The Five People I Meet at Wegmans
One of Caroline's assigned summer reading books is "The Five People You Meet in Heaven," by Mitch Albom. I'm not ready to get into a theological discussion in this forum, but the title of the book did get me thinking about this:
The Five People I Meet at Wegmans
1. The Sample Abuser: Starts with four to five "tastes" of gelato at the coffee counter, then stops by enough sample stations in the rest of the store to consume 800 calories without dropping a dime.
2. The Line Reservist: Leaves her cart right next to the belt at the checkout, then remembers 12 other things she meant to buy. Instead of admitting a temporary setback, she leaves her cart there to save her place in line, leaving the rest of us to queue behind a cart with no human operator.
3. The Express Line Flouter: He pays no mind to the "12 or fewer items" sign, or the "12 items or less" sign, for that matter. (We won't do the grammar gotcha.) Even if he has 54 items to buy, he considers himself entitled to use whatever checkout line is convenient; the rules be darned!
4. The Loud Talker: Can be a mom or a dad, but it's the parent pushing the kid in the top seat of the cart and narrating their trip through the aisles. "Look, Sasha, mommy is buying apple sauce for you. Only the free-trade, organic, nut- and gluten-free variety, of course." The words are said loudly enough to be heard back in the dairy-frozen aisles.
5. The Aisle Obstructor: Yes, members of my own family do this. It's the folks who absent-mindedly leave their carts spread out over the whole aisle while they stop to pick out an item, making passage for other customers all but impossible. Even worse, when they leave their cart blocking an aisle while they have a chat with the friend they just ran into. I can't say for sure that women do this more than men, but to me it's a violation of the Man Code. Men are not in the grocery store to socialize; we're there to convert our family shopping lists into tangible results, then to pay and get out. Or maybe that's just me.
---Greg
