S03.E19: Lottery

[fishcakes]

Quote

As lottery mania sweeps the store, Dina incentivizes the employees to sell as many tickets as possible. Meanwhile, Jonah helps Amy track down the new district manager to lobby for a raise.

[vibeology]

Amy and Jonah! They're just so great together. And the entire last scene was so beautifully shot. The show is clearly going there immediately and I am actually looking forward to it. 

The other plots didn't do much for me. The budgeting meeting was depressing real. They could have just had a whole episode on that. I did like that thematically everything came back to poverty. 

[belladonna77]

Well, now they had to make me feel sorry for Kelly, but not sorry enough to not wonder if she has any blouses that aren't cold shoulder tops. 

 

Is it weird that I was hoping Myrtle would win the lottery? I had a hope she would or Glen would hire her back. I'm also glad the show addresses that people who work at places like Walmart are often the working poor. 

Edited April 13, 2018 by belladonna77

[applecrisp]

So who bought the squatty potty?? I did.

[Snapdragon]

2 hours ago, applecrisp said:

So who bought the squatty potty?? I did.

Squatty potties are amazing!  We have one and besides its intended use, it also works as a step stool for the kids!

[AnimeMania]

3 hours ago, applecrisp said:

So who bought the squatty potty?? I did.

I couldn't, I spent all my money on "Party Pods". Taste the rainbow that doesn't fade, even after 26 washes! Now in Wintergreen!

[Trillium]

10 hours ago, vibeology said:

And the entire last scene was so beautifully shot.

Apparently Ben Feldman directed this episode himself. It was a gorgeous location. I’m glad though they didn’t have cliche kiss while he was helping her golf. 

I want Kelly to initiate the breakup instead, give her some dignity before her inevitable departure. 

I had a job once where we pooled our money to buy lottery tickets. I was the Debbie downer that would point out that we’d only get like $1 million each after taxes. Which when I was 27 wouldn’t be enough for me to retire on. Apparently I was the Sandra of that group. 

[tominboston]

Aww, poor Kelly. The Amy/Jonah scene at the end was sweet and they're obviously meant for each other, but Jonah was a total jerk for blowing off the special date he had arranged with Kelly without even calling her. She really needs to ditch him.

Nice to see Myrtle again, cheerful as always. I love her and I was afraid that the character had been written out of the show.

[curlygirl]

Jonah didn’t even actively blow her off. He just completely forgot about her, which is even worse to me and goes back to his lottery fantasy where he also completely forgot about her. I think she should probably dump him.

[fishcakes]

14 hours ago, vibeology said:

The other plots didn't do much for me. The budgeting meeting was depressing real.

That was based on McDonald's attempt a few years back to help [cough] their employees develop a budget that would allow them to live on their wages, so long as they had a second job and didn't eat or care about freezing to death. Here's the actual sample budget McDonald's put up on the now-defunct website (courtesy of ThinkProgress):

"See, if you just eat the leftover fries out of the garbage cans at work, you'll have $800 left over every month that you can spend on anything you want! You won't even need a third job!"

 

12 hours ago, applecrisp said:

So who bought the squatty potty?? I did.

10 hours ago, Snapdragon said:

Squatty potties are amazing!  We have one and besides its intended use, it also works as a step stool for the kids!

I thought that was just the Cloud 9 shoppers being weird and using kid's potty chairs, but seeing the comments in this thread made me Google it, and now I think I might get one for a relative who spends about 50% of her time wishing she could go. I had suggested squatting to her, but she's elderly and not strong enough to do that for long, so this might work for her. I need to find a place to buy it in-store though since if I order it from Amazon, they'll send me toilet-related emails every day for the next two years and I don't think I can stand that.

 

3 hours ago, Trillium said:

Apparently Ben Feldman directed this episode himself. It was a gorgeous location. I’m glad though they didn’t have cliche kiss while he was helping her golf. 

I liked how he started to ask if he could put his arms around her to show her how to swing the club and she was like, "just do it. Talking about it makes it weird." I think these two would make a good couple mostly because they're friends who are themselves with each other; they wouldn't have that period of pretending to be a better boyfriend/girlfriend than they really are that always kicks off a new relationship -- and which Jonah seems to be stuck in with Kelly, although I think Kelly's already over that phase. OTOH, if Amy and Jonah don't get together, I'd be okay with that too, since platonic friendships are something TV shows don't do enough of.

 

Quote

I had a job once where we pooled our money to buy lottery tickets. I was the Debbie downer that would point out that we’d only get like $1 million each after taxes. Which when I was 27 wouldn’t be enough for me to retire on. Apparently I was the Sandra of that group. 

Ha. I'm kind of a Sandra too. I won't buy a Lotto ticket if the jackpot is less than $3 million, which is so stupid because I never hit more than two numbers anyway. I might as well take my dollar and throw it in the street.

