*This Field Note was taken in a location outside of the state of New Mexico.
When I walk in the door, it smells of fried chicken. When I reach the deli section though, the display cases where the fried food is kept is empty. The silver shines like it's just been cleaned. Behind the counter I can hear people cleaning. There's water running and spraying something down.
A guy is walking towards me quickly. He's talking on the phone, and in a hurry to leave. He's walking towards the door.
There's another lady, Army Green, on her phone. She's in front of the produce- the cold section where the broccoli, and bagged salads are. She has a dark green shirt on and jeans, but she looks comfy. She's moving slowly as she pushes her cart to the end of the produce. She has a mini cart instead of a full sized shopping cart. In the bottom section there are a lot (at least 8) boxes of saltine crackers. There are a few other things in the top basket, including celery.
Over in the main aisle there is an older couple standing to one side. They're talking, and trying to figure something out. They're looking at a display of soup cans, but I can't hear what they're saying. A moment later they turn down the aisle, which oddly enough, contains the store's soup selection. The old lady picks up two cartons of chicken broth. They exchange a few other words, but I still can't pick up on anything they're saying. When they leave, I notice that they have two loafs of bread and a large tub of ice cream in their cart. I briefly see Army Green again too.
I browse for a few moments, and then head over to another section of the store. It's towards the front, near the checkout. I see the old couple again, and they're using one of the self-checkout lanes. They're not scanning anything, instead they look around, almost as if confused or in need of help. The light above their cash register is blinking red, and I can see an error message that has popped up on their screen. As they wait for the problem to either disappear or be solve, the lady begins opening up some bags. She's brought her own shopping bags to take home the items. Her husband places an item (some sort of produce) on the register to weigh it. That must've been the problem- figuring out how to weigh the produce.
Back in the food section, I walk down the aisle with the potato chips. There is a guy, Big Joe, who's very tall, at least 6'2" and wearing jeans and big black shoes. He's African American, and wearing a long sleeve blue shirt. He's carrying a shopping basket with him, and it's filled with drinks. He reaches to grab a bag of the generic chips, but then stops. Then he goes for them again, and this time they make it to the basket. Almost immediately, he pulls them out of the basket and puts them back on the shelf. He continues to ponder his chip decision. He shifts the basket to his other hand, as I imagine the weight of the drinks were heavy. He grabs another bag of the generic version (the exact same chips he originally chose, but a slightly smaller bag), but then puts them back again. He finally grabs the large bag of generic chips, the very first bag he picked up and puts them in his basket. he leaves the aisle.
I walk out to the main aisle and take a few steps before stopping. Right inside the drink aisle, I see a little boy playing with packets of grape Kool Aid. He notices that I'm watching him and stops to look at me. He puts the packets of drink back into their box and puts it on the shelf. He runs down the aisle, towards who I assume are his parents down at the other end of the aisle. About half way down the aisle, he looks over his shoulder and looks at me as he continues to run. He meets the group at the end of the aisle, and they proceed to move on in their shopping trip.
In the main aisle between the food section and the pharmacy area, there is a man wearing a sports jacket. He's carrying a baby that's probably close to one year old. She's dressed in all pink. He walks up and down the aisle, peeking his head over to look down each of the aisles he passes. He's looking for something. I notice that the baby has a box of dryer sheets that she's holding. On about the man's third trip down the aisle, the baby squeals, but it doesn't provoke a response from the man.
In the soda aisle, there's a worker stocking drinks. He's cutting plastic off of a pack of flavored water. There are a couple pairs of people on this aisle. One guy and his son are looking at soda. The son asks, "Can we get this?" The dad says no, with his reasoning being that it "tastes nasty". There's a another couple, Skinny Blonde, and Wine Guy. Wine Guy stops to look at something, but Skinny Blonde keeps on moving. She eventually stops about half way down the aisle to wait for him. They end up leaving and going to the next aisle over, but I see them there too.
I notice that Wine Guy has his horseshoes on. He tells her Skinny Blonde something about the kind of salad he likes. I decide to keep moving.
I pass two African American girls in another main aisle. The only thing they have in their cart is bread rolls, but I find it odd that they have those in their cart, but are going towards the food section. The older lady is pushing the cart, and a younger one is walking behind her. I wonder if they're mother and daughter. They're talking about having enough forks and how it would be cute for their "little party". The younger girl in the back laugh's a little. She's eating an ice cream treat from a fast-food restaurant.
Close to the home section, I see Wine Guy and Skinny Blonde again. I can hear them a little better this time. They both have very Texan accents. Their cart is full of food, and they have a large package of dog food on the bottom too. I look at their hands to see if they have wedding rings on, and I don't see any. Skinny Blonde says something along the lines of "I don't see any," but Wine Guy is to the rescue! He tells her, "there's another spot we need to look. . . let's go back here." I turn around to watch them walk away. Wine Guy is pushing the cart now, and he's walking quite a bit in front of Skinny Blonde.
Now that I'm on the opposite side of the store, i notice that's it's a lot quieter and cleaner. There are a lot of holiday displays set up too.
At the check out, I choose an aisle that's empty. It's hard to see if the store associate is even there when I first walk up. There's a male worker, probably a manager walking past her register. As I put a couple items on the counter, the first words out of her mouth are shouted over to the manager. "What about my break?" He replies, "Carol's getting it", but then he hesitates a little. He mumbles- "uh, yeah", and then says something into his head piece. The worker, Asia, continues to help me. She doesn't seem happy though. For some reason, I take special note of her wedding ring that's jammed on her fat finger. She finishes my transaction, and there's another person behind me she starts to help.
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