Life on the Grocery Line a Powerful Call for Unity and Compassion
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“She just broke … right in front of us,” said Adam Kaat, referring to a grocery store customer who simply buckled under the weight of COVID restrictions. It was just one of many memorable customer encounters Kaat had while working as a cashier at a high-end supermarket in Denver in 2020.
Kaat dealt with the uncertainty of the pandemic, the paranoia, and the angry customers and empty shelves by blogging about his experiences. His blog resonated. Soon, he had amassed 15,000 followers and built a community among those who shared his profoundly human — and humane — perspectives.
“It (the pandemic) taught me that we really need each other — even strangers — more than we think,” Kaat said in a recent interview. “I felt like I went from a cashier to a therapist overnight. People were spilling their hearts out to me.” Kaat drew upon his blog, as well as stories shared with him in his online community, to build the narrative for his new book, Life on the Grocery Line: A Frontline Experience in a Global Pandemic. This riveting, firsthand account is told through the eyes of a character named Daniel, who watches from the frontlines as the frenzied panic caused by COVID surges like a tidal wave across his home state of Colorado. Now, he’s suddenly being called a hero just for showing up at his job, and he isn’t sure how to feel about that.
Daniel sees fear in the eyes of some customers and hostility in others, as he does his best to hold his head high and just keep making it from one shift to the next. And along the way, he learns more than he ever expected to about humanity’s response to fear, observing most prominently the way in which some people look down on the very workers they deem “essential.”
At its core, Life on the Grocery Line is about a test of the human spirit — a 21st century manifestation of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea.
Author Adam Jonathan Kaat worked in a grocery store as a cashier and then as a prepared foods supervisor from January 2020 until May 2021. After college, he bounced around through the corporate world until leaving it all behind in the Fall of 2019 to write his first novel. By January 2020, he had taken a job as a cashier to earn money while preserving mental energy for his creative pursuits. He got much more than he bargained for when COVID hit. He began to blog about his experiences as a frontline worker, and 15,000 Facebook followers later, Life on the Grocery Line was born.
For more information and to read Kaat’s blog, please visit www.lifeonthegroceryline.com; or connect with the author on Instagram (@kaatadam), Facebook (@lifeonthegroceryline) or Twitter (lifeonthegroce1).
Life on the Grocery Line: A Frontline Experience in a Global Pandemic Publisher: Inspired Forever Publishing ISBN-10: 1948903326 ISBN-13: 978-1948903325 Available from Amazon.com
Trish Stevens Craig Warren Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
Grocery Store Worker Shares Pandemic’s Widespread Impact as Supply Chain Issues Continue
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Former grocery store cashier Adam Kaat likens his 18 months on the grocery line to a “fever dream” or “getting hit by wave after wave at high tide.” Kaat witnessed firsthand the devastation — and desperation — stoked by an invisible, deadly force as the pandemic of 2020 unfolded. He shares his unforgettable experiences in the powerful new book, Life on the Grocery Line: A Frontline Experience in a Global Pandemic.
“Everything happened overnight,” Kaat recalls in a recent interview. “All of a sudden, you had people with mounds of groceries. Every conversation was about the virus. Every conversation was political. People became polarized immediately.”
In his book, Kaat takes readers into the eye of the storm, where some of the workforce’s lowest paid employees ride a daily maelstrom of empty shelves, angry customers, uncertainty and paranoia. He describes what it was like to be “the gatekeeper to food,” often joined by a police officer as he monitored the number of shoppers permitted in the store.
He tells his riveting story through the eyes of a character named Daniel, who watches from the frontlines as the frenzied panic caused by COVID surges like a tidal wave across his home state of Colorado. Now, he’s suddenly being called a hero just for showing up at his job, and he isn’t sure how to feel about that.
Daniel sees fear in the eyes of some customers and hostility in others, as he does his best to hold his head high and just keep making it from one shift to the next. And along the way, he learns more than he ever expected to about humanity’s response to fear, observing most prominently the way in which some people look down on the very workers they deem “essential.”
At its core, Life on the Grocery Line is about a test of the human spirit — a 21st century manifestation of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea.