Edited April 13, 2018 by fishcakes

[AnimeMania]

4 hours ago, Trillium said:

I had a job once where we pooled our money to buy lottery tickets. I was the Debbie downer that would point out that we’d only get like $1 million each after taxes. Which when I was 27 wouldn’t be enough for me to retire on. Apparently I was the Sandra of that group. 

I thought it showed that Sandra had a gift for math and numbers that she is not taking advantage of.

[VartanFan]

11 hours ago, Snapdragon said:

Squatty potties are amazing!  We have one and besides its intended use, it also works as a step stool for the kids!

I find that I’ve done the reverse.  I don’t need some overpriced poop device when I can just prop my feet up on the kids’ step stool (realized adding the ‘step’ to ‘step stool’ is pretty necessary when discussing a Squatty Potty).  

 

I agree that the final golf scene was great...and that McDonald’s budget is hilarious.  Heat....$0??!!  Health insurance - - $20 per month?!  What are they smoking?  Maybe this is the budget once they incorporate the amount of public benefits their employees will need to receive in order to survive.  

[tennisgurl]

I actually felt bad for Kelly at the end. Its clear that Jonah and Amy are meant to be, and Kelly is just a roadblock. I hope she can at least dump him and leave with some dignity. Its not even that Jonah meant to ditch her, he full on keeps forgetting her! Not a great sign for a relationship. And I am increasingly into Jonah/Amy, I can see how they could be a good couple. 

The budget meeting and Myrtle selling cans was just so depressing. I did like them getting into the depressingly realistic reality of a lot of employees at places like this, who are often the working poor, while still making jokes. Totally makes sense that its based on a real thing. Brutal. "Are we just supposed to not get sick?" "I eat two week old unfrozen lobster, I`m gonna get sick!"

Amy running over the corporate lady with the gold cart was pretty classic. As was Jonah (and the paramedic!) telling Amy that now was not the time to ask for a raise.  

Edited April 13, 2018 by tennisgurl

[iMonrey]

I had fully convinced myself that Myrtle would win the lottery.

And now I kind of dislike Jonah. He went to the trouble of making this reservation (what was it again? some kind of Irish-Italian place?) then clean forgot about it. Kelly needs to dump his ass. It wasn't really bugging me that he wasn't including her in his lottery fantasies - those are just things people think up off the top of their heads, and have probably always had a "lottery plan" in the back of their minds, so Jonah's probably precluded any girlfriend anyway. But to just forget the reservation? Rude.

I also find it horribly cliche when we see someone's phone buzzing in the near distance while the person goes about oblivious to it. People do not just ignore their phones that way. "Oh I was off doing such-and-such and missed the 42 messages you left me." That doesn't happen.

[Commando Cody]

The MacDonald's plan was the first thing I thought of when they were doing the budgeting meeting. I remember how crazy it was that they were basing it on having two jobs. 

 

3 hours ago, fishcakes said:

That was based on McDonald's attempt a few years back to help [cough] their employees develop a budget that would allow them to live on their wages, so long as they had a second job and didn't eat or care about freezing to death. Here's the actual sample budget McDonald's put up on the now-defunct website (courtesy of ThinkProgress):

[applecrisp]

2 hours ago, Commando Cody said:

The MacDonald's plan was the first thing I thought of when they were doing the budgeting meeting. I remember how crazy it was that they were basing it on having two jobs. 

 

Two really crappy jobs.

[janie jones]

On 4/12/2018 at 6:35 PM, belladonna77 said:

Well, now they had to make me feel sorry for Kelly, but not sorry enough to not wonder if she has any blouses that aren't cold shoulder tops.

Oh God, I wonder the same thing.

[scowl]

21 hours ago, Commando Cody said:

The MacDonald's plan was the first thing I thought of when they were doing the budgeting meeting. I remember how crazy it was that they were basing it on having two jobs. 

But sign me up for the $20 a month healthcare plan! 

[Commando Cody]

20 minutes ago, scowl said:

But sign me up for the $20 a month healthcare plan! 

They also budgeted for cable, but not heat. I wonder which is more important. TV or warmth. Unless they are banking on public assistance for heat. When Glenn turned the page and discovered public assistance for food, that was pretty much a real thing. Walmart was in the news for that. They were requesting that some of their employees buy some of Walmart's products and donate it to employees who couldn't afford to eat over the holiday season. 

[Nessie]

On 4/13/2018 at 12:38 PM, iMonrey said:

I also find it horribly cliche when we see someone's phone buzzing in the near distance while the person goes about oblivious to it. People do not just ignore their phones that way. "Oh I was off doing such-and-such and missed the 42 messages you left me." That doesn't happen.

That actually does happen to me quite a lot, and when it's one of my sons leaving the messages, they yell at me about being close to calling the police! LOL  But then again, I am not of the generation who always has my phone in my hand or next to me.  When I am with someone, that person is more important to me than my phone, or even who is at the other end (unless I am expecting a VERY important call, and then I warn the other person in advance).  My oldest doesn't understand how I can leave my phone in the living room and be in the kitchen cooking dinner for an hour and not even miss it, nor does he understand how I don't need to have it in the bathroom with me when I take a shower.  Even at 27, he struggles with not having it at the dinner table when he's at my house.  I find it unreal how afraid people are these days of someone not being able to reach them for 30 minutes or so, let alone a couple of hours.

