Anxiety Thing #2 - Shopping
I am not a person who fells much anxiety; I'm pretty low key and accepting of most anything. But shopping and anxiety - weren't they made for each other?
Today is Sunday which, for our family, is grocery shopping day. That brings me to the next activity which builds up anxiety for me. Shoppers who stand in the long line at the checkout, watch the shoppers in front of them go through, watch the cashier ring in her groceries and only open up her purse when she is given the total. In this case I say "she" because inevitably it is a woman. And then she digs and digs and digs - membership card, if one is required - and then the exact change. To the corner of that purse under the keys, the kleenex, the pills, the slips of paper with notes, the receipts for the last 3 years of shopping - for that last needed penny for exact change. "Just a minute, I know I've got a penny here someplace". I can't count the times when that last penny was found only to be short of exact change and then she uses the debit card or charge card. Did she think she was not going to have to pay? (I went to all the trouble of getting those groceries and you still want me to pay?) What is wrong with getting the money out while waiting in line? What is wrong with speeding up the process, especially when there are ten people behind you waiting for that last found penny to fall on the floor and have to be retrieved? Come on folks - it's not rocket science - you have to pay so get the money out. Consider those in line behind you.
Hand in hand with this are those who view the grocery shopping trip as the weekly outing with the cashier being the tour guide. There are times I care and times I don't care. On Sunday morning as I am standing in line with a 4 liter jug of milk, I don't care if Aunt Sally's slipped disc is acting up again - especially if I don't know Aunt Sally or Aunt Sally's neice (who is telling the story as she is digging for that last penny in the lower left hand corner of her purse - only to have it fall and roll across the floor - before giving in and using the debit card). In this case there more men than in the first scenario. It is like these people save up their weekly talking until they get to the cashier and then the verbal floodgates open and it all comes gushing out - every last boring detail. Maybe grocery stores should open a social line for those talkers. Or maybe they could install signs like the fast check out signs. So instead of "10 items or less" it could be "10 short sentences or less" or "cash register powers down on your 21st word". Or maybe the stores could provide visitor booths where the socialites could sit across from one another and bore each other into silence with their Aunt Sally stories.
In any case, I just want to get my 4 liter jug of milk and get out. No more shopping anxiety.
