OXO and Costco may rhyme, but they are worlds apart on excellent customer service

If you find the expensive OXO Brew 9-Cup Coffee Maker isn't your cup of tea, the company will make you pay around $30 in postage to return it, then force you to jump through many hoops to get a refund. OXO is in effect saying, "How dare you dislike our product."

 

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- I just got off the phone after talking to a woman named Dee who assured me she would look into why I haven't received a refund for an OXO coffee maker I returned more than 6 weeks ago.

The coffee maker, which has a retail price of $199.99, arrived at OXO International in South Haven, Miss., on Dec. 26, 2020, the post office said.

Dee said she would send an email, presumably to a supervisor, with all the details of my request.

I had asked to talk to a supervisor, but was told all of them are "in a meeting."

She is probably the fourth or fifth woman I've talked to at 1-800-545-4411 since I returned the coffee maker, and she asked me for a tracking number to confirm once again that the coffee maker I returned actually arrived.

Bad service

So far, I've received terrible customer service from OXO, even though the company's guarantee promises:

"If you’re not satisfied with your purchase, we want to hear about it. We’ll replace it or refund you, because we’re here to make it better – guaranteed."

The terrible customer service from OXO just highlights the great customer service available at other retailers, especially Costco Wholesale, Amazon and Lands' End.

Full refund plus $20

For example, I ordered a Valentine's Day bouquet and vase for my wife from Costco Wholesale (Costco.com), and delivery was promised for Feb. 13, the day before the holiday.

But bad weather delayed the package until Feb. 15.

On Feb. 13, I received an email from Costco.com, offering an apology and promising a full refund of the $54.99 purchase price, plus a $20 Costco cash card.

Last summer, I purchased a beautiful hammock fashioned from laminated wood from Costco.com for $599.99, plus tax.

Besides manufacturing flaws that made assembling the hammock difficult, the layers of wood began to separate after a couple of months of use, and my wife asked me to return it.

Costco provided free shipping for the return and refunded the full purchase price.

I could go on and on about all of the hassle-free returns and full refunds at the warehouse and on Costco.com I've experienced as a Costco member for more than 20 years, but you get the idea.

Flawed coffee maker

I was excited by news that OXO was offering a 9-cup coffee maker in addition to the 8-cup version, and that I could avoid having hot water coming in contact with plastic.

But the single button-and-dial control on OXO's stylish machine (made of stainless steel, glass and silicone) was difficult to fathom for this older American, and I could never set the time.

There were bigger problems:

If you wanted to pour a cup of Joe before the brewing process was complete, the coffee wasn't hot enough, and the spring used was too weak to prevent hot water from dripping onto the hotplate for the stainless-steel carafe.

Finally, 9 cups were simply not enough for our family.

Back to a percolator

After I shipped the OXO coffee maker back to the company, I returned to making our coffee in a 12-cup Farberware Superfast Automatic Percolator my parents used about 30 years ago.

I bought the OXO coffee maker online on Nov. 27, 2020, and got a good deal, paying only $102.35 after Black Friday and other discounts, plus free shipping.

Now, 6 weeks after I returned it, I'm still chasing a refund of the purchase price, but have no hope of getting back the $30 in postage OXO forced me to pay.

OXO guarantee

—

Here is the full guarantee from the OXO website: 

"At OXO, we believe in better – better design, better functionality, better experience – and that’s exactly how we make our products. For more than two decades, we’ve made tools that delight and exceed expectations. Our curiosity drives us. 

"Your satisfaction inspires us. And we hope our attention to detail is why you’ll reach for our products again and again. If you’re not satisfied with your purchase, we want to hear about it. We’ll replace it or refund you, because we’re here to make it better – guaranteed."

Don't choke on your coffee.

Staffers at The Record and 2 other dailies owned by Gannett are trying to join union

The Record of Woodland Park and the Hackensack Chronicle, a free weekly that reprints stories and photos from the once-great daily newspaper known far and wide as the Bergen Record.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Employees of The Record of Woodland Park and two other daily newspapers owned by Gannett are seeking recognition of a union after hundreds of them were laid off in recent years.

