Detours Along Market St. On The Way Home….

Tonight I was introduced to a really fun Thai restaurant, Osha Thai, thanks to a friend who works downtown. Not only was the food great (and spicy – “medium” would scare the heck out of most folks!), and the restaurant’s decor and ambience quite nice, but the total bill for two people was really reasonable.
It is always nice to find a fun restaurant in town that doesn’t require a second mortgage just to pay the tip, and Osha Thai is now an official entry on my “places I like” list, which will be revealed more fully as time goes on.
On my way home, I took the much-maligned N Judah Downtown Detour. Fortunately it was not raining, hailing, or crowded, so it was a nice quiet ride. Although I’d just as soon take my door-to-door service via the tunnel, it was actually kinda nice to take the detour and take a look at the parts of Market Street I rarely go to, unless I have to. There’s all kinds of things to look at, and late in the evening it was nice and quiet. No crazies yelling, no weirdness. Just a calm ride home past the US Mint, et al.
Then the bus dropped me off at Safeway on Market Street. Now, normally I would just keep walking to the N stop at Duboce and Church, but I remembered they had a sale on avocados (4 for a buck) I wanted to take advantage of, so I walked in.
There is a maxim in the grocery store business that if you go in to the store withou a list, you’re more likely to buy more things than if you didn’t. There is another that for every minute extra you spend in a store on a shopping trip, you’re going to spend at least $1 per minute.
Both were proven very true, very fast. They had just enough stuff I “sort of” needed anyway selling for a dollar, or some other such bargain that I ended up getting a basket and buying all sorts of cool stuff. Coke Zero – $1/six-pack, Dozen Eggs – $1, and so on. I ended up spending almost $15.
Then I looked at the receipt with all my “savings” and it told me I had “saved ” $15, thanks to my Universal ID Card (aka the Safeway Club Card). Although I had spent $13 more than I had planned, the little “46% savings” tag on the receipt somehow made it “ok.”
I headed out and caught the train ride home. Who knew a detour could show you a piece of the city one doesn’t always pay attention to, and provide such wonderful bargains!