COMMENTERRY--

I fumbled my way through a huge shopping list at our Kroger mega-sized store recently and still was left with two items that escaped my search.

They were Nabisco Honey Grahams and those 6-pack, snack packages of cheese and peanut butter crackers.

The grahams are a really versatile menu item for me.  They serve as an occasional breakfast and sometimes serve nicely for a lite lunch.  I munch on a package of those little cheesey rascals as my mid-night snack nearly every night.

I explain that to point out this really is an important matter.

The second time I searched the "cracker" aisle was quite a bit more thorough than the first but still--nothing.

Finally, I tracked down a stray employee and inquired about their locations while pointing out I had just left the aisle with the overhead sign silently announcing "Crackers".

"Oh, they are not there," she confirmed and sent me an aisle or two to the left for one of my items and an aisle or two to the right for the other.

"Tell me young lady" I pleaded, "why can't I find crackers in the aisle proclaiming their location?"

She pondered that for a moment then made a somewhat caustic comment about their management-type folks of the male gender, naturally, who make such weighty decisions.

I was looking at her over the top of my glasses with an obviously forced smile as I re-launched my search.

Sure enough, with my elusive products in hand I found both were labeled as "crackers".

While I was pleased with the successful conclusion of my shopping trip I shuttered to think those same management-types likely already were planning their next--and seemingly annual--realignment of the store's overall layout.

Maybe her gender remark was not misstated after all.