Grocery

Saturday night, I made a late night run to the grocery store. I had invited myself to dinner with Somebody's Parents on Sunday, and it was my one job to bring mushrooms. A touch after 11 pm, I decided I'd better get them.

Macey's is an interesting place late at night. I was in a hurry to get my groceries and get home. Many other people there were delighted to just mosey around, talking in hushed tones, looking at others in a paranoid fashion.

At about 11:30, the store turned off half of the lights. One can only assume this is to discourage people from staying, but I wondered if it might start to encourage other behaviors.

The checkout lines were SUPER long. I was resigned to a long wait, but then another lane opened up. It was like Christmas morning. I was second in that line, and the man before me had only a few items. The first item of mine that the checker scanned did not come up. She asked the bagger to run and check the price. After asking me where I had picked up the item, he was off, running to the appropriate aisle.

The checker finished scanning my items, and then we sat in uncomfortable silence as we waited for the bagger to return. The shoppers behind me did not attempt to hide their irritation, but I was not deterred--it was not my fault, and I really wanted that item. (Little multi-grain snack cakes--SO GOOD! But I digress...)

Suddenly, the bagger was running back toward us with my item still in-hand. He stopped next to the checker:

Bagger: "Okay, I found it. Now, what did you want?"
Checker: "The price. How much is it?"
Bagger: "Oh, okay."

And with that, he was off running again, headed back to look at the price.

The checker and I both started laughing, and she told me that he was very new.

After he returned, he proceded to tell her that he had gotten to the right place the first time, but couldn't remember why he was there, and then had had to return to ask her.

I laughed about it all night, wondering what other reasons he could've thought that she wanted him to run and look at that item on the shelf.