Must be Nice

I ran to the grocery store today while my men were getting hair cuts.  The goal was to be speedy so they wouldn’t have to wait on me.  So I ran through, gathered the few necessities and hurried to the checkout line.  I found one with only one lady already being served.  Score!  Or so I thought.  I hadn’t realized that the one lady was the manager’s wife.

This woman was never outright rude, but she positively dripped entitlement.  She had special needs for every single item she was buying.  Special sales, last ones, and even returning food!  It was ridiculous, but such a spectacle that I watched spellbound.  She never raised her voice or even sounded irritated, but was so directive you would think that she OWNED all of Safeway.  She even spoke to me as though I were an employee!  She also had the girl check the discount candles and bag them first before her husband came out because he doesn’t ‘understand about candles.’ 

She went on to lecture the checkout girl and bagboy about how ‘scents emote (sic) emotions’ and how memories are tied into scents more than anything else.  And of course they were all on sale.  She went back to the aisle, while we waited, to confirm both the price and that the bag boy would never have been able to find where she’d picked them up.  She was thankful she’d confirmed it because she’d almost ‘overcharged herself’ by 49 cents because she had misremembered the discount price.

Her husband came out and had to do the needed key strokes to confirm the returning of the oranges because she doesn’t like that style, only the Clementine's, but never can remember the preference until after she buys them.  She chattered on as they went through the process of checking, returning, refunding and collecting payments and they needed her to sign.  Finally, I thought all was done, until she turned to look at my own items on the conveyer belt.  She pointed at something and told the general audience to be sure to let her know when that was on sale, because she would never pay for it now, but definitely wanted one.  Nice, huh?

I turned to the lady behind me and mumbled, ‘I thought I’d found the shortest line.’  She replied, ‘never when it is the manager’s wife!’  Well, now I know what she looks like so I can avoid that in the future!  It was quite a show, though.