Author Adam Jonathan Kaat worked in a grocery store as a cashier and then as a prepared foods supervisor from January 2020 until May 2021. After college, he bounced around through the corporate world until leaving it all behind in the Fall of 2019 to write his first novel. By January 2020, he had taken a job as a cashier to earn money while preserving mental energy for his creative pursuits. He got much more than he bargained for when COVID hit. He began to blog about his experiences as a frontline worker, and 15,000 Facebook followers later, Life on the Grocery Line was born.
For more information and to read Kaat’s blog, please visit www.lifeonthegroceryline.com; or connect with the author on Instagram (@kaatadam), Facebook (@lifeonthegroceryline) or Twitter (lifeonthegroce1).
Life on the Grocery Line: A Frontline Experience in a Global Pandemic Publisher: Inspired Forever Publishing ISBN-10: 1948903326 ISBN-13: 978-1948903325 Available from Amazon.com
Trish Stevens Carmen James Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
Life on the Grocery Line Reveals What it Was Really Like to be Deemed ‘Essential’
(This press release may be reprinted in part or entirety by any print or broadcast media outlet, or used by any means of social media sharing.)
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Adam Kaat never thought he’d be on the front line of anything as interesting as the unraveling of American society, let alone the dismantling of the global economy. But as a cashier in a high-end grocery store, it was his destiny to witness firsthand the devastation — and desperation — stoked by an invisible, deadly force as the pandemic of 2020 unfolded.
In his powerful new book, Life on the Grocery Line: A Frontline Experience in a Global Pandemic, Kaat takes readers into the eye of the storm, where some of the workforce’s lowest paid employees ride a daily maelstrom of empty shelves, angry customers, uncertainty and paranoia.
“When word began trickling in that the virus had spread to the United States and cases were growing, everything changed. The public and personal perception of what I do to pay the bills went from unnoticed to an essential part of survival overnight,” Kaat writes.
He tells his riveting story through the eyes of a character named Daniel, who watches from the frontlines as the frenzied panic caused by COVID surges like a tidal wave across his home state of Colorado. Now, he’s suddenly being called a hero just for showing up at his job, and he isn’t sure how to feel about that.
Daniel sees fear in the eyes of some customers and hostility in others, as he does his best to hold his head high and just keep making it from one shift to the next. And along the way, he learns more than he ever expected to about humanity’s response to fear, observing most prominently the way in which some people look down on the very workers they deem “essential.”
At its core, Life on the Grocery Line is about a test of the human spirit — a 21st century manifestation of Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and The Sea.
Author Adam Jonathan Kaat worked in a grocery store as a cashier and then as a prepared foods supervisor from January 2020 until May 2021. After college, he bounced around through the corporate world until leaving it all behind in the Fall of 2019 to write his first novel. By January 2020, he had taken a job as a cashier to earn money while preserving mental energy for his creative pursuits. He got much more than he bargained for when COVID hit. He began to blog about his experiences as a frontline worker, and 15,000 Facebook followers later, Life on the Grocery Line was born.
For more information and to read Kaat’s blog, please visit www.lifeonthegroceryline.com; or connect with the author on Instagram (@kaatadam), Facebook (@lifeonthegroceryline) or Twitter (lifeonthegroce1).
Life on the Grocery Line: A Frontline Experience in a Global Pandemic Publisher: Inspired Forever Publishing ISBN-10: 1948903326 ISBN-13: 978-1948903325 Available from Amazon.com
Trish Stevens Beth Foster Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone
The Dog Lady of Mexico Gives Hope to Thousands of Unwanted Animals
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Alison Sawyer Current experienced a calling — a powerful pull that she couldn’t ignore — and gave renewed hope to the starving, unwanted cats and dogs roaming Isla Mujeres and set a profound example for others to follow.
The Dog Lady of Mexico shares Alison’s remarkable journey, which began when she and her husband, Jeff, were soaking up the sun on the Mexican island during a much-anticipated month-long honeymoon. The stray animals roaming freely seemed to be woven into the island culture — just another aspect of the backdrop. Until she took a closer look. First, a tiny, pregnant, toothless cat caught Alison’s attention. Then along came a dog with a litter of 12. The animals were suffering, disease-ridden and without any sources of food or clean water.
Alison’s honeymoon became the catalyst to a lifelong pursuit to save as many neglected cats and dogs as humanly possible. Her first rescue took place in 2001, and before she knew it, she was assisting with the creation of the island’s first spay and neuter clinic.
