Grocery Shopping 101

The chair is soft. The living room is warm. The coffee is hot.

For the moment.

It's just after 7:00 A.M. Overnight a winter storm rolled into my neighborhood.What started as a cold rain is now sleet and/or freezing rain. The outside temperature is now settling below 32F and won't see the warmer side of the freezing mark for a few days.

The power companies are predicting and preparing for widespread outages. I love the winter weather; I don't like being without my conveniences that require electricity.

I joined the frenzy at the grocery store. Good thing I didn't need bread! I don't mind grocery shopping but I do believe it must be done in an orderly fashion. List or not, you must go through the store from one side to the other then sweep through the refrigerated and frozen sections ending up in the produce aisles. Get what you need the first time; no running back and forth zig-zagging like a lunatic.

That's exactly what one woman was doing. Actually, she made several mistakes, in my opinion. For example, while reviewing her list she would stop in the middle of the aisle. The aisles are wide enough for two customers (with carts) to pass. By the way, please keep the the right - just like driving down the street! But when she stopped in the middle she blocked customers from both directions.

Actually, I don't think she was reviewing her list in order to see what else she needed from that aisle. Had she been doing that she would not have done what she did next. She must have just been reading the next item on the list because she whirled around and headed across the store. I thought she was finished and was headed to the checkout lanes. She looked like a contestant on that game show where people grocery shop. Please don't whirl around in a crowded aisle. Simply continue in the direction you are pointed and turn back up the next aisle. Traffic flow, people!

So off she went, out of my way I thought. The last I saw her she was making a bee-line toward Lane 4. Which would have been a great idea because the lines had not yet backed up like they were when I got ready to check out.

About two minutes later she showed up in the dairy section at the back of the store. I guess butter was the item on the list following the one that was at the front of the store. This zig-zagging went on the entire time I was making my orderly movement as described above.

I began to chuckle to myself each time I saw her in a spot opposite the direction I had last seen her. A couple of times I almost laughed out loud. How would I explain that? "No, I wasn't laughing at you. The suggested serving size of this cereal is hilarious!" Luckily, I was able to contain myself.

I finished my shopping, checked out, and left the store. She was still there. She had been there when I started. The last time I saw her, I had more stuff in my cart than she did in hers. I did it in less time. And I followed the rules. So I'm the better grocery shopper.