Grocery Store Chronicles

Do Tell! Answering Your “Why Do I” Questions + A List Of Fun Friday Bloggers

/ Ally Bean / 214 Comments

Answering Your “Why Do I” Questions

• WHY DO I rarely shop at Walmart?

While you may assume I don’t shop there for some political reason because many people have strong opinions about Walmart, that is not the case.

The mundane reality is that for me to get to one I have to drive by many other grocery stores: 2 Krogers, 1 Fresh Thyme, 1 meijer, 1 ALDI,  1 Target, 1 Costco, and 1 WHOLE FOODS MARKET before I am there.

This drive takes about 20-25 minutes each way if traffic is with me. Therefore, and I’m sure you’ll understand my reasoning, in order to save time, gas, and swear less about idiot drivers, I avoid going to Walmart.

Makes sense, right?

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• WHY DO I keep my blog post photos separate from the photos I share on Instagram? 

I do this because I figure that the people who follow my blog do so for the wordy stories I tell, the wordy information I share, the wordy questions I answer. After all my tagline here is: Tales, Thoughts + Tribulations of a Free Spirit in Suburbia.

Meanwhile on Instagram [find me HERE] I have a different bunch of followers, although there is some overlap. I only publish photos there when one fits my stated tagline, my thesis statement so to speak: Life is in the details. Here’s what I spy with my bifocaled eye. Patterns. Colors. Words.  

Different accounts, different goals, different followers.

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• WHY DO I not write book reviews?

I majored in English Lit in undergrad. I did this because I knew I’d get to study abroad in England. I spent a term at the University of Exeter which means I accomplished my goal.

However, the downside of being an English major was that I had to write book reviews about the books I read. I HATED writing book reviews. Writing them filled me with dread because I didn’t feel like I could trust my own understanding of the book.

Even though I now trust my personal assessment of what I’ve read, I refuse to make the effort to write a book review because it reminds me of my collegiate angst.

So guess what? I don’t.

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A List Of Fun Bloggers Who’ve Made Friday Their Own

What will you do with your one little spark of madness today?

Robin Williams asked that and it might be the best writing prompt ever. It frees you to embrace your own muse by doing your own independent thing, which is what the following bloggers do on Fridays.

Their posts are varied & fun— and I’m there for ’em.

Enjoy!

📌 Friday Fleurday – brought to you by Lynette at In the Net! – Pictures and Stories of Life

📌 Fridays Funnies – brought to you by Linda at Linda Lou’s Life

📌 40 things for Friday – brought to you by Laura at Riddle From The Middle

📌 TGIF – brought to you by Stephany at Stephany WRITES

📌 Happy Things Friday – brought to you by Elisabeth at The Optimistic Musings of a Pessimist

📌 Five for Friday – brought to you by NGS at The Time for Change

📌 Friday Randomness – brought to you by J at Thinking About…

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QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

Where do you primarily shop for groceries?

Do you share the same photos in your blog as you put on Instagram? Why or why not?

If you have a blog do you write book reviews? If you’re on Goodreads do you put them there? On Amazon? Other?

Do you, like me, look forward to posts from bloggers who write using a self-created prompt on a specific day of the week?

Any more questions you’d like to ask me? I’ll probably answer them in the comments below.

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A Chance Encounter In The Cereal Aisle, An Unexpected Act Of Probably Legal Kindness

/ Ally Bean / 219 Comments

Something weird happened. Please allow me to explain.

A few weeks ago on a Sunday afternoon Zen-Den and I were shopping in Kroger. It was busy but not chaotic, for the most part shoppers were aware of each other. In fact the biggest annoyances were the extra temporary displays clogging the aisles.

Thus it was a slow process going up and down the aisles, but we weren’t in a hurry so we moseyed happily along, Z-D pushing the cart, me following behind him.

In the cereal aisle we came to a full stop when we encountered a couple in their 70s who were looking for one particular cereal. They’d abandoned their cart in the middle of the aisle and, with paper coupon in hand, were laser-focused on finding the right cereal on the shelf, wherever it might be.

We just smiled and waited.

Eventually they found their cereal and looked up to see us standing there, unperturbed. The woman, who was wearing a sweatshirt that said “You Are Enough,”  apologized to us for holding up traffic.

No problem say we and go on our way continuing to shop.

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Eventually we got what we needed and went to stand in line to use the U-scan machines. After a few minutes we scored a machine and went to it.