The other papers are the Daily Record of Morristown and the New Jersey Herald of Newton.

"The three papers represented by members of our union have provided local news to northern New Jersey for more than 100 years," Record reporter Terrence McDonald told the New Jersey Globe.

"In fewer than 5 years, Gannett has turned each into a shadow of their former selves," McDonald told The Globe. 

"We organized to bring more power to the writers, photographers and web producers who are dedicated to providing our communities with the journalism they deserve," he said.

The union effort includes employees of NorthJersey.com, The Record's website, where some stories are labeled "for subscribers" only.

If Gannett turns down the voluntary request, the employees can petition the National Labor Relations Board to conduct an election.

No comment

Globe Editor David Wildstein, who was a key figure in the Bridgegate scandal during the Christie administration, reported that Gannett appeared to have "embargoed" coverage of the bid by editorial staffers to unionize.

The Record has covered other bids by private sector employees to form labor unions, including bids by non-Gannett journalists to organize at the Los Angeles Times, Wildstein reported.

Dan Sforza, The Record's executive editor, did not respond to several requests for comment.

72 employees sign

Employees of the 3 newspapers are seeking recognition after "almost 90% of eligible employees -- a total of 66 -- signed on with the NewsGuild of New York," The Globe reported, later amending the total number seeking to unionize to 72.

Those employees posted a mission statement at TheRecordGuild.com, their website (and it appears in full in the comments section at the end of this post).

Previous union attempts

When The Record was headquartered at 150 River St. in Hackensack and owned by the Borg family, several efforts to unionize press room workers were made, but they were unsuccessful.

In the 1980s, a number of reporters also wanted to join the New York Newspaper Guild, but could not reach a consensus.

The Record closed its headquarters in Hackensack in 2009, and moved employees to 1 Garret Mountain Plaza in Woodland Park.

Sale to Gannett

The Borg family sold North Jersey Media Group to Gannett in July 2016 for nearly $40 million in cash.

Stephen A. Borg, who was then the publisher, engineered the biggest downsizing in The Record's history in 2008, targeting veteran employees who were earning high salaries.

He then froze newsroom salaries for several years before the sale.

NJMG published 2 daily newspapers, The Record and Herald News, numerous weekly newspapers and (201) magazine. 

350+ layoffs

By March of 2017, Gannett had laid off more than 350 NJMG employees.

Gannett was acquired by GateHouse Media in 2019, and the company reportedly plans to outsource 485 jobs to India this year.

Ultimately, SoftBank, a Japanese conglomerate, owns the equity fund that controls The Record and (201) magazine. 

Stephen Borg and his partners are now building hundreds of luxury apartments on nearly 20 acres of land along River Street after tearing down NJMG's headquarters and a diner in Hackensack.

Read: Shit in driveway wasn't from dog walkers:

 The Record was delivered to us by mistake

Read: Readers turn thumbs down

 on editor who says they must pay for news

Read: The Record and NorthJersey.com

lose thousands of readers 

Antibiotics, salted water, dead animal bits and other bad things hiding in raw chicken

After reading what isn't in the Bell & Evans Cut Chicken Wings I bought at Whole Foods Market in Paramus, N.J., I wondered if other big poultry companies like Perdue and Tyson are as careful.

With some supermarket brands,

you never know what you're eating

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- My wife is roasting close to 5 pounds of chicken wings she seasoned and the aroma is filling our kitchen and spilling into other rooms.

I'm a pescatarian who gave up meat and poultry more than a decade ago, but I live with and help shop for 3 family members who eat beef, pork, poultry and various animal parts a few times a week. 

This week, I picked up a package of Bell & Evans Cut Chicken Wings for $3.99 a pound at Whole Foods Market, and before I recycled the large plastic tray, I read a label on "what makes Bell & Evans different."

The price label of the Bell & Evans Cut Chicken Wings.