'To bring this back around to the show, I think (I hope) that the writers were showing that Amy is obviously more important to Jonah than anyone else in his life right now, not just Kelly.  It may be cliched, but it's effective.

[janie jones]

I thought it looked like Jonah's phone was far enough away that he didn't hear it vibrating, especially over their talking, not that he was ignoring it.

Edited April 14, 2018 by janie jones

[possibilities]

I won't spend time with anyone who constantly interrupts what we're doing to check their phone. So I found it very credible that Jonah wasn't looking at his phone while golfing and spending time with someone he's in love with.

It psucks for Kelly, though. I kind of like her, so I hope she gets a happy outcome once she dumps Jonah. Maybe she and her next relationship can involve wild and crazy sexcapades and a romantic adventure somewhere awesome. I'd like to see her become more than a plot device to slow down the Amy-Jonah train.

[Court]

I'm a Amy and Jonah fan and I love that last scene. They are comfortable with each other and it shows. Kelly and him seem forced.

BUT,  I would have rather seen Jonah shooting a quick text to Kelly cancelling rather than him outright forgetting her. I know both aren't great options but still. 

[Fostersmom]

On 4/13/2018 at 11:02 AM, fishcakes said:

I thought that was just the Cloud 9 shoppers being weird and using kid's potty chairs, but seeing the comments in this thread made me Google it, and now I think I might get one for a relative who spends about 50% of her time wishing she could go. I had suggested squatting to her, but she's elderly and not strong enough to do that for long, so this might work for her. I need to find a place to buy it in-store though since if I order it from Amazon, they'll send me toilet-related emails every day for the next two years and I don't think I can stand that.

 

I have to buy weird things for work on Amazon. Tiny fuses, 12 inch round saw blades, and most recently, seats that you attach to the wall in a shower stall that has legs that fold out of the bottom. I don't get weird emails from them, but you should see the truly bizarre ads that pop up on webpages that I visit using my work computer. I'm pretty sure I'm on some sort of serial killer/potential kidnapper watch list though! LOL! 

I was glad to see Cheyenne back with Mateo. The budget issue should have a perfect way of her talking about her job at Target though. It's like the writers forgot they used it as a plot line.

[romantic idiot]

17 hours ago, Court said:

I'm a Amy and Jonah fan and I love that last scene. They are comfortable with each other and it shows. Kelly and him seem forced.

BUT,  I would have rather seen Jonah shooting a quick text to Kelly cancelling rather than him outright forgetting her. I know both aren't great options but still. 

I actually think forgetting her is more in character. I don't think Jonah could dancel a date in a text - if he remembered he would have been there.

[AnimeMania]

On 4/14/2018 at 1:06 PM, Commando Cody said:

They also budgeted for cable, but not heat. I wonder which is more important. TV or warmth.

I wasn't to worried about the heat because the heat (if not from gas) would be covered by or can be supplemented by the electric bill. That particular electric payment was pretty high, even by today's standards.

[EarlGreyTea]

On 4/14/2018 at 6:24 PM, possibilities said:

It psucks for Kelly, though. I kind of like her, so I hope she gets a happy outcome once she dumps Jonah. Maybe she and her next relationship can involve wild and crazy sexcapades and a romantic adventure somewhere awesome. I'd like to see her become more than a plot device to slow down the Amy-Jonah train.

Agreed. Kelly kind of rankled at first, but she's grown in a solidly likeable character. Maybe a bit one-note, but it's to be expected for a new, recurring character. She's pretty sweet, and I really like that they haven't made her a villain simply to push Jonah/Amy. I really hope they continue with that. I'm still salty with how they turned Karen on The Office into a bitch towards the end of her tenure on the show. It was totally unnecessary. I hope they keep Kelly around, too. Karen went packing the second Jim and Pam got together.

[Boofish]

I played the lottery with a group at work once. I discovered the lady buying our tickets bought a set of identical tickets for herself so not only would she get a part of what we won but she would have gotten 50% of the initial pot had the only winning numbers been on those two tickets. Hella shady

[ClareWalks]

4 hours ago, Boofish said:

I played the lottery with a group at work once. I discovered the lady buying our tickets bought a set of identical tickets for herself so not only would she get a part of what we won but she would have gotten 50% of the initial pot had the only winning numbers been on those two tickets. Hella shady

What a loon. That is a waste of money. She would be guaranteed to have to split the pot and would have been "discovered" immediately.

[Boofish]

35 minutes ago, ClareWalks said:

What a loon. That is a waste of money. She would be guaranteed to have to split the pot and would have been "discovered" immediately.

100% loon. However

1. It would have been too late

2. It's not illegal

Unless it's my (soon to be) husband, daughter or 2 of my 6 sisters (no other family members) I don't do "group lottery."