Commissary Conundrum

Oh, Company.  Oh, Saudi.  Why must everything be SO crazy and illogical and stupid ALL the time?  Sigh. 

How many pop tarts does one compound need?!

A long time ago, the Company ran its own commissaries.  It even had its own bread department to supply the commissaries.  I suppose this was because the country was so undeveloped that there was nowhere else to get things like bread, so if we wanted it on camp, we had to do it ourselves.

Then, sometime in the 80s or 90s or something, they did away with that and just contracted out to an entity called Tamimi to run the commissaries.  (Tamimi is also the company that runs the Safeway.  Tamimi does lots of other things, too, which are not related to food, but I'm not sure what else.)

Some parts of the com were better for this, others were worse, and that was that.  So for at least 20 years, Tamimi has run the com.  Uh, until they lost their contract this summer.

They lost it to an Indian (dot not feather) chain store called LuLus.  We have one in Khobar.  It's got food and clothes, kind of like Walmart, but not at all the same.  (They do have the most fabulous silk department upstairs, though, for material for saris.  It's gorgeous and not terribly expensive.  My mom bought about ten yards of silk that has one color fading into another and very detailed borders on it for about $100 the first time she was here.) 

LuLus is taking over the com on December 4th.  Tamimi lost the contract this past summer, say July.  And on that date in July, after they laid off all the workers, they STOPPED PLACING ORDERS.  As in, there is no more food coming in.  From July until December.  Fun times!

(Uh, hello?  Some of us still have to eat.  Thanks.) 

Right now, it's November, and the com is mostly empty.  They still are getting produce and dairy, but the dry goods are nearly gone.  There are so many empty shelves that they look for items that are more than one box deep, and just spread them out so the shelves will look populated.  And just about the only thing they have left is.....pop tarts.  Shelf after shelf, aisle after aisle.  Have you ever tried to imagine going into the grocery store and they have an *entire aisle* of nothing but pop tarts?  It's very odd.  You think to yourself, "This can't be real.  Am I dreaming?"

Go figure, one of the last orders placed was an enormous order for pop tarts.  They also have a lot of odd cereals.  And some toys.  And two car seats for sale.  And that's about it.

So breakfast?  Check!  Lunch and dinner?  Uh, yeah, we'll be having breakfast for lunch and breakfast for dinner, too.  Anybody up for pop tarts?  Again?  Ha!