I take perverse pride in my unbroken streak of never leaving the grocery store without seeing someone I know. (It’s right there on my About page.) It doesn’t matter which of the two stores in town I go to, or what time of the day or night, or what day of the week, or whether I just dash in for a gallon of milk or spend an hour thumping melons and squeezing lemons and comparing calorie counts.
One of the several drawbacks to this is the repeat meet-up. I see someone, we say hello and maybe chitchat for a minute. Then two minutes later we’re face-to-face again in another aisle. Then we’re in this horrible synchronous shopping mode where we see each other over and over in every single aisle. Awkward!
What do you do in these situations, or what would you do if you didn’t live somewhere so terribly cold and anonymous?
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
What I would do is probably a combination of smile, nod, and research the hell out of those Cheerios. But I’d be hoping I could just run somewhere and hide. Then again, I’m not the most social person out there.
buy all groceries on-line and never return to the supermarket.
After about the second time I would skip over to the far end of the grocery store and reverse my shopping direction in the hopes that I’d avoid further awkward meetups.
Depending on the person, I’d either:
a> run to the frozen foods or
b> shop with them & gossip or
c> offer to take their list & do their shopping while they entertain my children!
Ignore the person. But, I’m not a people person.
Exactly what Nancy said.
I guess it is kind of like hiding in the frozen food aisle, but I’d move forward a few aisles. The veggie section is always at one end or the other of the store, as is the meat. I’d go there, even if I usually start at one end and work my way to the other.
My grocery store problem is that one of the owners of the local chain at which I shop (great friendly store with lots of organics and great meat and produce) is someone with whom I have worked (in my official job, while she is a board member). Several times she’s seen me at work and said: I saw you at the store. I didn’t see her at all, but I am feeling a bit weird that she knows my shopping or is following me (via video camera, maybe?).
LOL! This happens to me too much. WAY too much.
If it’s someone I know well I usually make a joke about how I’m actually practicing my stalker technique. It brings a smile.
Thank God I have no friends.
I love this “About” you — there is one grocery here where I make the same claim, but not at ALL of them! On the rare occasion when I have the repeat-aisle awkwardness, I have to admit my plan: I flip my route…yep, I skip to the end of the list/back of the store and work my way forward. Yes, it’s a pain, but not really much less of a pain than the weird, “Hey, it’s you again!” awkwardness.