No retained water

Bell & Evans wings (and the rest of the chicken) aren't injected with salted water, and are raised without antibiotics "ever," including no ionophores (a class of antibiotics), in the feed, water, through injection or in ovo (egg).

Human antibiotics are used to raise chickens, cows and other farm animals, and that may cause the transfer of drug resistant bacteria to humans, reducing the effectiveness of drugs prescribed by doctors.

Also missing from Bell & Evans chicken:

• No growth hormones in the vegetarian diet.
• Soybeans without hexane, a byproduct of gasoline.
• No ethanol byproducts.
• Feed with no "junk," meaning no animal byproducts (bits of dead animals), and no expired bakery goods, grease or arsenic.  
• All chicken is fed grains grown in the U.S.A.

READ: Rotisserie chicken at Costco

 makes great dog food 

2020 ends with my first dose of vaccine, potential end to our national nightmare

As a volunteer at Englewood Health, formerly known as Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, I was offered a first dose of Moderna's Covid-19 vaccine to prevent the coronavirus disease, which has killed more than 340,000 Americans this year. 

After I entered the hospital on Wednesday, I was asked to put on a mask over the mask I was wearing and to sanitize my hands. Other visitors were subjected to temperature checks, and the hospital cafeteria was closed to outsiders, including me. 

We ate healthy and stayed healthy, explored the great outdoors

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- "Lines." 

That is my answer to the headline on the front of The New York Times for Kids section last Sunday:

"If I had to describe my 2020 in one word, it would be _____."

When the quarantine began in March, nine long months ago, I stopped going to the gym and no longer was able to visit patients as a volunteer at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, now known as Englewood Health.

That meant that as an older American, food shopping was my only means of exercise, and on my trips to Costco Wholesale, Whole Foods Market, ShopRite and H Mart, I encountered long lines of masked shopper shifting from foot to foot as they waited to get in.

Monotony

The second word I'd use to describe 2020 is "monotony." 

I pretty much get up every day before 6 a.m.

First, I make coffee, then after showering, I eat a big breakfast of leftovers or prepare an egg white omelet for other family members.

I also go food shopping early during senior hours, take a midday nap, eat or prepare dinner as early as 3 p.m., settle down in front of the TV around 4 or go for a short drive to a nearby town, then go to bed around 10:30 p.m., and get up during the night 2 or 3 times to go to the bathroom.

We spend a lot more money on food than most families of 4 because I am a pescatarian who hasn't eaten beef, pork, lamb or poultry for a decade, and my wife, son and mother-in-law are dedicated meat eaters.

This year also has seen us buying as much organic, pesticide-free food and produce as possible; only wild-caught seafood; and making sure they only eat meat and poultry raised without harmful pesticides and growth hormones.

And as an older American and amateur cook, I also have had to watch out when using recipes from The Times and other sources that are filled with artery clogging butter and cream, excessive sodium and sugar.

Beside covid in 2020, another health concern that was exposed by Consumer Reports magazine is the real danger of microplastics in our air, and our food and water supplies.

That prompted me to replace all of our plastic food-storage containers with glass, and brew our morning coffee in a stainless-steel percolator my mother used more than 30 years ago.

The water never comes in contact with plastic because the Farberware percolator has no plastic parts, unlike the cheap Mr. Coffee machines I used for years.

2021 and beyond

Amid the surge of new coronavirus cases after Thanksgiving and Christmas, I got a lift when I received an email from the hospital, inviting me and other volunteers as "members of our health-care team" to get a first dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine, and I already have an appointment for the second and final dose.

That means the volunteer program at the Englewood hospital may resume, possibly as early as March, and I can once again visit patients to comfort them and offer words of encouragement after their open-heart surgeries (I got a new heart valve in September 2011).

I'd like to see my wife, son and mother-in-law get the Covid vaccine, too.

The Jan. 20 inauguration of Joe Biden as president and Kamala Harris as vice president also is something to look forward to, and I hope they can speed up the vaccination program nationwide, and end our national nightmare.

Read: Pandemic sees resurgence of family meals

Read: Bored to tears, fearing long food lines

Read: Cartoonists slam Trump's many failures

Read: What about a sudden loss of intimacy?

