# The Stupidest Thing I Overheard Today: The Grocery Store Edition
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [June 2, 2007, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520 "2007-06-02T22:06:39Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ladyfoxfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladyfoxfyre)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2007, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520/1 "2007-06-02T22:06:39Z")
The scene is this:
I am standing at the seafood counter at Publix, a local grocery store chain. I approach the counter roughly the same time as an older woman, and being generous I motion to the clerk behind the counter to assist her first.
She is eyeing the king crab legs, which are on sale on this particular day, for $6.99 a pound, or something like that. She says to him, “How many legs do you get for a pound?”
“Roughly 4 or 5, depending on size,” he replies.
Then comes the kicker.
“Do you subtract the weight of the shell?”
“No, ma’am, we don’t.”
She begins to get upset. Huffy even. Incredulous, she retorts, “Well, don’t you think that’s a little bit _unfair_? I mean, you’re paying about an 8th of a pound right there just for the shell. I think that’s ridiculous!”
I honestly didn’t know what to say. I looked at him. Looked back at her. Back to him, begging him to say something. Back to her. I finally said, aloud, “Are you freaking kidding me?!?”
She bought the crab legs anyway. I was tempted to ask the guy behind the counter if he subtracted the weight of the skin on my salmon when he weighed it, but I thought against it.
But jesus christ. :smack:
-foxy
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### Author:  [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2007, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520/2 "2007-06-02T22:09:50Z")
You could have told her that shell-less King Crabs are exceedingly rare, and therefore prohibitively expensive.
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### Author:  [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2007, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520/3 "2007-06-02T22:27:23Z")
The proper answer, in that situation, “They are $35.99 per pound without the shell, ma’am, but $6.99 shell on”. It’s a ludicrous statement, but would have shut her up most likely.
I wonder if she takes her in the shell peanuts up and complains about the shell weight?
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### Author:  [@ladyfoxfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladyfoxfyre)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2007, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520/4 "2007-06-02T22:31:44Z")
She also had difficulty determining which of the shrimp were already cooked: the bright pink ones, with the sign that said “ready-to-eat”, or the grey ones with the sign indicating “raw shrimp”. I wonder if she complained about the package weight of everything that was priced that way.
-foxy
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2007, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520/5 "2007-06-02T22:45:52Z")
You should have asked her if she expects them to subtract the weight of the bones when she buys a chicken.
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### Author:  [@Zabali\_Clawbane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zabali_Clawbane)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2007, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520/6 "2007-06-02T22:50:39Z")
[QUOTE=Colibri]
You should have asked her if she expects them to subtract the weight of the bones when she buys a chicken.
[/QUOTE]
Or the bone on a ham hock.
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### Author:  [@Scarlett67](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scarlett67)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2007, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520/7 "2007-06-02T22:55:03Z")
Aren’t crab shells good for making seafood broth? It’s not like they’re toxic waste – they’re good for _something._
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### Author:  [@ladyfoxfyre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ladyfoxfyre)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2007, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520/8 "2007-06-02T22:59:51Z")
[QUOTE=Scarlett67]
Aren’t crab shells good for making seafood broth? It’s not like they’re toxic waste – they’re good for _something._
[/QUOTE]
Probably, but this broad didn’t appear to have the capacity to be that resourceful.
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### Author:  [@Tripler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tripler)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2007, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520/9 "2007-06-02T23:33:18Z")
I’m going to nominate myself on this one. . . only because it’s worth intelligent mention.
My fiancee and I were in a Toys 'R Us one night, buying some Easter presents, when I flashed a couple of $10 bills and said, “Yeah babe, sometimes you gotta drop a Hamilton!”
::she gives me a quizzical look::
I say, “Yeah, ‘a Hamilton’. You know, the guy that shot Raymond Burr!”
:smack:
Tripler
Granted, I meant well . . .
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### Author:  [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)
#### Post date: [June 2, 2007, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520/10 "2007-06-02T23:35:33Z")
[QUOTE=ladyfoxfyre]
She also had difficulty determining which of the shrimp were already cooked: the bright pink ones, with the sign that said “ready-to-eat”, or the grey ones with the sign indicating “raw shrimp”. I wonder if she complained about the package weight of everything that was priced that way.
-foxy
[/QUOTE]
I bought two pounds of the bright pink on-sale cooked shrimp at a Publix today; we ate shrimp all afternoon while drinking a bottle of Chateau St. Michelle Chardonay. Later, about an hour ago, we had two steaks from Publix and a bottle of Chateau St. Michelle Cabernet Sauvignon. Marcie has already crashed and I’m just about to.
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### Author:  [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2007, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520/11 "2007-06-03T01:27:32Z")
Honestly, how can anyone argue “If there were such a thing as time travel, we’d see visitors from the future amongst us”. They ARE amongst us - they’re trying to fit in, but they’re so alien to our culture that they can’t help asking asinine questions such as “do you subtract the weight of the shell?” Perfectly reasonable question coming from someone coming from a future world where crabs don’t exist anymore.
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### Author:  [@kittenblue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kittenblue)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2007, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520/12 "2007-06-03T01:37:58Z")
And what about the pits in cherries, hmmm? And those banana skins are darned heavy…
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2007, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520/13 "2007-06-03T01:47:25Z")
> [@](#):
>
> I say, “Yeah, ‘a Hamilton’. You know, the guy that shot Raymond Burr!”
That explains the wheelchair.
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### Author:  [@Beadalin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beadalin)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2007, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520/14 "2007-06-03T01:58:21Z")
> [@Mangetout](#):
>
> Perfectly reasonable question coming from someone coming from a future world where crabs don’t exist anymore.
Good Christ, you’re onto something there.
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### Author:  [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2007, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520/15 "2007-06-03T08:56:06Z")
Yeah. It also makes sense that everyone in the future is really old.
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### Author:  [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2007, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520/16 "2007-06-03T10:12:21Z")
I think you were being crabby. :eek:
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### Author:  [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2007, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520/17 "2007-06-03T12:26:09Z")
This is the same lady that will ask one of the stock boys to cut the tops of them leeks off since they’re sold by weight. Or will buy 6 portobella mushrooms and then you’ll walk over to the display and find all the stems in the box.
My usual answer to anything like that is (Why do I have to pay for the shells, why do I have to pay for the tops that I can’t eat, why do I have to pay for the stems) That’s the way we buy them and that’s what the price is based on. We can buy/sell them without the shell/stem/top but they’ll just be more expensive.
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### Author:  [@Auntbeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntbeast)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2007, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520/18 "2007-06-03T21:57:20Z")
There are enough grocery threads here today to inspire me to go shopping. I’m gonna ask 'em to debone my chickens, depeel my bananas, gonna go through the express lane with 30 items, block the aisles, gonna let my toddler run free, put my purse in the cart seat, hell, I might even ask for a shell-less lobster!
VIVA LA REVOLUTION! (or something)
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### Author:  [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2007, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520/19 "2007-06-03T22:40:30Z")
[QUOTE=Auntbeast]
I’m gonna ask 'em to debone my chickens, \*\*depeel my bananas \*\* …
[/QUOTE]
Depeel? Is that putting the peel back on the banana? 😉 Sounds kinda like de-scrambling eggs.
**Joey P** , presumably to deal with people like you’ve noted, I’ve seen in the past broccoli florets that have had the stems removed at an increased price.
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### Author:  [@susan\_foster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan_foster)
#### Post date: [June 3, 2007, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-stupidest-thing-i-overheard-today-the-grocery-store-edition/406520/20 "2007-06-03T22:41:37Z")
Auntbeast - see if they’ll peel the grapes for you!
Susan
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