Doing our usual grocery shopping two-step, I handed the items to Z-D. He then scanned and bagged them.

Welp, while we were doing this I noticed the older couple was now in line for the U-scans. Then kind of out of nowhere the “You Are Enough” sweatshirt woman walks up to Z-D, who is in the process of weighing fruit, and says: “Excuse me sir, these are for you.”

At which point she hands a surprised Zen-Den three flowers [seen in the photo at the top of this post]. He looks at me, like I should have a clue about why this is happening, but I shrug.

Beats me.

So he thanks her while taking the flowers that he then hands to me. She smiles and goes back to standing in line with her husband by their cart of unpaid for groceries and a bouquet of flowers.

We finish checking out, pay for our stuff, and walk out of the store with me holding what was TECHNICALLY, from a strictly legal perspective was probably, STOLEN MERCHANDISE because at that minute while we walked to our car the flowers hadn’t been purchased by the older couple who was still standing in line waiting to buy them.

I hope.

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

Do you believe this was a weird experience?

Has anything like this happened to you— that is, having a stranger, who might be a little Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs, spontaneously hand you a gift?

Do you like the “You Are Enough” message on the woman’s sweatshirt? Was the Universe trying to tell us something or just playing mind games with us?

How often to you go grocery shopping? Do you prefer a certain day and/or time of day?

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Grocery Store Chronicles: 3 Vignettes From My Shopping Adventures

/ Ally Bean / 246 Comments

Pretty picture of puzzle pieces put together that has nothing to do with the subject of this post, but pretty picture gotta pretty, right?

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TO BEGIN WITH

Over the years I’ve written about my grocery store shopping experiences and put the stories here under the tag: Grocery Store Chronicles.

[The story about discussing kinds of pears and the story about stealing potato chips have been the most popular. Also there’s Betsy‘s favorite story about me buying beer.]

While the following isn’t one complete story like those I linked to above, these are 3 vignettes about what I watched unfold, and entertained me, while shopping in ye olde Kroger this past holiday season.

LOVE CONQUERS CONFUSION

The layout of the first part of our store goes like this: produce, deli, cheese, bakery, then wine and beer.

It was coming up on New Year’s Eve, busy everywhere in the store.

I’d just seen a couple in their 40s picking out some produce for something specific, while overhearing them talk about making something special to take somewhere.

Moving on I went to the cheese kiosk and found myself standing with about 10 other people there as well as the couple. I looked around and realized that the wife was on the verge of tears because, as she explained for all to hear, she couldn’t remember which kind of cheese she was supposed to buy.

She turned to her husband and said: I dunno, I can’t remember. I’m just a little ball of confusion.

To which he said: You know what I like about that?

Her, sad: No… 

Him, leaning in to hug her: You’re MY little ball of confusion.

She smiled weakly while all of us standing around the cheese kiosk in unison went: Aww…

And with that he kissed her and said: I’ll go get the beer while you figure out the cheese. Meet you back here. 

KARMA GOT HER NUMBER 

It was crowded in the store with people and displays of food/wine everywhere.

Zen-Den and I had a small cart full of items and were heading to the U-Scan lanes to buy our stuff. A woman walking behind us to the U-Scan was impatient with our pace. She did a wild dash around us to get to the U-Scan lanes first, giving us the evil eye as she went by.

We shrugged.

As fate would have it, despite our pace, we ended up in the U-Scan spot beside her, which when she saw us caused her to snarl our way.

We shrugged.

Well, as Z-D played cashier scanning our items, I stood there and watched her, surreptitiously. And here’s what happened: her first credit card was rejected. Her second credit card was rejected.

And when we left having successfully scanned, packed, and paid for our groceries, she was holding a third credit card that had been rejected, while talking on her cell phone with someone.

Half of me felt sorry for her because I’d guess everyone has had a credit card rejected at some point and it is frustrating, BUT considering how impatient she was and her negative attitude toward us… I smiled.

Ha!

WHEN THE WRONG THING IS RIGHT

I was waiting in the cashier line, standing behind a Dad with a cart heaped with groceries and a 3 y.o. sitting in the basket cart seat. The Dad was at the front of the cart while the boy was directly in front of me.

The little guy was laser-focused on everything his Dad was putting on the conveyor belt. Nothing escaped his notice.

About halfway through unloading the cart the boy told his Dad: That’s the wrong milk.

Dad: What?