Panic buying in the early months of the coronavirus pandemic resulted in long lines of older American like me during the senior hour at the Costco Wholesale warehouse in Teterboro, above. Despite signs urging social distancing, below, shoppers with carts had a hard time keeping away from each other.

After I shopped during the senior hour at Whole Foods Market in Paramus, I stopped on the way to my car to take this photo of millenials and other younger shoppers who had lined up to get into the organic and natural foods supermarket.

For our Sunday fresh fish dinner, I often waited on line at the H Mart in Ridgefield, above, until the Korean chain opened a new supermarket in Little Ferry on Dec. 23, 2020, nearly 18 months after the old Little Ferry H Mart closed.

We started off our Christmas dinner with a cooked seafood salad of Alaskan King Crab, Canadian Lobster Tails and Argentinian Red Shrimp dressed with fresh lemon juice, Dijon Mustard and ground cumin.

One of the rare high points of 2020 was the availability of previously frozen wild Sockeye Salmon fillets at Costco Wholesale after the fresh wild salmon season ended in early October. I grilled these portions on the stovetop for 8 minutes and dressed them with a saute of fresh tomatoes and sliced garlic.

 

On Saturday afternoons, we usually order takeout from nearby restaurants, including Seafood Gourmet in Maywood, above; Lotus Cafe in Hackensack for great Chinese-style seafood and vegetables; and Kinyobi in Hackensack or BCD Tofu in Fort Lee for delicious Korean specialties. We also enjoyed takeout from the U Pie & Lobster Co. in Englewood and Greenhouse Juices & Cafe in Teaneck.

During the spring and summer, we made day trips to Brendan T. Byrne State Forest, above, and Wave Hill Public Garden and Cultural Center in the Bronx, below.

Using a list I copied from The New York Times many years ago, we also visited public sculptures and monuments in Manhattan, including this tribute to Duke Ellington, the legendary jazz band leader, in Harlem.

Closer to home, I was wowed by this dramatic sunrise over Hackensack as I drove down Euclid Avenue on the way to Home Depot to pick up a large recycling bin I had ordered online.

We were walloped with a big snowstorm on Dec. 17, 2020. I grimaced when I was watching TV and heard one of the anchors of the CBS Morning News introduce a report from Suffern, N.Y., and call the town "Sufferin', N.Y."

Nearing end of 2020, we're in good health, thankful for election of sane new president

COVID-19 PANDEMIC: We've been quarantining since March, but all of us are healthy, and we toasted our good fortune on Thanksgiving with French champagne from the Costco Wholesale warehouse in Wayne, N.J. 

WILD SHRIMP SALAD: Our first course on Thursday was a salad of wild-caught Gulf Shrimp, sold frozen, peeled and deveined at the Costco warehouse in Teterboro, N.J., dressed with fresh lemon juice, Dijon mustard, cumin and ground Aleppo pepper. First, I cooked the raw shrimp in olive oil with plenty of thinly sliced garlic, and added diced sweet peppers, celery, onion and parsley.

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- The presidential election is finally over, and Donald J. Trump's days as our unhinged president are numbered.

He is a loser in every sense of the word -- the worst U.S. president in history.

Happy days are here again.

And on Thanksgiving, amid a new wave of the coronavirus, just the 4 of us gathered around the dining room table, toasting our good health and our soon-to-be President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

She is the first woman elected vice president, and likely will be the first woman elected president in 2024.

Our groaning table

For Thanksgiving, we prepared too much food, as usual: 

For the meat eaters, my wife prepared turkey neck and roasted a boneless leg of Australian lamb, plus rice and peas.

As a pescatarian, I prepared a shrimp salad and ordered a 4-course vegan meal from Whole Foods Market, but didn't have room for my wife's fish course, fried whole Yellow Croaker.

I had vegan leftovers and a leftover fried duck egg for breakfast today, and will probably have more leftovers for dinner and for....

