Snow hovered in clouds, spitting out flakes on the Stop and Shop car-jammed parking lot. People were stocking up for the weekend and the projected blizzard.
Megan and Jaquie were doing their monthly shopping. Usually, they did it on the second Tuesday of the month when there were fewer people, but last Tuesday Megan had to have dinner with a client and Jaquie was working on a brief that just never seemed right to her so they postponed it to the weekend.
Jaquie had inherited her parents house which included a freezer in the basement, allowing them to do mega-shopping and only stop for things like milk, juice, fresh bread and butter in between.
Because they worked so hard, they much preferred to cook dinner at home, eat in their PJs, and either work more in their respective home offices or watch a Netflix.
They stood in line that went from the register to halfway up the canned goods aisle. Each had a shopping cart filled to the brim with meats, frozen veggies, canned goods, microwave popcorn, cookies and even ice cream.
Megan walked ahead leaving her cart with Jaquie.
Only one cash register was open.
Two men stood watching and talking. Their jackets had their names written on their pockets and their titles: Manager and Assistant Manager and the words Stop and Shop.
The cashier, a woman maybe in her forties, her late forties at that, looked frazzled.
Megan approached the two men. “Excuse me, are you the manager?”
The older man pointed to his name badge. “That’s what it says.”
“Do you think, you might be able to open another register?”
“We are a little short staffed today.”
“In your training did you learn how to operate the computer to tally up the groceries?”
“Of course.”
Megan would have sworn he smirked. “Then perhaps, you could check out groceries and move the line faster.”
The manager rolled his eyes. “Young lady, I’m a manager. Managers don’t do that.”
“Then how about your assistant?”
“Assistants don’t do that either.”
Megan started to walk away. No way, she thought. She walked back to the two men. “Look, halfway up the canned goods aisle. There’s a woman in a pink puff jacket with two full grocery carts.”
He nodded.
“Since you are a manager, I’m sure you know how to put all those groceries back. I suspect we’ve spent well over $1200. And you better do it fast because there’s lots of frozen stuff including ice cream.”
Before he could answer the people closest to the cash register and who had been listening, broke into applause.
Megan signalled for Jaquie to join her, leaving both carts full. There was more applause as they walked out.
In the car, Jaquie said, “You do realize we still need to buy all that stuff.”
Megan nodded.
“But it was worth it to see his face.”
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