Having to go to the grocery store sometimes 3 times a week has turned me into a pretty opinionated shopper. I suppose that's true of anything people do often - if you're having to do it three times a week, you are going to have your likes, dislikes, and pet peeves.
For instance, why is it that sometimes when I go to the grocery store, there seem to be scads of people moving sloooooooooowly through the aisles, looking around like they've never been in a grocery story before? I mean, perhaps they haven't been in that particular store before, but some days it just seems like everyone in the store is there for sight-seeing purposes, and not to actually accomplish anything. Describing this to my husband one day, he suggested that perhaps there need to be "lanes" in the store, with the aisles wide enough for a slow lane down the middle, and the fast lanes right up close to the shelves on the right and left. That way people who weren't sure of what they were buying, or where things are, could go down the middle as slowly as they wanted!
And then there's this situation: You're going through the store shopping, and halfway through your regular 'route' (i.e. the path you almost always follow at the store you frequent most - produce, candy aisle for Hershe.y kisses, beverages, and so on, up and down each aisle) you run into someone you know. Now, you're both about halfway through the store moving right to left, and inevitably you know you will meet up with this person one or two aisles over. You've done the initial hello-ing and chatting a bit...and then you both continue with shopping. Now assuming you're both on the same 'route' more or less, what do you do the next time you run into this person? Say hello again? Make a joke about "fancy meeting you here" or "so nice to see you again" or "wow, it's been a while" (which works the first time, but after that it gets old quick)? Avoid making eye contact completely, which still feels odd since you just had a chat in the soup cans 3 aisles back? Or, do you completely reverse your route, and instead of going down the pasta aisle, you go directly to the far left side of the store to get Klee.nex, hoping that will shake up the pattern?
Such a quandary. I for one am generally thankful when I can get through my shopping without having to deal with this dilemma!
Another question: why is it that ground meat is never packaged in exactly a one-pound quantity? It's always 1.25 lbs, or 1.34 lbs......when so often, whatever recipe I'm following (although this happens even with H.amburger H.elper) only calls for 1 pound. Maybe because the meat always cooks down when it's actually used? Any grocery store butchers out there with an answer to this?
And does anyone else...well, other women, I guess...sometimes avoid going to the checkout lines with the teenage boys as cashiers, because somehow it is embarassing to have him run your pads through the scanner?
And why is it that the coupons that get printed out at the register, and handed to you with your receipt, are never for stuff you actually use/just bought???
See, can't you tell I spend FAR too much time at the grocery story? :-)
JB
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