The Grocery Store

There are certain things in my life that are constants. Work, music, sports, art, and picking the wrong line at the grocery store. There is no way around it, so I've just come to accept it.

I'm sure it happens to everybody at one time or another but it seriously happens to me EVERY time. There could be 5 open lines, 4 that are 10 people deep and one express lane that has only one person it. Naturally, I'll pick the express lane but without fail, that one person will be a complete imbecile and it will take 5 minutes or more for them to buy 3 items.... either because they insist the shelf said the item was cheaper and thus will send a clerk on a wild goose hunt to find said item, or they have coupons for every item they have and have to dig through their purse to find them, or they are writing a check for their $5.00 purchase. Seriously. Who the fuck writes checks anymore? I'll tell you who... old people and crazy people who "don't trust" credit cards or check cards. I feel like my head is going to explode when this happens and it happens EVERY TIME. I digress.

The latest instance of this happened last week at Nichols, a little locally owned grocery store in the village of Liverpool just outside of Syracuse. I had gone there to buy 6 gallons of cider for the cafe (at $2.99 a piece there, it's a complete steal). Easy enough right? Walk in, go to the cider, pick up a case, walk to the cashier, pay and walk out. Everything was going great up to the pay part. There were 4 lines, 3 of which were mostly full and one that just had one couple in it. After seeing the couple and realizing they were elderly (early to mid 70's I would guess), I hesitated. Old people take FOREVER to do anything. But I decided to take a chance after seeing they were only buying 5 cans of soup (which apparently necessitated them to place said 5 cans into a full size shopping cart). I should have known. I get burned every time.

The cashier, who looked 17 at the oldest, rang up the items. $10.36 was the total. The elderly gentleman handed the girl a $10.00 and waited for change, but seeing as how he owed her 36 more cents, change wasn't coming. She politely explained that he needed 36 more cents to complete the sale. After searching all of his pockets (in both his pants and his jacket), he asked his wife who had moved to the end of the lane ahead of the cart what was going on. She explained that the girl needed 36 more cents. After a minute, she searched through her purse and produced the change and gave it to her husband who gave it to the girl. The sale was done and she handed him the receipt. Great. That took a little longer than it should have, but whatever. It's done and over with. Or is it?

The elderly gentleman just stood there. Apparently he was waiting for his change still because he asked "Where's my 5 dollars?". The cashier explained to him that he didn't have any change coming back as he gave her exact change. He then tells the cashier that "the paper" said the soup was 5 for $5.00 and he has $5.00 coming back to him. His wife then looks around worriedly for someone to help them out. The first person she finds is a young man in the line next to them who is bagging groceries. He stopped what he was doing and came over to find out what was going on.

At this point, I normally would have been ready to explode. The steam would have been visibly steaming from my ears on a usual day, but this day was different. I looked at this elderly, clearly confused couple out of their element and felt something I usually do not let enter my stream of consciousness for other human beings... empathy. I know that sounds pretty harsh, but I struggle to feel compassion for people who bring hardship upon themselves and most people in general.

In this couple, I saw my parents. Approximately the same age and dressed in a similar old person modest fashion, I imagined this very scenario had been instigated by them on any number of occasions when they went to the grocery store. They were concerned over 5 dollars and it clearly meant A LOT to them. They were only buying those 5 cans of soup and obviously came to this store at this time because they thought they were on sale. This also reminded me of my father and how he used to budget my parents meager income down to the last penny in order to make ends meet. While their reason for their frugality was unknown, it could be assumed they subsisted on a limited income as most senior citizens do. The young cashier was beginning to squirm and was definitely feeling the pressure to wait on me as soon as possible. She looked at me as if to say "I'm sorry, I'm really trying to get to you, but I'm kind of stuck here." I smiled at her warmly and just nodded my head to let her know that I was alright and to take her time with the elderly couple.

The young man explained to the couple that according to the sales flier, only certain kinds of soup were on sale and the 5 they selected were still at full price. The elderly gentleman, still confused and bewildered, was now being urged by his every increasingly, nervous wife, to hurry up and move along. The young man explained that they would have to go the customer service desk at the front of the store to get a refund. Eventually, they shuffled down the line and the young man accompanied them to the service desk. The young cashier finally got to ring me out and apologized for making me wait so long. I assured her it was no trouble at all and that she did a good job in handling the situation.

I guess the moral of the story is that I suck at picking the fastest grocery store line and sometimes, it won't kill me to just sit and wait. For every nimrod that pisses me off with their shitty driving, complete lack of social skills or overall awareness about how life works, that person is most likely someones mother or father, grandmother or grandfather, or other loved one that deserves empathy and respect. I'm working on it and encounters like this remind me to slow down and take a deep breath sometimes.

Now... finding a parking space at the grocery store, that's a whole nother story. ;)