A Lesson Learned While Shopping

Its amazing what life lessons you learn, or in this case, what lessons are brought up to the forefront, when you least expect it.

One of my favorite small grocery stores went out of business. Even though it was my favorite, I hardly shopped there due to their insane prices. But their sales on meat always had me stocking my freezer and running into their doors.

Yesterday everything was 60% off. The start of the end. I had good intentions of running in while my kids waited in the car, picking up some things and then head off to homeschool gym class. Those plans were quickly trashed as I entered the parking lot.

Chaos.

At 9 a.m. Cars were practically parked on the roof, and people left with carts overflowing with anything they could toss in.

I knew this was gonna be a shopping with strategic planning. So with that in mind, we headed in. Orders were given, buddies were assigned and central meeting places were talked about. Everyone had cell phones in case we got separated.

We were ready to shop.

But no matter what, nothing could prepare me for what was inside. People everywhere. Lines wrapped around the back of the store. And a level of greed that went beyond my expectation.

My first shot as I walked in and was blown away by the sounds and sights.

After going down a few aisles, I knew shopping with 6  kids was just not gonna work. I set them all to a corner of the dairy department that was already cleared out. Nothing left but dust and weird cheeses that nobody in their right mind would eat.

With them standing still. I was able to slip in and out of the aisles and shop as quickly as I could. I returned to the kids, unloaded and went back in the mob of people.

After about 10 minutes of that I got smart and just put them in line. The lines were averaging 1-3 hours long.

So I pulled up right behind this nice lady. Lets just call her boozer. HA Ha. I just have to. After all, she had a cart full of wine just for her own personal enjoyment.

We chatted a bit and she kept looking at all my kids and my cart full of food and giving me strange looks.

Wait for it. Wait for it...

I was ready for the comeback...

"YOUR saying I'M crazy... look whats in YOU'R cart boozer.... have another swig why don'tcha..."

Ok, I wasn't really going to say those exact words. But I was thinking them.

(Yes, I prayed for forgiveness already.maybe)

I don't even know how long this line was but I do know the lady in the dark blue shirt is really nice. She explained the difference between a fluted and a bundt pan. I don't remember a word she said but I bought the pan anyway.

( Um it was 60% off)

Soon it was boozers turn to check out. The wine just kept coming and coming and once she got a total, I just HAD to know.

$586!!!

Wow...

Then it was my turn. The above picture was taken halfway thru my line wait. By the time I actually purchased my food, I added about 50 more things to my cart...

My grand total was $136.

Which included several detergent bottles, bounce barS, cascade packetS, Lots-O-ice cream, canned goods, my coffee, and all sorts of goodness.

So, I know what your asking??

Whats this big lesson I learned?

Well, I learned that greed can be a dangerous thing. Food was being snatched out of peoples hands and you had to watch your cart.

I mean, I did meet some really nice ladies while waiting and we chatted up a bit but I remember thinking that if this was a national crisis, my experience yesterday would pale in comparison to the horrors that would take place in all grocery stores all over America.

It also confirmed to me that our grocery stores really only have ONE DAY worth of stock. If their ever were a crisis. Grocery stores nation wide would be wiped out in 24 hours. NO DOUBT.

You don't want to believe me?

Thats fine. I assume you were not on the 3 hour lines we were on yesterday...

Or see the people running thru the aisles

Or emptying COMPLETE shelves of food into their cart.

It really makes you think twice before ever letting your cabinets go bare.

Before you go, here is a quick article posted recently. 

The CEO at Wal-Mart says expect prices to go up dramatically come mid-year.

Perhaps all those World Net Daily news alerts weren't so far fetched after all???

But hey, if anything scary were to happen, at least Boozer would be happily inebriated would be VERY unprepared...

Xoxo