Entitlement At The Supermarket

In line at my local supermarket the other night, I told the man behind me, with just a couple of items, to go ahead of me. He smiled graciously and thanked me more than once. As we switched places, I felt good; I’d done him a solid. But the warm fuzzies faded when, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the gentleman who had been behind the gentleman behind me, who was now in front of me, begin a series of “notice me” signals. He started by shuffling his single item from hand to hand. Then there was an ever-so-slight throat clearing followed by a full-on cough. By the time I got my first grocery item laid out, he had used more energy in this check-out line than I imagine he’d used to park and locate his single grocery item.

Nonetheless, by the time I finished unloading my under-ten-items cart, the amusing, impatient gentleman seemed resigned to waiting his turn. That should have been the end of this tale of Supermarket Line Entitlement, but alas, we scored the checker who was both chatty and new—a deadly combination for hurried customers--need I point? When the checker picked up the pink shopping bag I had decided not to purchase (I mean, really, do we have to BUY shopping bags now? But that’s another story.), she needed to tell me that it looked like me and that I would wish I had bought it. No, I assured her I wouldn’t even remember it in five minutes but thanks anyway. As she looked up the sku numbers for brown mushrooms, she asked if I had noticed the bell peppers on sale for 50 cents. Why, no, I had not. That was when I was certain I heard an odd bubbling sound----ahhh, yes, it was the impatient man’s blood boiling.

Uh oh, our friendly clerk needed to call a manager—something had gone askew with the register. The efficient girl at the next counter told her there wasn’t a manager on duty right now. And while I summoned all the discipline I could muster not to look back at the Angry Customer, I don’t think our check out clerk ever noticed him. Even as he huffed, puffed and stomped away to another checkout line, she remained obliviously perky. More power to her. Not surprisingly, Angry Customer got out of the store that evening before I did, but I don’t imagine he was wearing the smile that I was.