ESCOVEITCH FISH: I went to 99 Ranch Market in Hackensack on Thursday morning and picked up 5 fresh, wild-caught Yellow Croaker. My wife fried them and prepared them with a warm dressing of vinegar, pimento, sweet pepper and onion in the style of her native Jamaica.

ORGANIC VEGETABLES: My wife also prepared organic broccoli and string beans with sliced garlic and a variety of no-salt seasonings.

VEGAN COURSES: For Thanksgiving, this pescatarian also picked up a 4-course vegan meal for 2 prepared by Chef Chloe Coscarelli from Whole Foods Market in Paramus, N.J. The centerpiece was a Cremini Mushroom Roast with Mushroom Gravy. Other courses were Miso Creamed Greens, Sweet Potato Casserole, Jalapeno Corn Bread Dressing and Pumpkin Curry Soup (not shown).

 

Pandemic sees resurgence of family meals, but much of the food we eat makes us sick

McDonald's, Pringles, SPAM and other processed and junk food are featured prominently in the illustration that ran with the article on how we eat in the August/September 2020 issue of AARP The Magazine.

 

AARP article salutes

 rise of industrial farms, 

processed food, multicookers

By VICTOR E. SASSON

EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- The only upside to the Covid-19 pandemic is that Americans in quarantine or lockdown began to cook again and "the family meal -- long threatened -- returned in earnest."

That's the upbeat conclusion of a sweeping review of how we eat by Ruth Reichl, a cookbook author and onetime restaurant critic for The New York Times.  

But in "The Changing American Table" for AARP The Magazine, Reichl acknowledges that Americans' obsession with baking and desserts pushed the percentage of us who are overweight or obese to about 72 percent today, compared to only 10 percent in 1950.

She discusses the rise of factory farms, the widespread use of human antibiotics to make farm animals grow faster, salmonella outbreaks, processed food and even a best seller, "The Can-Opener Cook Book."

Eating is learned behavior

Reichl, who has written about food for 50 years, acknowledges her own articles about eating fewer carbohydrates, exercising more and drinking less or not at all.

"The real answer, I think, is staring us in the face," Reichl says. "Eating is learned behavior, and from the moment our children are born, we began teaching them that the most delicious foods are filled with fat, sugar and salt."

Organic farming

Although Reichl is one of the most respected food writers in the nation, her AARP article is weak when it comes to discussing the benefits of eating organic food, and the harm of pesticides and the antibiotics used to raise poultry, meat and farmed fish.

"People who care about the environment ... have driven the cause of organic farms, whose numbers have doubled in the past 10 years," she says, adding:

"But the most revolutionary changes in food production revolve around meat. Research has shown that a meat-based diet increases the risk of heart diseases and cancer."

Excerpts

Here are excerpts from Reichl's article for older Americans, and I think you can assume that the "average Americans" she mentions aren't eating pricier organics, antibiotic-free food, wild-caught fish or 100% grass-fed beef:

• "The food on my table -- and yours -- does not resemble in any way what our ancestors ate."
• "Food prices have come down so dramatically that average Americans spend a mere 7 percent of their budget on it -- less than people spend in any other nation on earth."
• "Three-quarters of us are overweight, and 6 out of 10 of us suffer from chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, asthma and hepatitis."
• "Does our cheap food have anything to do with that?" (Her answer is yes.)
• "After the war [World War II] ended and the Cold War began, our government decided that growing bigger, better and substantially more food than the Soviets ... would be a great way to spread democracy."
• On family summer road trips, regional specialties were replaced by fast food.
• "By the mid '50s ... housewives filled their freezers with three iconic foods of that moment: TV dinners, fish sticks and Tater Tots."
• "Instant mashed potatoes, freeze-dried instant coffee, Pop-Tarts, Tang and, of course, Carnation Instant Breakfast began to line our cupboard shelves."
• "Mom bragged she could get dinner on the table in 15 minutes flat."

The coronavirus

"The coronavirus disrupted the American food supply, and it changed the way I shop, cook and eat," Reichl says.

"Indeed, across the country, people in lockdown began to cook again" and "many who had never before put their hands into dirt planted gardens ...," she says.

