This is just the story of my Thursday morning. I want to write about it because it was kind of incredible. (I thought this was a very short story, but I guess I like creating a scene… hahaha)
As I’ve mentioned a million times, I despise grocery shopping. It’s not so much the actual shopping part of walking up and down the aisles as it is making a menu, looking in the pantry and fridge to see what we need, making a list, going to the store and walking past people. scan my groceries, put them in reusable bags, load the car, then unload the car, take the bags home while trying to keep all the pets out when my hands are full, and then put the groceries away.
There are many other things I would rather be doing. I think the only “job” I hate more than grocery shopping is cleaning the bathroom. (It’s also true that I don’t like other people shopping for me. I have a whole system and it works, it’s just not my favorite thing).
Because of this, I put it off as long as I can. It would probably be a lot easier if I went every week, but I tend to wait until we really don’t have much left. For fresh produce or a few ingredients we might need between trips, Jerry or one of the kids might stop on the way home and pick it up.
Thursday morning I couldn’t put it off any longer. Out of nowhere I decided to go to another grocery store to change things up and hopefully make it a little more interesting. We have a store called Meijer (I think it’s only in the midwest) that is huge and carries billions of grocery items in addition to all the other superstore items.
I don’t really like grocery shopping there because it’s too big, usually too crowded, and just kind of overwhelming. However, they renovated the store last year and I haven’t been there since the renovation. I thought I’d give it a shot. So after completing my list I went to Major.
When I walked in, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it wasn’t crowded for once. As I had not been there so long, I thought I would really save my time; they have a larger selection of items than my local Kroger and it’s always nice to find new items.
Jerry and I were talking about plantains last week for some reason and how we had never tried one. So I even grabbed a plantain for us to try. I was so excited when I saw a sign of passion fruit in the produce section. I *love* passion fruit, but have never seen it in the grocery store. The only time I had it was when we were in Punta Cana in 2014, and that was pretty much all I ate when I realized it didn’t taste like ants (hahaha, that’s how I described how it looks).
Unfortunately, although the sign was there, there was no passion fruit. I was pissed, but I knew I could find some time there, which was enough. I was also surprised to see super firm tofu, which is firmer than extra firm tofu because I’ve never seen that before either. I have a few recipes I’ve been wanting to try that call for super firm tofu, so I grabbed a few packages of it.
I kept finding interesting things that we don’t have at Kroger, especially things that I thought guys would like, and I started to change my mind about Meijer. It was quiet, the atmosphere was relaxed, I was finding things that I was excited to bring home… I was even thinking to myself. “
My cart was fully loaded. I still dreaded the checkout process and putting groceries away, but I knew the kids would be happy to have a fridge and pantry full of food, especially new things we hadn’t had before. I even texted Eli a picture of a few things and said, “Look what Major has.
I started to walk to the front of the store to check when an announcement came over the loudspeaker. “We apologize for the inconvenience, but our computer systems are down, so we are unable to take credit cards or debit cards. can still take cash at 13 registers and at the service desk. We are working as quickly as possible to fix the problem. It could be 10 minutes or it could be all day, we don’t know.
Immediately, my heart sank and I felt my face and ears heat up. The sounds around me muffled and sounded like I was underwater. I was so stunned that I just stood there, probably with my mouth open, not knowing what to do. I knew I definitely didn’t have the cash to buy all the groceries, but I figured I could just go slow, take my time, and sure enough, the registers would be working again soon.
When I got to the front of the store, all the people I thought weren’t there suddenly appeared, single file in aisle 13.
I dug through my purse to see if I had cash and I found $18, I don’t know where it came from because I never have cash so I looked at my groceries to think of buying just a few things that I could not get In Kroger. The line, getting longer by the minute, was probably about 40-50 people deep.
My head was spinning and I must have been staring at my cart for a full five minutes trying to find a plan. Abandon cart and go to ATM? By the time I got back, the line would be even longer. Even if the computers come back online, it will take FOREVER for all those people to check out. I had already been at the store for two hours, an hour longer than I had planned, and I had to go help Becky load the moving trailer in a few hours.
I decided to ask if I could put my entire cart in the freezer and come back later. I used to work there (like 100 years ago) and I remember doing this a few times for people who forgot their wallet or something. There were literally zero workers around, probably because they were all working on the computer situation. I walked around for a few minutes and finally found an employee.
When I asked if I could put my groceries in the freezer, he said he didn’t think they could, but I could go to the back of the store and ask in the dairy section. I really didn’t want to go looking for employees (like I said, the store is huge) while pushing a full cart. At this point it had probably been 30 minutes and they still weren’t taking credit cards.
In the end, I left the store with nothing. NOTHING.
When I got into the car, I was nauseous. For someone who hates grocery shopping, it was a nightmare come true. I know the store can’t help that their computers crashed, things like that happen with modern technology, but I just felt flabbergasted.
On the way home my anger kind of died down and I either completely lost my mind or just found humor in a situation I never wanted to be in.
I started laughing. Out loud. madly. Myself
When I got home, I almost felt dizzy. I couldn’t wait to tell Jerry because I knew he would understand the irony of what happened to ME of all people. She knows how much I hate grocery shopping.
He couldn’t believe it either and he felt so bad for me. I didn’t know it at the time, but while I was busy with something (I don’t even remember what) she took my list and went to Kroger. The cart wasn’t quite full as it was devoid of impulse buys, but it got what we needed. I was so grateful.
I think I’ll stick with my baby full of people convenient Kroger from now on. And I will remember this incident every time I complain about grocery shopping. 😉