Confused by new surroundings
I take great pride in “not being a creature of habit”. Even though I leave the house at the same time, five days a week, month after month. Even though I always read my morning newspaper while standing in front of the kitchen stove waiting for the coffee machine to heat (it’s not my fault that the machine is slow and the paper is a quick read). I am resolutely flexible, ready for variation, loose.
Except, I admit, when it comes to doing the groceries. There, I want things to be arranged for my satisfaction. I shop at the local supermarket, and I can get things done in record time. Today, I threw a curve into things. Just because I could (remember, I am not locked into a pattern), I went to a different market; it wasn’t my best decision.
Same company, same sales flyer (that I never consult). Same prices. Except that through some devilish design variation, this store wasn’t the same. Set up backwards, if you ask me. The fruit and vegetable area was cramped, and there were people shopping in pairs, consulting with their partner while blocking my trajectory. The meat counter had things laid out, well, differently. I had to look for sausages.
I managed to fill my cart by revisiting each aisle more than once, but when it came to bag and pay up, I was directed into an empty checkout line, by an assistant manager. She tricked me. I emptied my foodstuffs onto the belt and waited. Turns out that the assigned clerk hadn’t reported for duty, and in a fast moving business like retail groceries, you can’t simply shift people around. I considered refilling my cart, but a clerk coming off break took pity on my stranding and began the beep and pitch required by efficiency experts.
All in all, my lap time was seriously off; I even arrived to pick up “the wife” late, which cancels out every complaint I have ever made about her timekeeping abilities.
