Meijer

Meijer is a Michigan based departmental store, rather a ‘hypermarket store’ which means it is a combination of a grocery store and a departmental store. It also has its stores in few other states like Ohio, Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky.



I walked slowly around all the sections and it was the same as any other departmental store. The ice cream section had lot many varieties and looked very tempting.



Then I reached the vegetables and fruit section and the pineapple cutting caught my eyes. I had seen these cut pineapples kept for sale in other stores too but had no idea how it was done. I got to see that here. They just chop off the two ends, keep the fruit vertically below this machine and press it. There are two concentric blades. One goes around the core separating it from the rest of the fruit and the other goes in below the rough skin and takes it out in a thick section along with the thorns. The procedure wastes a lot of fruit but takes only seconds to prepare the fruit for sale.

One may say that there is nothing great in cutting a pineapple. True. But I liked the machine. You see, I love pineapple. When they are sweet of course. But to know whether they are sweet or sour, I need to cut them and cutting them is a pain. I manage to remove the skin and cut them to eatable pieces but the thorns remain and removing them individually is a very tiresome task. This machine did the work so easily. If it could be dismantled and carried in a suitcase, may be, I would have made enquiries and purchased one. I am sure it would have been worth it.





I stood watching it for some time and went near the cash counters. I wanted to take a picture of the counters numbering more than thirty but as I directed my camera at them, one of the staff members informed me that I am not allowed to take photographs inside the store. So I slipped the camera into my pocket retaining the pictures already taken and quietly walked out of the store.