Boy: It’s blue. 

Dad: WHAT?

Boy: It should be red.

Dad, catching on that his son was talking about the color of the label on the milk: No the blue one is right this time. 

Boy, raising his eyebrow like the 50 y.o. man he’ll be: Mom. buys. red.

Dad, still putting items on the conveyor belt: The blue one is buttermilk. It’s the right one this time because Mom is making cookies and this is what she uses. 

Boy, shaking his head, rolling his eyes, explaining to me under his breath: Mom BUYS cookies… and she’s gonna be mad about no red milk. 

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QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

So, been shopping in a brick and mortar store lately? And how did that go for you?

Overheard anything that made you smile?

Or watched something happen that brought out the snark in you?

Or confirmed that kids can be wise beyond their years?

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The Mystery Of The Missing Marjoram + Reader Comments About Manufactured Victories

/ Ally Bean / 245 Comments
TALKING ABOUT MARJORAM

“I have always relied on the kindness of strangers.”

We needed some marjoram. NEED I tell ‘ya! Zen-Den was making gyros for dinner.

He’d made the tzatziki sauce, bought the feta and black olives and pitas and peppers, but alas and alack when he went to put together the dry blend for flavoring the meat we didn’t have any marjoram.

Thus I went to the grocery to buy some.

Being familiar with our Kroger I knew where the spice aisle was in the store, but when I stood there looking at the shelves with about 3 gazillion jars and containers and bottles of spices and herbs and extracts, I didn’t see marjoram.

In fact, I couldn’t even find a little tag that showed it had ever been on a shelf.

As if, I muttered, knowing it had to be there, right?

So in what for an introvert might be considered stepping outside your comfort zone, I asked two friendly chatty women standing beside me if they saw any marjoram. Turned out they were a mother [70-ish] and her daughter [40-ish] who were enthusiastic about joining my impromptu scavenger hunt in the spice aisle.

Hence we three stood there, positioning our bifocals just so, and looked for the elusive marjoram plus what they were looking for [thyme and poultry seasoning]. We found what they needed, many times over, but the marjoram just wasn’t there.

I shrugged, thanked them for their help and went on my way, walking a few aisles away from the spice aisle to where I knew I needed to pick up something else.

From my favorite webcomic called Underpants and Overbites

But as I was standing in the middle of that aisle, I heard the younger woman yelling “I found it!” as she ran up to me with a jar of marjoram. She handed me the herb and explained that she’d found it with the label turned around backwards, in the wrong spot, hidden behind some oregano.

And then because she was a compassionate foodie person, she’d come looking for me by going up and down the aisles, wanting to make sure I got what I came to the store for.

Bashfully, almost apologetically, she explained that once she started doing something she had to finish it, she was compulsive like that, and this sort of search was her thing.

I had to find it, she told me.

I thanked her over and over, then waved good-bye while thinking, there really are some nice people in this world who don’t want to do anything more than just help other people.

And fortunately for the fate of our Greek dinner, I’d just met one.

QUESTIONS OF THE DAY

Have you ever asked a stranger for help finding something in a store? How’d that go for you?

Do you wonder sometimes how we have evolved into a society in which an act of kindness like this one is so rare that it is almost shocking?

Do you use marjoram in cooking? We have a lot of it now, so any recipe suggestions are welcome.

AND FINALLY FOUR READER COMMENTS…

About the Value of Manufactured Victories:

“Manufactured victories are part of my time management process. Like painting a wall. I get out the paint, then celebrate. Check for the brushes (which I find), dropcloths and tools. Then I celebrate. Now I notice I forgot something and need a store run. The good news-bad news is that I get to celebrate when I come home. All this celebrating and I haven’t yet painted the dang wall!”

~ Kate Crimmins

“… every blog post is its own victory–over apathy, inertia, and sometimes technology…. I feel like failure gets a bad rap in our winner-centric country. I’d like to normalize failure, especially for our kids. You might not have won, but you learned a ton!”

~ AutumnAshbough

“I think manufactured victories are very similar to moral victories, where the object was not to win but to actually try real hard. (Of course, a win is nice, too.)”

~ John Holton

“I don’t agree with the Vulcans that the DS9 crew had manufactured their victory. They were victorious in their sportsmanship. They didn’t begrudge the Vulcans their win, but the DS9 team had fun and experienced healthy camaraderie by showing up and playing together.”

~ Marie A Bailey