You may know that I love to browse small ethnic grocery stores. Today, while on the road, I stopped in at a small Mexican place on Rt. 111 outside of Goldsboro, North Carolina. I walked the aisles, as in any typical store, and of course I looked at their hot sauces. Nothing much fancy, some 1/2-liter bottles of brands like Crystal and La Victoria. But I noticed that all of the bottles were a little bit dusty and old enough to have started to turn brown/gray and settle. I had a chill of suspicion that this place was not making its money selling groceries, and I left empty-handed, which is unusual for me. How shall I put this, it seems to me that a grocery store is a living scene with stock that moves and changes. Seeing stagnant sauce like that was like seeing a still heart. This morning I was training workers at the commissary at New River MCAB(Marine Corps Air Base) and among other things I was pointing out how some of their contract vendor stockers were overloading the shelves, especially the top ones. I found a wall of Tabasco, probably more than 70 boxes, on a top shelf where even I (at six feeet in height) couldn't reach them all. I said, I wonder how old the boxes in the back of that stack are... FWIW I don't see very much variety in the hot sauce selections at these commissaries, just the same things you might see in any major grocery chain. Here in NC, I have learned that a foundation layer of Texas Pete helps my "chilly powder" to adhere to my food. - A _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com