Another Observation

I pull into the parking lot and drive down one of the rows to find a parking spot.  A man, Brown, is pushing a shopping cart from the corral.  It's the kind with a kids car on the front.  I find it odd that he chooses that cart because he's all by himself.  But then I realize he's pushing it over to a car where a woman, Flower, is standing with the back door of the car open.  She pulls a young boy out of the backseat and puts him in the toy car at the front of the cart.  I turn into a parking spot to park.  By the time I get out of my car and walk towards the entrance, they're walking through the door.

When I walk in I notice that Flower and a few other people that I had seen enter only a moment before myself, are standing in the entrance where there are displays set up of items that are on sale.  Three different woman browse through the small area.  There are also flowers and balloons.  As I'm walking in, Brown is going back outside to get another cart.  I wonder why he does this.

I walk towards the back of the store.  I see a little girl with a butterfly dress on.  She's probably 7 or 8 years old.  Then I see her mom, wearing a light blue polo.  They're looking at bottled Pepsi on the end cap.  They stand there and look at it a lot longer than I would have expected them to. The mother verbally notes that they have wild cherry Pepsi.  Then she makes a comment about sugar.  I think they're looking for a specific type of Pepsi.  While I wait on them to decide what they're doing with their Pepsi decision, I notice that there's an older couple right next to us looking at the red meat.  There isn't anything in their cart yet, and the woman is looking at the sale ad.  Pepsi Girls leave, and I don't see anything interesting with the old couple.  Plus, I've been standing in the spot for too long so it's time to leave.

The store isn't as busy as I thought it'd be.

I find another aisle with people.  They're at the opposite end.  As soon as I turn, another woman right behind me turns onto that aisle as well.  She walks much faster than I do.  Halfway down the aisle she throws her hand up in the air (like she just don't care).  Just then, two more people come up behind me in the baby section.  They look rough and ragged.  The girl has hair that's pulled up, but it's not smooth- pieces of it spring up on the top of her head.  I look down to see two tattoos on the back of each of her (Rough Rosie's) legs.  It's hard to look at them long enough to tell what they are because she moves around quickly.  She's kind of jumpy.  The guy Rough Rosie is with grabs a pack of formula/milk off the shelf.  She tells him, "No, not that one".  He responds with, "Yeah, it's the same thing."  She argues, "No, he don't like that one."  I glance towards the other end of the aisle.  The enthusiastic lady knows the people at the end.  She threw her hands up to get the attention of the baby that was sitting in the cart.  Rough Rosie and her man start to walk away, but the guy quickly turns around.  He asks her, "Do you have a bottle for it".  I'm not sure what her response was, but they come back into the aisle, and she quickly grabs a single bottle.  They leave.  By the time that I get done watching them.  The family at the other end is leaving the aisle.  I walk down there.  It looks like they were spending their time looking at the books and magazines on the shelf.

A few aisles over there are three women.  At a first glance I thought that they all knew each other, but I figure out that I'm wrong.  One immediately walks away from the other two.  I stay around to listen to the two left.  They don't have anything in their cart except chips.  For a while it's quiet between them.  One of them starts naming off the things they have- Frito Chips, Lays, Family Size.  I think I hear the other one address her as "mom".  She tells her that it doesn't matter, they're just chips.  She continues to ask for input and name off options.  Then she starts comparing prices.  A phone starts ringing.  Mom picks it up.  I assume the person on the other end of the line asks what she's doing, because she says "Nothing, just came to the store really quick."  After a few "oh's" and "ok's" they're off the phone.

On another aisle I see a little girl with an old woman, probably her grandma.  The little girl reaches up to grab something off the shelf.  She has to stand up on her toes.  She finally reaches it- it's a pack of Oreos.  She drops the package but picks it up quickly and they leave the aisle.  I follow them.  They walk all the way to the other end of the store.  It's a long walk.  On my way, I see the butterfly dress girl and her mom again.  We get to the end of the store and Grandma and her little girl decide to turn back around.  I stay where I'm at.

I see Flower and Brown again.  They haven't gotten very far through the store yet.  They've met up with another couple.  The four of them stand next to the apples and talk.  They still have two carts, plus their friend's cart now.  Their second cart is still empty.  As I watch them more closely, I realize how large they are.  Both of them are definitely overweight.  They end up parting with their friends and continue to browse.  At one point Brown holds up some type of produce to show Flower.  She approves, and says, "Yeah, that's fine."  I realize that their cart with the toy car on the front is almost full!

I walk in another direction.  I walk past the fish section and realize how badly it stinks.  I've walked past it at least three other times, but now it seems to smell much worse.

In another aisle there's an older woman deeply looking over a few items on the shelf.  She has three kids with her- one girl and two boys.  They all look to be about the same age, about 7 years old.  After deciding on what she wants, the woman puts it into the cart.  There isn't anything else in there.  She asks, rhetorically and somewhat to the kids, "What else do we need?"  She reminds herself, "We got milk yesterday . . ."  They turn around and start to leave the aisle.  The woman playfully says to the little girl, "I'm going to have to the other store all by myself."  The girl responds, but I can't hear what she says.

I walk around more.  I see Flower and Brown again.  They've moved a whole ten feet since I last saw them.  Their little boy in the car starts making faces.  It looks like he's getting a little anxious.  There's another lady next to them getting meat.  Behind them is a store employee waiting patiently to stock up the shelf.  Everyone is in the way.  Flower's little boy tries to get her attention.  She acknolwedges him, "What, baby?"  He doesn't say anything so she goes back to talking to Brown.  It doesn't look like they're moving anytime soon, so I decide to leave.

On my way out I pass the checkout.  I notice that the lady with three kids only had two items as they wait in line.

I walk out the door.