Date: Wed, 30 May 2007 07:39:00 -0400 (EDT)
From: dicconf <dicconf at radix.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: No shucking, please
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

On Sun, 27 May 2007, ronkean at juno.com wrote:

>
> Today in a grocery store I saw a large bin of corn where there were two
> signs posted saying "No shucking, please".  The floor surrounding the bin
> was littered with shuckings, and the bin itself contained more shuckings
> than unshucked corn.  While I was pondering this tableau, a woman walked
> up to the bin, picked up an ear of corn, and began shucking it.  I wonder
> why are people are seemingly so eager to shuck corn as to openly flout
> the posted policy, and possibly risk a confrontation with store
> personnel?  Given that people are unwilling to refrain from shucking
> the corn, I wonder why the store maintains such a policy, anyway.

The store doesn't want the corn to be shucked because of the mess,
and because the shuck protects the kernels.

People shuck the corn because they want to be sure the ear is fully
developed, without 'weak spots' in the kernels.  They also want to
check for insects.

They do it in spite of the signs for a couple of reasons:
1. feelings of entitlement, to some extent justified, but there's
   no need to shuck the corn entirely, you can pull the shucks
   away and keep them attached to the ear
2. genuine ignorance - they don't know what "shucking" means
3. illiteracy in English - some of them genuinely can't read
   the sign at all (not literate in English, or illiterate in
   any language)

In my opinion, providing a trash can for the shucks wouldn't help,
because the general public are slobs and will toss a smaller ear
of perfectly good corn into the shucks, so the store loses sales.
At least when it's all one big heap, people will dig through the
shucks to find the corn.

I don't think there's a solution.

=Tamar