Sunday, November 04, 2007

Grocery Line Etiquette



In the grocery line today, I was waiting behind an older lady who didn't have her Airmiles card with her but wanted to collect her points. Sounding tentative and uncertain, she recited her Airmiles card number several times but the system didn't accept it until the 4th or 5th try. Other customers, seeing that an old lady was at the head of the queue, abandoned the line and moved to other cashiers. At any rate, I wasn't bothered by the wait; my attention was more focussed on Heather Graham's abs on Shape magazine's cover than Old Lady's puttering. Eventually I had a peripheral sense that her transaction was nearing completion so I moved up to the cashier. But Old Lady was entering her PIN and she perceived my imposing presence as a threat. Eyeing me suspiciously, she shielded the keypad with her entire body, hunched over Gollum-like. She gave me several furtive glances and eventually I felt compelled to reassure her:

"I'm NOT looking at your PIN!"
"Well, you're standing awfully close!"

I think she must have been genuinely afraid that I was going to mug her in the parking lot, because she took off in such a hurry. When I got home, I discovered an extra bag of groceries amongst mine. It was a bag of boneless chicken thighs and ribs that Old Lady had left behind in her haste to escape, possibly as an offering of appeasement, ravenous Roid Freak that I am.