I’m a single guy, so when I go to the supermarket, I know exactly what I want and where it is. I don’t run, but I make a bee-line to each item, drop it in the cart and hit the checkout.
I come up to an aisle that has a particular item that I want. Though the aisle is long, there is no one in it as I glance down its length. As soon as I enter one end of the aisle, someone else immediately enters the other end.
It makes no difference the time of day, whether it’s an old man using his cart as much for support as transport for his groceries, or a mother with a loosely gathered litter of noisy, runny-nosed offspring – they somehow head right to the section of shelving where my goal sits waiting patiently for me, and proceeds to part directly in front of it, spread out and overlapping it beyond my reaching capabilities, and commence to studying the section with intense concentration or taking the rest stop to slap a kid upside the head or finish up that marathon tweeting session.
Frustrated, but not surprised, I move on to the next aisle that has something I need, and as I peek around the corner and look down it, I see no people or carts in sight. Only cobwebs and an odd tumbleweed give any indication that this aisle is indeed open and filled with product, so, with extreme trepidation, I push my cart down the aisle and speed up to a sprint.
Before my last foot completely enters the aisle, another cart and person rounds the corner at the other end and starts making its way toward the shelf I so desperately need to get to on my hunter-gathering excursion. I feel a growing thrill of triumph as the shelf I need is much closer to me than the other person, and they are not moving near as fast as I toward the goal.
You ever see one of those scenes in a movie where the camera plays with perspective and the person on the screen seems to be almost standing still, but the background behind them zooms up in a surreal and frightening manner?
That is what I experience as I foolishly try to get to the shelf before the other person does. Somehow, without seeming to move a muscle, the person is there in front of the shelf, their cart and carcass taking up far more space than seems possible given the physical constraints of the appearance they exhibit. As they settle in to checking every price and reading every label, I slink off down the aisle, humbled, wondering why I thought this shopping day would be any different than all the rest.
As I slowly shuffle up towards the checkout lanes, head hung low, one eye starting an erratic twitch, I pick out a free and open lane, only to be blocked by a small boy standing before the last-chance item display of gum, breath mints and packaged candy, slowly perusing them like a connoisseur choosing a fine wine.
He looks up at me as I push my cart up within inches of him and I clench my teeth and give him a snarl. A quick look of wide-eyed surprise and he vanished down the checkout lane like a flushed rabbit.
Yeah, I should just offer a polite “Excuse me” and lean in for the item I want, but I just figure I will come back around again before I leave and see if the shelf is accessible then.
But I never remember to come back around, my mind consumed with getting out of the store and on my way home.
I frikkin’ hate shopping.