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Thursday, February 10, 2005

Just Words

My overly friendly, assumptive way of relating to strangers doesn’t always work.

I walked into the supermarket yesterday and for the first time I was struck by how efficient grocery stores are at expediting customers. Once again most of the shopping carts were inside the store, yet I knew that the line I’d stand in would be no more than one person deep. I guess it’s the number of cash registers, or that no one pays by check anymore, or that all the items are tagged, or that… ?

After Margaret asked me, “Paper or Plastic,” I said, “Supermarkets are amazing places.”

She looked at me.

“Think of the numbers of people who come and go and yet no lines.”

She smiled.

“If this were Home Depot or any other large store doing the equivalent volume, there would be lines.”

She handed me my receipt.

“Why thank you, and have a good day.”

Chillin’

posted by michael at 7:32 am  

7 Comments

  1. Yea. nice picture

    Comment by son — February 10, 2005 @ 10:11 am

  2. What do you mean, it didn’t work? You made her day. (You just didn’t get the complete story of her life.)

    Comment by to work or not to work — February 10, 2005 @ 6:43 pm

  3. haha oh the bring back the memories of summer with you. thats great.

    Comment by goose — February 10, 2005 @ 9:49 pm

  4. The legendary napper in his early years…

    Comment by charlie — February 10, 2005 @ 10:25 pm

  5. Your story reminds me a little of the time in the late 70s when I went to my work/study job at the university cafeteria and was deeply impressed with the brilliance of the system of warming pans — there were full size pans, half size pans, 1/3 size pans, … the quarter size pans needed little supports to hold up one of the two sides that wasn’t supported by the long edge support. Gosh, I really wish I had a photo, to explain this better. It’s really a very clever system, and I was eloquent in my praises.

    No, I wasn’t fired.

    Comment by anonymous — February 10, 2005 @ 11:05 pm

  6. How come you make us dig for Chillin’ (short for children, right?) instead of posting on the front page?

    What a flashback. We probably had Here Comes the Sun playing in the background…

    Is that Karen or Bonnie on my left?

    Comment by smiling — February 12, 2005 @ 9:21 am

  7. That would be, Karen. I wonder who took the picture?

    Comment by michael — February 12, 2005 @ 9:23 am

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