Adventures in Grocery Shopping

I stopped at the main grocery store, The AC, after school today to pick up some supplies for a lab that I want to do in my 8th grade science class on Thurday and Friday. It was complete chaos in the grocery store. First thing I noticed was that The AC must be the after school hang out for half the junior high kids in town. They were everywhere. All hanging out drinking slushies from the little store inside The AC. The store is a complete mess. They are remodelling and rearranging the entire store. I can't find ducttape. Nobody knows where it is. Then I can't find matches, the guy I talk to says he knew where they were a few days ago...try by the bbq stuff. There are kids everywhere. A little boy about 3 or 4 is on the ground rolling through the isle...no adult in sight. I go upstairs because that's where they tell me they've moved the markers to...half the stairs are blocked off with brand new, bright orange street cones. The stairs are being recarpeted. On the way through the store, I see so many items on sale, but I dont have my wallet, only the pcard(the school credit card). That's when you have to buy things...when they are on sale, otherwise you buy some ridiculously outrageous price. The have these carts all over the store with items with 50% off stickers. Usually 50%off makes it about normal "back home" price. There are people everywhere, many of them visiting rather than shopping. This is the place to hang out at 5 oclock on a tues evening. Who knew?

I finally make it to the checkout line. There are four lanes open..all are packed with people. They are equally long, no one line looks more promising then the others. I get in the first line, the one I'm closest to. Now I start an interesting balance...keep myself and my cart out of the aisle so the crazy people dont run me over, but dont push my cart too far forward and run into the guy in front of me. There are two construction workers in front of me(unfortunately neither are very good looking) and in front of them are two women, one with a baby and a small child. They are from a village. All of their groceries are being packed in boxes and sealed so they can be taken back to the village either by boat or plane. They will use snowmobiles in winter. These women are obviously using food stamp cards. First they pay for some stuff with the card, then more with a check, then more with cash. One of the women run to get a different item, when she leaves the cashier just looks at her with this, "what the heck is she doing" look. The two men in front of me have moved to other lines now. The woman with the kids purchases some chips and dip, two pops, candy bar, gogurt and a whole case of carnation condensed milk. I am looking at the milk wondering if she feeds this to her baby. He is fat with huge round cheeks. She buys half of her items, but cant afford the rest. The other woman comes around to pay for the additional items.

Finally, it's my turn. The cashier apologizes for the wait. As I stand there waiting for her to ring up my stuff, i see a kid about 5 years old swinging like a monkey from the metal scanner thing by the entry doors. you know...the thing that picks up any stolen items and then flashes and makes noise. He is swinging on it so hard that it is almost swaying to the ground. The mother yells at him to stop. He smiles real big like he has just done the most amazing thing and follows his mother into the store. There are more of the junior high students standing by the ATM machine. They look like they are vandalizing it...noone seems to notice. I finally get out of there. I drop my bags in the truck and walk next door to the UPS store. They have box for me. It's wine from the wine club i signed up with...ah...relief.

I've had three glasses by now!