Despite the Wegmania (Catch it!) now all around us, Sunday, we go the the newer Shopper's in the neighborhood for our weekly groceries. It is pleasant and bright, carries 95% of what we want, is cheaper than the Giant, much less Wegman's, and does not suffer from Opening Day crowds. Besides, I always felt sorry for the Wegmans. They never looked happy.
We bring our cart of stuff to the checkout. We notice two men come up and instead of getting in line behind us they hover next to our cart. This is strange. They are speaking to each other but not in English. This part is not strange.
Still, they hover to the left of our cart. We, being worldly wise, understand that different cultures have different ideas about personal space, queuing, etc. Hubby and I look at each other. We look at them. They wander away and I think this is the end of it.
This is when it happens.
Hubby is on my right. I feel a poke on my left side, or more accurately IN my left side. I do a weirded-out-cat-sideways-jump. (If you've ever owned a cat, you know what I'm talking about.) One of the two men from earlier is back and has just poked me. He retrieves a beer cube that is sitting under the end of the check-out belt and off he goes without so much as an "excuse me".
Now I get that there are much worse places he could have poked me.
But I gotta ask: Why did he poke me in the side? Why not tap my shoulder or arm? Or, if he's gotta poke me somewhere, since he's now coming up from behind me, why not poke me in the back?
Is this a cultural thing? Are there places where it is the norm to poke strangers in the side when you want their attention/want them to move?
I've never been inappropriately poked by a stranger before and I don't mind telling you, I was a little put off. I am not Pop 'N' Fresh.
And, by the way, I'm glad I'm not Pop 'N' Fresh. Aside from the weird spelling, I always thought he was one of the most annoying advertising characters ever. Then came Snuggle and I had a whole new reason to be hatin'.
08 June 2008
Inappropriate Poke
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
15 comments:
The Stay Puft guy still gives me nightmares.
Poppin' Fresah is quite annoying but dang if those aren't some tasty biscuits.
Also, ever had a Shopper's donut? Heaven.
rs27: How about the Michelin Man?
Lemmonex: Never had a Shopper's donut but we talk about them every time we are in the store. (What can I say, we lead a rich life.) We can not get over the marketing campaign for their "colossal donuts with over 32 varieties." "Over 32"?? Not "Over 30" but "Over 32". Would that be, um, 33?
OMG! I've been poked in the side by a non-English speaking man as well!! He wasn't reaching for a beer cube, though. In fact, he just poked me and then stood there. Totally freaked me out.
Green: OMG! Of course, it freaked you out! How could it not?! What IS that??
While I know that the grocery store itself was not the primary focus of this post, I completely disagree with you about Wegmans. Wegmans is the greatest grocery store ever! The prices are decent (better than Giant; I can't compare them to Shoppers since the one I used to go to was dirty and apparently, I unconsciously knew that a random poking could take place there at any time) and the selection and prepared foods are terrific. Just don't go there on opening day.
Reminds me of the joke about the true definition of "Pokemon" being a Jamaican proctologist. We like Wegmans, except for the prices...they have better quality produce, cheese, and meat than our local Giant; however, they ARE much more expensive.
Sean & Bilbo: Either you buy dramatically different things (possible) or one of you is wrong about the pricing. If there are free samples, I may have to check it out for myself. You know, for the benefit of research.
Lacochran (and/or evil twin) - If you happen to read this comment, I propose a challenge. Let's pick several common grocery store items and compare the prices between Wegmans, Giant, Shoppers, etc. This could make for terrific blogging material (or not)!
Sean, I'm willing if you are. Not sure how entertaining it would be. I have noticed that the same chain will price very differently depending on neighborhood. That could account for the difference in realities. Or not.
Anyway, I am both lacochran and lacochran's evil twin. Thanks to Google's rules of account maintenance it was necessary to split my personality.
Are you still in possession of your purse or wallet? Sounds like a tactic used by pickpockets...
Seriously disturbing regardless. I mean, who the hell wants to be poked by a stranger, practically speaking?
I am certainly willing to participate in the grocery store challenge. I'm sure that we can come up with some good anecdotes to share on our blogs. E-mail me at seanramblings at yahoo[dot]com and we can talk/write more about this.
J.M.: I am! Good call, though. When I was in Italy, I learned quickly about strategies to bump and lift.
Practically, impractically, nobody wants to be poked by a stranger!
Sean: Will do!
You guys should have some sort of challenge a la Washwords. Come up with a brief list of items and have people all over the city buy them and see how things compare. They'd need to publish where they bought stuff and, to be fair, you need to flag anything that happened to be on sale.
That's a thought. Less wear and tear on Sean and me! :)
Post a Comment