"The case lost just lost power," said a Vonsman, shrugging. "This morning, it was a mess."

Vons assistant manager Mike Menendez was fully aware of the scope of the crisis.

"This is going to be bad for bachelors," he said.

Another Vons employee pointed toward the produce and said,

"You could always buy your own vegetables and cut them up yourself."

Personally, I haven't done that since, umm, well, it's possible that I haven't done that for some years.

Let's face it, bagged salads are the signature invention of the early 2000s, and to avoid them would be thoughtless. No thoughtful person would want to stand in the way of the arduous march of history and technology. It's like elevators. Take them! It took a lot of smart people a long time to figure out how to go up without having to actually climb.

It maybe wouldn't have been so bad except that there's not another store in town that people can raid for a bagged salad.

Bummer.