Thursday, April 7, 2011

The Ups and Downs of Grocery Shopping

Tonight I did my weekly grocery shopping.  It did not start off too well, to say the least.  First of all, my daughter was very disappointed that she could not go with me.  I really did not know what to do.  I usually like to shop by myself.  Grocery shopping for me is usually regroup time – one of the rare times I can get out by myself.  I was taking my niece with me, so it made it even harder to say no to my daughter.  Nonetheless, the decision was made (by her dad and me), and I tried to move forward, as I plodded off to the fruit market.

Just a short while into my grocery store visit, I put my cart aside to get some tomatoes.  Unfortunately, my cart hit some plastic containers of croutons, and a few fell to the ground (which seemed like a huge delayed reaction!).  One box opened right up and spilled out its contents.  YIKES!   As my husband said, I knew that stores usually “eat” this sort of thing.  However, in my heart, I felt I should just pack up the croutons and pay for them.  When I was just about done, a clerk came over and said, “Oh don’t worry about that!  I will get it.” 

I replied, “Are you sure? … Do you want me to pay for them?  I will.”

“No.  It’s okay.  This happens!”

As I stood at the nearby tomato stand watching the clerk out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that he took the crouton container (with the spilled contents) and put it right back with the croutons!!  Egads!  What is he thinking?!  Non-Confrontational Me stepped over after he left, placed the dirty croutons in my cart, and moved forward.  Well, there goes $3.50!

Near the end of my shopping, I remembered that I had left my $5 coupon at home!  UGH!!!  In my mind, I was not only out an extra $3.50 for the croutons, but at least $8.50 now.  Sigh… My heart grew heavy.

Other issues knocked at my heart as the night went on.  It wasn’t quite the rejuvenating experience I was planning.  HOWEVER, I did pick up a fancy-dancy pair of LATEX-FREE kitchen gloves.  As my niece says, they look like a pair of gloves that belong in a “Happy Housewife” ad from years ago, and hey… I think they will make me pretty happy as I wash the dishes.  How could they not?  ~smile~

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In the end, through all of its ups and downs, I truly do thank God for the many blessings I receive each time I shop.  We are truly blessed in America!

3 comments:

  1. I cannot believe that the guy put them back ick! I hate to spend extra and forget coupons as well. Its funny because my grocery shopping experience is everyone, my kiddos and my hubby! lol

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  2. Oh, Lisa!! What an experience!

    In regard to the croutons - sad to say, but if we knew what really happened to food before it came to us, whether from a restaurant or grocery store, we would not want a lot of it.

    Those are very lovely gloves! They definitely make me smile!! (What brand? I wonder if there are any available here...I've been looking for some good latex free gloves...)

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  3. The clerk might have thought that he picked up the croutons in the "germ free" amount of time! Isn't that around 5 minutes now? :-)
    Beautiful kitchen gloves, I may buy a pair for Mom for Mother's Day!

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