"People like me, who live in rural parts of the country, began buying our food straight from the farm, just like my mother once did," Reichl adds. "I know I'll be doing that for the rest of my life."

To read Reichl's piece in its entirety, click on the following link:

A foodie reflects on 50 years of change

Shopping for organics

During most of the year, the closest my family and others in northern New Jersey get to the farm is Whole Foods Market in Paramus, where I buy as many organics as possible.

Costco Wholesale in Teterboro and ShopRite supermarkets also are good sources for organic produce, organic pasta and other organically grown food.

I grew up in a kosher household in Brooklyn, N.Y., where the family meal was sacred, and I've been cooking all my life, both when I was single and after I married.

That has continued during the pandemic.

I'm a pescatarian living with a wife, son and mother-in-law who eat meat and poultry, so we cook more than most families and find it challenging to order takeout once a week.

For ideas on preparing family meals, see my cooking and food shopping videos:

Victor's Healthy Kitchen

Hysterical voters denounce mail-in ballots weeks before Nov. 3 presidential election

We received our 3 mail-in ballots in late September.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

HACKENSACK, N.J. -- I've long believed America has some of the laziest, most apathetic voters in the world, but now I see they are also some of the dumbest.

In New Jersey, vote-by-mail ballots for the Nov. 3 election are being sent to every "active registered voter," according to an executive order signed by Governor Murphy.

That order was cited by Bergen County Clerk John  S. Hogan, one of three county officials in charge of the election process.

The governor's executive order "aims to ensure that voters preserve their constitutional right to vote while upholding the priority of public health during the Covid-19 public health emergency," Hogan said.

But statewide voting by mail has unhinged at least one Maywood woman, who called for a class-action lawsuit against "our illegal, demonic governor."

Voting by mail

I and tens of thousands of other voters have used mail-in ballots for years in Hackensack school and City Council elections, in statewide primaries, and in general elections for governor, state Legislature, Congress and president.

We received our 3 mail-in ballots for the Nov. 3 election yesterday, and all registered voters should receive them by Oct. 5, Hogan said.

On Nov. 3, voters have three ways to cast their vote-by-mail ballots:

• Complete and return your ballot by mail in the postage-paid envelope provided. If postmarked by Nov. 3 and received by Nov. 10 at 8 p.m., the ballot will still be counted.
• Drop your completed ballot at one of "the secure drop boxes" located throughout Bergen County by 8 p.m. on Nov. 3.
• Bring your completed ballot to your polling place by 8 p.m. on Nov. 3.

There will be a limited number of polling places open on election day "with voting machines exclusively for blind and disabled voters," Hogan said in a flier sent to every residential postal customer.

Hysterical voters

On Nextdoor, an online community forum, one Maywood woman referred to Governor Murphy as "very evil" and called mail-in voting "nonsense."

She also referred to mail-in ballots as "voter interference" and "election intimidation," and claimed they are "criminally illegal."

She called on other voters to join her in a class-action lawsuit to sue "our illegal, demonic governor."

She complained a sports arena in Newark was being used as a voting place to intimidate voters like her, because the people who live there "believe in garbage movements" that are "nothing short of anarchist attempts to overthrow the government" -- an apparent reference to Black Lives Matter.

But she denied that she is a racist.

Sadly, she was not alone in trying to sow confusion about mail-in ballots, and cite conspiracy theories and other nonsense, echoing President Trump.

Nextdoor usually is a forum for the exchange of helpful information, goods and services. 

Track your ballot

Mail-in ballots have become easier to use in recent years, and for the Nov. 3 election, you can actually "track your ballot" and see if it has been received by the Board of Elections.

The return envelope doesn't require postage as in the past -- it's postage paid.

The deadline to register to vote in the Nov. 3 presidential election is Oct. 13, 2020. Visit njelections.org.

That is also the site where you can track your ballot.

Watch this short video of Hogan demonstrating how to fill out and mail your ballot.

 

Read: Mail-in ballots boosted

 turnout in school election