Saturday, March 23, 2019

Dis 'N Dat

I love looking at others' shopping carts. Not the big piled up ones, mind you, no, the smaller, tidy ones that look like they cater to a single household like my own as we all line up obediently in the 15 items or less aisle, ready to glare at anyone over the 15 limit who joins us. We're never at the self-checkout as we all agree that we will save the jobs of those who check us out. True or not, we believe it. (You'll note I've already made us a club unto ourselves).

The woman ahead of me yesterday was an elder runner (ER), you know the type, stringy, silver crop cut, spandexed in discreet stripes, layered for all seasons, expensive running shoes, headband for show. (Great quote from the guy behind me chatting on his mobile: The very worst thing about running 5k is the endless compulsion to talk about it ad nauseum.)

ER Cart: Good yogurt (Chatting, I told her it was easy to make your own at 1/10 the price), a bunch of daffodils, a small package of basmati rice, 8 large scallops, a mini-tray of stir fry veg, a small bottle of expensive pomegranate juice, muesli mix, a small mixed fruit tray, a gigantic bag of potato chips, a dark chocolate bar, small tub of spumoni icecream.

Mine:Yellow begonias in a yellow pot (a gift for mein hostess) a cooked ham (ditto), 2 dozen eggs, fruit tray, a ham and cheese sandwich, a humongous bottle of diet fizzy lemonade (I know, I know, I swore off the stuff and I'm back on it like a doorway drunk) a jar of marmalade for Daughter, croissants (see doorway drunk above), cheese, smoked salmon.

Guess who's NOT running.

I let the guy behind me go ahead as he only had a frozen pizza, medium, he was pudgy so I figured it was a solitary, lonely eat. He surgically removed his cell phone briefly to thank me.

The checkout woman/girl is one I like. Her name is Sammi-Jo with a hyphen and her hair is down to her waist, tied back. She looks like a born again, I keep waiting for her to evangelize and baptize the bunch of us 15 or lessers. She's consistently cheerful and totally pleasant and maybe it's just me but I always hope think that people like her will have an unexpected catastrophic public meltdown and cross over to the dark side. Even for a day.

22 comments:

  1. I laughed out loud at this post. I love people observing and in line at a grocery store, well, that is made for my personality. I am going back to making my own yogurt. I quit many years ago when we got rid of our goats but I miss my own. Thnx for reminding me to get started again.

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    1. I love working them out too, their inners, but we keep the conversation superficial most of the time. Yes home made yogurt is great.

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  2. Her daughter and grandchildren are coming to visit hence the big bag of potato chips and the chocolate bar and the bunch of daffodils, the rest is for the little party they are throwing for her birthday.
    You both will enjoy your purchases in different ways.

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  3. You're a woman after my own heart, Gemma. I love how you extrapolated. I figured her non-athletic GFs were coming to call but I like your version better.

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  4. Upon the rare occasion when I eyeball the items on the checkout counter in front of my own stuff, I'm surprised to see there aren't many fresh vegetables or much fruit. But lots of microwave or frozen stuff for the oven, and oodles of junk food and pop. It's no wonder we're not so healthy around here! -Kate

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    1. It's everywhere Kate, when I love Round the Bay our local had to stop carrying fresh veggies and fruit, no one was buying them. Just the easy processed stuff.

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  5. My grocery store is a forties corner fruit market, grown into a one of a kind market with aisles not wide enough for two carts to pass. Laura does the grocery part and I nail the bunch of flowers and the chocolate bar. I wait for Laura's return at the head of an unused aisle. I almost must beat off the shoppers who will not take no for an answer, who insist: you go ahead.No thank you, I'm waiting. I just saw in typing that what is wrong with my response. Shopping is so difficult. Sigh.

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  6. I had one of those in TO and loved it, right around the corner, veggies just harvested. I don't find it too difficult as I have the cart to lean on but some days are worse than others so I hear ya.

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  7. I find it interesting that you chatted to the woman about making her own yoghurt, but bought for yourself a ready made ham and cheese sandwich. Isn't it cheaper to make your own? anyway, I'm a cart-looker too, always curious about what others are buying. I prefer to use the self checkouts a lot of the time, because I know I can zip through quickly and don't have to make conversation with a checkout girl if I'm not in a mood for talking.

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    1. I do that crazy sandwich thing when I've been invited to a late dinner party. You know arrive at 6.30 and dinner doesn't get presented till 8. So sandwich it is so I don't get cranky.
      Yeah if I'm not in the mood for talking I make it clear monosyllabically. LOL

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    1. Thanks Ernestine, I am so happy you're visiting blogs again!

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  9. Hah ... I remember the looks I used to get when I shopped for my poker group which would come to my house once every 6 or 8 months. I'll roll up to the checkout with three cases of beer, two 12-packs of soda, couple of large bags of potato chips and tortilla chips, jar of salsa and jar of cheese whiz, and a pack of cheap cigars. I'm sure some of those people thought I'd be headed to the cemetery by the end of the day. Eventually we banned smoking at poker, cut way back on the beer, and lo and behold, we're all still alive!

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    1. I'm so glad you all set yourselves to rights before disaster struck! Your cart in those days would have caused to me to stage an intervention, LOL

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    2. Salsa and cheese whiz, never thought of that! I used to love cheese whiz as a kid... These days I drink non-alcoholic beer, found a brand that tastes almost like the real thing and doesn't disturb my sleep or cause me to drive drunk! I'll pass on the cigars though...

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  10. What a great day of looking at grocery carts at the checkout. Haha.

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    1. We need some entertainment in the grocery checkout line, Gigi!!

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  11. Happy to know I'm not alone in studying other peoples' shopping baskets. Hehe to your thoughts about the checkout woman. I hope she'll stay mild and smiling forever. Then you'll have to be the one blowing up ;) (My crazy imagination running off with me - sorry).

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    1. Born agains really intrigue me, the constant niceness which seems invented somehow. Now she may be an artist in a garret supplementing her income for all I know but somehow......

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  12. I confess to using the auto checkout. But mostly I shop locally at places I can walk to, and none of them have auto checkout. When I have to go further afield I plan a day of 'big box' shopping in the next town over and it is so unpleasant that I just want to be in'n'out, so I auto checkout. Even the people-watching aspect of line-ups just doesn't appeal in a big box shop. At my local grocery store I usually know the cashier and half the people in the line-up. There's almost always some kind of chatting to be had there.

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    1. I agree on Big Box shopping. I like the local places and even the local Walmart has a guy I love checking people out (he has a running commentary going which is interesting and not irritating) and a friend of 75 supplementing her income greeting at the door so it feels a bit old homey but dear gawd the size of the place, even looking at it before I go in exhausts me.
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  13. Oh, this is hilarious! I can picture the whole scene and your descriptions are fantastic. My next trip to the grocery I will view totally differently — see if I can write something like that.

    Born agains remind me of the midlife-age spouse of a recovering brain injured patient I was providing speech-language-cognitive therapy. I walked out of the facility one afternoon to discover her placing her hand on foreheads one-by-one of wheelchair bound patients as she performed some sort of healing ceremony. Apparently she had fancied herself with special power though I never saw a functional change in any of those people. I had recently finally been able to get her husband speaking in our private two-some sessions once I could begin to help him make sense of his world. Perhaps she thought she had been responsible when really she had been contributing to making him uninclined to speak. More fun!

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