USA. A Mexican restaurant. We had not yet ordered anything, and the food was already arriving.
Chips. Salsa. Unrequested. Free.
I stopped the waiter. "We have not earned these."
"They just come with the table, man."
They come with the TABLE. In my land, hospitality is a debt. Every gift creates an obligation, weighed carefully, returned in the proper season with interest of feeling. Here, the gift arrives before you have even proven you can pay for dinner.
This is not an appetizer. This is a declaration: we trust you. Eat.
I ate with the gravity the moment deserved. And then — I must report this calmly — the basket emptied, and a new one appeared.
"Did we…?"
"Refill," the waiter said. "It's bottomless."
Bottomless. They have wells of salsa. The supply lines of this nation are beyond anything my ancestors imagined.
My friend warned me. "Don't fill up on chips, dude."
Too late. I had accepted three baskets. Honor demanded each one be finished — an unfinished gift is an insult. By the time my actual food arrived, I was a ruined man.
I was not hungry. I was not comfortable. I had been defeated by a courtesy.
Generosity that arrives before the request cannot be repaid. It can only be survived.
I know the rule now. I have made my peace with the basket. One basket. Two at the most.
Who am I deceiving. There is no number of baskets I would refuse. The trust of a nation is in that salsa, and I intend to honor all of it.
@DannyPellegrino@hallmarkchannel I knew it!!! One of your wishes came true and you truly deserve it, friend. Congratulations, Danny! We will be watching ❤️
@_RebeccaMarques She also was a director at the DA office in Bexar County advocating for child abuse and family violence. She helped shape the foundation of state laws on those issues. And of course leader of NW Dems. She was incredible, Rebecca. Thank you friend ♥️ #txlege
@DannyPellegrino Don’t understand her purpose of being on #RHONY.
I love a housewife that is hungry and thirsty to be on tv. Jenna is neither those things and doesn’t need Bravo. She’s good 💅
Most know Costco for the $1.50 hotdogs, but I don’t think people understand the level of operation and thought that goes into each Costco location:
- They aim for a low ~17% margin on most of their products (for comparison — Walmart aims for ~45%, while Ulta / Sephora aim for ~70%)
- There are only 4,000 SKU’s (products) per store and ~40% of those are curated for each region (most grocery stores have 30k+)
- Costco starting pay rate is $18.50/hr, and employees get 1.5x on Sundays
- Rotisserie chickens are sold at a loss and on avg only on shelves for ~2hrs per day
- Was the first company to grow from zero to $3B in sales in less than six years
Long live Costco 🫶