I love grocery shopping in stores where I'm well known. I'm not well known for children throwing blow out tantrums, nor am I well known for being obnoxious. I like to think I'm well known because I frequent the same few stores time and time again, but sometimes I wonder if that's the case.
I am very, very picky about my produce. The majority of my time shopping in the grocery store is spent in the produce department hunting for the freshest of items. I don't think I'm too much of a rarity, given that I've had conversations of the freshness (or actually the lack of freshness) with strangers many times.
Today was no different. I went on the hunt for the perfect bag of baby carrots. I grabbed, put back and grabbed again several times and while I was doing so, I overheard two produce stockers chatting. One of them, Friendly, and I go way back to when I was pregnant with M. He knows how crazy I can be about my produce and is always very nice and caring about it. The other was a girl who must have been visiting our store.
So, there I was digging through bags of baby carrots to find the right one when their conversation on lunch breaks changed.
"Wow," said the new girl. "Shoppers are crazy at this store!"
"Why do you say that?," asked Friendly.
"Well, in my store, shoppers grab one item and move on. Here, I put things out and the shoppers not only grab, but dig and dig, messing up what I just stocked! Why can't they just take one and move on?"
I wanted to give her an answer to her question. I really, really did. I didn't though, because I wasn't sure how to phrase it without sounding like a. . . well, like a crazy person. If I had more nerve, I would have replied, "Shoppers at this store dig like crazy people because we know we deserve the best! We don't just want the lettuce that's been lying around for 3 days; we want the bags that just came off the truck. We know what we want and we don't mind digging for it!"
Instead, I responded by moving over to the tri-color peppers and digging around them for the best of the best which earned me a dirty look from New Girl. Friendly never seems to mind my digging. In fact, most days he'll bring me a box of the freshest produce and allow me to take my pick. He always asks about the girls and when they are there, he likes telling M that he knew her before she was born. A few years ago we moved to a different part of the same city and there is another grocery store closer to us, but I still drive out to this one. The Doctor thinks that's crazy, but I love the small town feel I get when I walk in. I love knowing I'll bump into my Mom or a friend. It might make my shopping trip a bit longer, but I love our impromptu chats and visits.
I love walking into a store or a restaurant and being greeted by someone who actually knows me as a person and not just a customer. I love knowing that the staff knows what I'm going to ask for before I even ask for it!
At our local Super Target (my favorite place!) the baristas at the Starbucks know my drink and will start getting it ready when they see me walk into the store. The management all know me and my daughters and I love striking up conversations with them about my kids, their kids, their vacation, etc. It makes my entire shopping experience more pleasant, feeling like I'm shopping amongst friends, and not just people who are working in the store that day.
Once, when L was a baby, my Mom took her for the morning and when I picked her up in the afternoon she said, "Well, you don't ever have to worry about L being taken at Target or the grocery store."
"Why do you say that?," I asked.
"Because I went to both today and in both stores, employees came over to me and said, 'I know that baby and I know you are not that baby's mother!'"
5 years later, and it's still like that. I don't let my girls run around the stores (gone are the days when I used to run up and down the aisles looking for my Mom after getting a small box of cereal from the cereal aisle), but there is something nice about knowing the employees know they are my daughters and should they see them with someone else, they might question it.
I am sure I'm not the only Target/ Grocery Store guest that the employees know, but I sure do love feeling like I am that special. I'll know I really made it when I enter one of these stores and I hear, "CGM!" being called out by all the employees as they raise a mug of Root Beer (after all, they are working!) in my direction.
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