Going at ten or so, I find that the store is pretty empty. But yesterday it was almost two o'clock when I arrived there. The parking lot was pretty full, but I only had a few things to pick up.
Unfortunately, most of the markets around here seen to forget that folks are walking down the aisles with carts and sometimes children in tow. They tend to put up display stands in the aisles in front of the shelves and it makes navigating quite difficult. But, usually everyone is quite polite and manages.
Yesterday - not so much. When I entered the market in the produce section to get some red grapes, I noticed that folks were dashing around. It reminded me an old TV show where shoppers were given carts and whoever could fill up the basket with the highest value of goods won a prize. I realize now that the weathermen were predicting one to three inches of snow and that tends to send Michigan folks into a mad panic. Go figure.
Anyway, I got to the bread aisle which is rather cramped with large displays between two shelving units. Typically, you can go through only one person and cart at a time. I just stand and wait my turn - though it would have been faster if the woman in front of me was not gabbing on her cell phone.
I stopped my cart to get a loaf of bread and some old guy behind me yells to 'Move it!' I, of course, did not 'move it', slowly put the bread in my basket and asked him what his problem was. He yelled that I was blocking the aisle. Yeah, well, get over it, there is no place for me to go.
I watched him go down the aisle like the proverbial bat out of hell and shook my head. I went across to get another bread item and told the gentleman in front of me that I should yell at him like the guy yelled at me. We both laughed.
When I got to the dairy aisle to get milk, guess who was blocking the aisle? He had his cart on the left and was standing with the door open on the right staring into the case. I asked him if he would like to move to let someone through and the moron yelled that he was not blocking anything (he was) and that I was acting like a bitch. Uh, who started this? I shook my head, got my milk and finished my shopping.
Upon leaving the store with my cart I saw him loading his groceries into a car in the handicapped spot. A woman was there but I never saw her in the store, so maybe she was the one who was handicapped. He was racing down the aisle to put the cart in one of the stalls and if a car was coming he probably would have yelled at them too. It then dawned on me that he might be suffering from the time change. The reporter on the radio in the morning had talked about how there are more heart attacks this first week of DST, folks are grumpy, and kids have a hard time focusing in class.
Aha. Grumpy old guy who didn't get enough sleep cause the time changed. As I got in my car I remembered this scene from 'Fried Green Tomatoes':
Hi Denise, is it my imagination or are grumpy old men getting grumpier? I ask because my husband certainly is. If he comes to the grocery store, it quickly turns into a nightmare with me constantly apologising to all the people he offends. Car journeys are also fraught with danger, two minutes into the drive and he is honking the horn and shaking his fist at some poor unsuspecting driver. He hates cycles, motorbikes, tractors, horses, flash cars – you name it he has a problem with it. Help ... :)
ReplyDeleteLOL. Maybe you are right and men are just all getting grumpier. Yesterday was quite the experience.
DeleteWow.I suspect, that grumpy old man, is just grumpy all the time.
ReplyDeleteYa think?
DeleteSomeone said recently, "If you meet two or more assholes in a day, YOU are the asshole." I'd say that guy meets a lot of "assholes" every day! When you go through life with that sort of disposition, you only make everyone around you react negatively. Sad way to live. But THIS is why I do all my grocery shopping online and just go park and let them put it in my trunk. I think that old man needs to do the same. If he can't handle the stress of trying to navigate crowded aisles, he just needs to stop shopping in actual stores. There are other options now!
ReplyDeleteFunny you should mention that option. I thought of suggesting it to him, but was afraid he would go nuclear. Shopping isn't usually such an adventure.
DeleteI LOVE that scene from Fried Green Tomatoes!!!
ReplyDeleteSnow panics - never anything to mess with. But our prediction is 14 to 18 inches (at minimum!) - that would really put people into foul moods. As for the handicapped space - let's hope he has an invisible disability, which people sometimes do. Benefit of the doubt... Alana ramblinwitham.blogspot.com
ReplyDeleteWe maybe have two inches at most. Since I did not see the woman in the store, I assume she has the handicap and waited in the car. There was nothing wrong with his legs or his mouth.
DeleteI think that guy suffers from something called asshole disease....sorry for being so crude but I would have called the cops and tell them he parked in a handicapped zone...worth taking a chance. What a creep
ReplyDeleteI never thought to check to see if he had a handicapped sticker. Maybe he didn't and that was why he was in such a hurry. We do ticket lots of folks here for illegally parking in handicap zones.
DeleteGood morning Denise (again at least a day late). "Our" grocery store story. One day I left my cart at the end of the aisle because there were too many obstacles in the way. I walked down the aisle, grabbed what I wanted and headed back to my cart just in time to see a woman emptying my selections out of my cart and putting them on top of a stack of empty boxes and putting her items in. Like you, I am not shy, I let her have it. I do not think your man should be given the benefit of the doubt attributing it to time change.
ReplyDeleteCall it what it is, people are just RUDE and I think there is a preponderance of this behavior in 4832X. Thanks forletting me vent. Amen.
I think that zip code has some folks who think they are very privileged and the rules don't apply to them. Just try driving through one of our roundabouts when some a--hole doesn't understand 'yield'.
DeleteOlder men do seem to get grumpier. Don't like getting older I guess. Nor do we, but we cope better perhaps. Matt used to shop at 7 a.m. when there was nobody in the store. Now we do it in the afternoons together. Not usually too bad at the time we go. As for snow, just a forecast was enough to empty the stores of bread and milk in NC.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked in the hospital, my aide was from Raleigh. She told me how even the mere suggestion of snow or ice would shut everything down. We got less than two inches of snow after all was said and done.
DeleteLOL! We'll blame it all on the time change! I like that!!
ReplyDelete