Aggressive Shopping

Yesterday, to my roommate's embarrassment I took the bus to the grocery store. I'm not ashamed of taking the bus. I take it to work and back every day, and I like it. It forces me to be on time, because I know if I miss the bus I'm screwed and I'm going to be way late no matter what. When I have a car I tend to not leave my apartment until like 5 minutes before I need to be to work. In my head I think that'll just be able to drive super fast and get there on time, but thats never the case.

So. I took the bus to Smith's on 3rd North. They don't have a huge selection, I mean its no WalMart but it does just fine for my grocery needs. PLUS it takes a half hour to get to Walmart on the bus, and only 10 minutes to get to Smith's. I have to walk 2 blocks but hey, its exercise.

So I walked from the bus stop over to Smith's and started my speed shopping. I got there at 7:27 and I needed to catch the bus home by 8:21, which means I needed to be out of the store by 8:10 to allow for walking time carrying all my groceries. I was a power shopper last night. I think you can tell a lot about a person by how they act at the grocery store and what's in their cart. I obey the major rules of yeilding to other cart pushers in the end aisles if I'm coming to a regular aisle intersection, but other than that I'm a pretty aggressive shopper. If someone is standing in front of the cheese section forever debating between cheddar and colby jack for more than 30 seconds, I don't wait for them to move, I just reach in front of them and get my cheese. If I'm behind someone meandering along the cereal aisle I pass them like a racecar driver and grab the box I want. Its not that I'm impatient, I just don't have time.

So last night I needed to get some butter, and I was running out of time. There was this woman in the aisle with me and it was one of those awkward situations where you try to pass someone but you both go the same way to avoid the other person. And I knew that's how it was going to be, so I didn't even try to move. I just waited for her to move out of the way for me. Apparently that was a bad idea because she looked at me like I was cannibal. Seriously there was fear in her eyes. It was really weird but kind of funny. I then proceeded to the "self check out" because I swear that's all they have at Smith's these days. It kept giving me an error message and the little computer voice kept saying "please remove the last item bagged and scan it before placing it in the bag." So everyone was looking at me like I was stealing stuff. It was way lame. It wasn't the best shopping experience of my life, but it was pretty amusing nonetheless.