Pearl's Deli

09/21/2026

I opened a fortune cookie today and it said “Your lucky charm is sitting right next to you.” She was, too!

09/19/2026

Stopped in at Max Schultz Farms and got some fresh hamburg and beef franks. Pearl got a pig ear! Delicious!

09/16/2026

I just found out that McDonald’s charges for water now (based on location) and this is something I find peculiar about the business models of the big chains. They create problems that they then need to create new problems to solve.

Some of my fondest childhood memories were spending the morning before school with my father at the Dawn Donuts. For those of you too young to remember Dawn Donuts your average morning there folks were just sitting around drinking coffee and chit chatting or reading the paper. No one was bothered about pouring another free refill and they weren’t trying to get you to empty your seat. I would spin on the stools in a donut sugar high and get to pretend I was one of the adults doing adult things (when I was still young enough to want to be an adult at all). It’s a big reason for why I got into serving food: the human element of it.

So, McDonald’s creates their first problem: they don’t want to pay for so many employees so they automate things. Soon customers are made to pour their own sodas. It’s sold as a convenience because you can pour your own refills. This creates an opportunity to steal soda as well, of course.

McDonald’s isn’t the only company that has come up with the idea of automating their processes, though. Workers lose out. Unemployment rises and wages stagnate. People have less money to spend. So now we have opportunity and motive to save a bit of money and thieve some soda.

Prices go up because if people are going to steal then the people who pay have to make up the difference. Higher price on soda compounds the problem.

And so now they charge you for water out of fear that you might maybe just steal soda.

No child around today will look back with nostalgia at using the touch screen or AI assistant to order and then pouring their own drink.

Why does McDonald's charge for a water cup? Our 2026 guide explains the real reasons, its legality, costs, and legit ways to get free water.

09/14/2026

I’m going to get up on my soapbox for a moment as I tend to do. I’m very curious about everyone’s opinion on this.

There’s an experience I had that has colored my worldview and how I do business. While I’m blessed to have great insurance now, it wasn’t always the case. I, like a lot of people, had to regularly call the insurance company to fight for my medicines and one thing that never sat right with me was that one particular medicine I needed wasn’t covered and the company that made it charged thousands of dollars per shot… unless you spent most of a day being transferred around on the phone and then filled some paperwork. At that point the medicine was nearly free, but only for a year when you had to do the same process again.

That experience didn’t really spark the thought but cement it: I believe that every penny is a representation of the sweat and tears you put into earning it and you should respect and be thankful when someone is willing to trade their hard work for a good or service. Your dollar should always be as valuable as the next person’s, no matter the situation. There shouldn’t be a deal for one customer that is at the expense of another. Heck, it doesn’t even sit right with me that stores have loyalty programs that require you to give up your private information to join to save a few cents because we all know those deals exist because they raised the price across the board.

It wasn’t always like this and it concerns me that a generation is growing up that won’t remember a time when putting your money on the counter earned a sincere “thank you” for your business rather than a half dozen questions about if you’re a member or if you’d like to sign up for a credit card and as soon as digital price tags continue to spread across the country customers will be paying different amounts based on their perceived value as a customer.

Consumers need to start defending themselves because the government certainly isn’t doing anything about this. Vote with your dollar by going to the businesses that are just thankful that you chose to do business with them. You worked too hard to be treated like you don’t matter.

09/11/2026

How do other places survive the autumn without c***r and donuts from Tiny Apple Store?

09/05/2026

You may have seen me hobbling about the SVRC Marketplace today! If you didn’t you’re spending your Saturdays wrong!

08/22/2026

Hey Sandwich People!

Sorry for the lapse in updates. I’m healing but progress is slow and often painful. I’m finally out of the brace at most times and doing a mix of walking and hobbling on a crutch dependent on how I’m feeling. Uneven ground, stairs, driving, or going any sort of distance is still as yet not happening but I’m working on it.

In the meantime plans are still that I’ll be back in business next year and I’m piecing together the hows and how that’ll look even as I can’t be sure to the when.

Know that you’re all missed and I hope that you’re filling your lives with great things you can update me on while sitting at my counter soon!

Much love from me, Kari, Pearl and little Olive!

08/19/2026

So apparently it’s a thing that some folks leave their special recipes behind on their tombstones after they depart. I love that!

If we all spent more time asking what thing of beauty or even just good flavor we can leave behind when our names are forgotten, we’d be in a much better world.

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08/06/2026

I always knew Kakes the Great Popcorn Co is a star! Now everyone else does too!

By the time Kakes the Great Popcorn Co. owner saw the footage, orders were already flooding in from California, Texas, and New York.