition your package might be in.

[vdeane]

Food packaging that proclaims that it's "gluten free" for something that clearly would not contain gluten, like fruit or nuts.

Similarly, things that say "non-GMO" when there are no GMO varieties. For example, popcorn and tomatoes are always non-GMO because nobody grows genetically modified versions of those plants. The worst offender by far however, is the salt packages that say they're non-GMO. Just in case you were worried that your sodium chloride might have had its DNA modified...

Non-GMO salt is ridiculous, but for the others, how would a layperson know which foods have GMO plants and which don't?  And popcorn comes from corn, and most of that is GMO, so if the corn used for popcorn isn't, that's food industry inside baseball.

For the gluten free labeling, could processing be an issue?  Lots of items (especially candy) say "warning: may contain nuts", even if they are not an ingredient, because they're made in the same facilities and may get contaminated with trace amounts, enough to cause problems for someone with peanut allergies.

[hbelkins]

This is the only thing that has managed to help.

I triple dog dare you to post that in the "No way is that MUTCD-Compliant" Facebook group.

Concerning non-GMO foods, what's the big deal. Any time you eat some hybrid plant, you're eating genetically modified food. There are lots of varieties of corn and tomatoes, to name two items, that didn't exist in nature until man cross-pollinated, grafted, or otherwise manipulated them.

And I laugh every time I see gluten-free hot dogs. Since when is meat supposed to have gluten in it?

[bm7]

Food packaging that proclaims that it's "gluten free" for something that clearly would not contain gluten, like fruit or nuts.

Similarly, things that say "non-GMO" when there are no GMO varieties. For example, popcorn and tomatoes are always non-GMO because nobody grows genetically modified versions of those plants. The worst offender by far however, is the salt packages that say they're non-GMO. Just in case you were worried that your sodium chloride might have had its DNA modified...

Non-GMO salt is ridiculous, but for the others, how would a layperson know which foods have GMO plants and which don't?  And popcorn comes from corn, and most of that is GMO, so if the corn used for popcorn isn't, that's food industry inside baseball.

For the gluten free labeling, could processing be an issue?  Lots of items (especially candy) say "warning: may contain nuts", even if they are not an ingredient, because they're made in the same facilities and may get contaminated with trace amounts, enough to cause problems for someone with peanut allergies.

It is true that most people wouldn't know what doesn't have GMO varieties, but putting it on the package is useless for anything other than pure marketing reasons, to try to imply their product is "better" than the ones who don't pay for the "non-GMO" status.

Concerning non-GMO foods, what's the big deal. Any time you eat some hybrid plant, you're eating genetically modified food. There are lots of varieties of corn and tomatoes, to name two items, that didn't exist in nature until man cross-pollinated, grafted, or otherwise manipulated them.

I agree, farming has involved selective breeding of better plants for hundreds if not thousands of years, it's nothing new at all. What's the difference between replanting only certain plants in order to get a better crop, and modifying that crop's genes in a laboratory to get the same result? All it does is skip much the time-consuming process of breeding the plants and cut straight to the desired result. Not to mention how many more people we're able to produce food for due to the GMO plants, which is clearly a good thing.

[texaskdog]

Even UPS and FedEx have gotten away from ringing the bell.  And they wonder why packages get stolen.  My daughter had a computer stolen from our doorstep while we were home. 

It's been years since they've knocked the door at our place.  What's a little more annoying is that as we have a fenced in front yard, that they'll just leave it inside that first gate rather than bring it to the porch.  Some delivery drivers bring it up, some don't.  No consistency.

My wife has her own shop, and when we were on vacation a large package was supposedly delivered.  The stores on either side of us didn't get it.  I looked up the 'signature' and it was 6 random letters that didn't form a last name.  We informed FedEx of the issue, and they claimed it was delivered.  The ironic thing...it was a security camera system, that could've been used to determine if it was delivered!  The neighboring store did have cameras and we looked at the images, and it was pretty clear the truck never was there anywhere around the time claimed.

every theft we had at our current address was the post office

[roadman65]

Motels that won't turn on the No Vacancy sign when no rooms available.

Businesses that close and leave the specials up on the marquee or forget to remove the hours of operation from the front door.  How hard is it to remove.

[texaskdog]

Motels that won’t turn on the No Vacancy sign when no rooms available.

Businesses that close and leave the specials up on the marquee or forget to remove the hours of operation from the front door.  How hard is it to remove.

or businesses that close for the day and always forget to turn off the open sign