The Dog Lady of Mexico compellingly and accurately depicts Alison’s story through a character named Rose. Her valiant efforts to help stray dogs and cats eventually grew into the nonprofit Isla Animals, which offers free spays and neuters, low-to-no cost veterinary care, arranges adoptions, and runs owner education to help whittle the number of animals destined for the same bleak existence.
The problems Alison encountered were numerous. There are no veterinarians in many areas, so most of the animals are never vaccinated or treated for parasites. The average dog is thin, mangy, and tick and flea infested. Needless to say, they are not welcome inside the home so even dogs that have owners are subject to the same conditions as street dogs. Since most of the people can’t afford a car, and taxi drivers refuse to pick up passengers with dogs, they have no way to get to a veterinarian … and the cycle just goes on and on.
Readers of The Dog Lady of Mexico will experience a world very different from their own, and will see firsthand the blood, sweat, tears and, yes, even laughter, that accompany such massive rescue efforts. They get to share the journey of Rose, whose life takes an uncharted course into unknown territory, and experience the passion that changed a life forever.
Alison is a recipient of The Doris Day Animal Kindred Spirit Award, and in 2007 she was invited to Mexico City for the first Forum on Small Animal Overpopulation in Mexico. To date, Alison has spayed or neutered more than 20,000 animals and promoted adoptions in Mexico, the United States and Canada. Alison resides with her husband in Boulder, Colorado.
Both Feet on the Ground Shares Profoundly Therapeutic Benefits Of Immersion In The Natural World
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You’re stressed out, tired of looking at the same four walls, drained by the negativity on social media, and exhausted from juggling work with homeschooling and entertaining your kids. No matter your age, location, or financial standing, there is a simple, effective therapy that is abundantly available, and it’s right outside your door.
“Get out and stay out—as often and for as long as you can,” champions Marshall Ulrich in his latest release, Both Feet on the Ground: Reflections from the Outside.
Ulrich, an ultrarunner who has also scaled the Seven Summits and competed in multi-day adventure races, shares stories of his expeditions in such far-flung places as Borneo, Tibet, and South Africa, as well as his lifelong commitment to farming his land in Colorado. Ulrich has climbed Mount Everest, run through the searing heat of the Gobi Desert, and ridden the huge waves off Morocco. But there’s no need to be an extreme athlete to reap the benefits of forming physical connections with the natural world.
Ulrich urges readers to simply unplug, plant their feet firmly in the earth, fill their lungs with clean air, and dream of bold and personally compelling outdoor adventures.
“Your adventures in natural places—even if, for now, it’s just sitting outside or walking around your neighborhood—can put you back in touch with who you are; how resilient, resourceful and hardy you can be,” Ulrich says.
Throughout Both Feet on the Ground, Ulrich shares valuable insights from his endeavors, along with useful findings and recommendations from other experts, all organized around themes of earth, air, fire and water. His hope is that you’ll be inspired to find new ways of engaging with these natural elements yourself to experience the healing powers of the outside world.
Author Marshall Ulrich is an extreme endurance athlete—ultrarunning icon, Seven Summits mountaineer, and adventure racer—who loves sharing his exploits to entertain and help mo-tivate others to reach their goals. He’s raced, led expeditions, or climbed mountains in nearly 30 countries, and visited 30 more, so his stories are about more than just physical accom-plishments. Cutting his teeth running across Death Valley, he’s also climbed Mount Everest, run in the jungles of Fiji, and completed a record-setting run across America. Dubbed the Endurance King, he defies the ideas of “too far,” “too old” and “not possible.” Revered among athletes, Marshall is also the author of Running on Empty. An acclaimed speaker, he’s lec-tured on various elite cruise lines, and given talks at businesses, schools, race expos, and professional conferences, including the Royal Geographic Society, Morgan Stanley, and Wilderness Medicine.
Both Feet on the Ground: Reflections from the Outside Publisher: DNA Books Released: 2019 ISBN: 978-1-950349-02-9 hardcover ISBN: 978-1-950349-04-3 paperback Available from Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com and other online retailers
Trish Stevens Anna Lee Simpson Ascot Media Group, Inc. Post Office Box 2394 Friendswood, TX 77549 [email protected] www.ascotmedia.com 281.333.3507 Phone 800.854.2207 Fax
