"Julia Altshuler" > wrote:
> ~patches~ wrote:
>
>> What I find odd is how anyone could stand in line, anaylze someone else's
>> purchases, then feel self righteous because their food choices were
>> somehow better. I figure it is none of my business what others buy. I
>> hate standing in line anyway so I have a lot of ebooks on my PDA. Once
>> in line, I pull out my PDA and amuse myself. The good thing is because
>> of my shopping habits this doesn't happen often.
>
>
> I was wondering if anyone else would comment on this. I don't even see
> what's in other people's shopping carts. Why on earth would I care if I
> did notice? And if I did notice, how could I know what the people were
> doing with the groceries? A fat woman might be buying the junk food as
> part of getting supplies for an office party. It could be part of her
> job. (I don't speculate on people's sex lives either.)
>
>
> As for what to do in line, the PDA is the wrong way to go. If you do
> that, you'll miss the chance to read (but not buy) Archie comics and The
> Weekly World News.

I guess I don't look at whats's IN other people's shopping carts, but I most
certainly do look at what's on the conveyor belt in front of and behind my
order. I'm not sure if it is self righteousness as much as it is just
curiosity. I do wonder about the single male with a big stack of frozen
dinners. And I'm pretty sure it's not for an office party, etc. I do wonder
about those who don't use the store's club card (week after week, so they're
not making a one time visit to the store). Even with no conscious planning,
they could be saving a fair amount of money. I might see something a person
has on the counter I'm not aware of and it might give me some ideas. Since I
buy slightly odd produce at times, often the cashier asks what it is, and
sometimes how to use it. I don't mind explaining what one might do with it.
And I don't mind if other customers behind me in line overhear the
conversation.

I'm an observer of life, and I want to see what's going on around me. I
don't have to be entertained with electronic gadgets. You can learn a lot by
being aware of your surroundings and what's going on. Maybe I'm a busybody,
I don't know. A couple of years ago I had a neighbor who might have appeared
to be a nice single mom with two small kids. But if one was more observant,
one would see a drug addict/alcoholic with two small kids who rarely went to
school and who got into various types of mischievousness due to lack of
supervision. I'm not sure if she was technically a prostitute, but she got
various "favors" in exchange for sexual services. I remember one "regular"
who came around in his fancy car saying to his friend "the bitch stood me
up", when he didn't get what he came for that day. She drove her kids around
in her unregistered, uninsured, uninspected car, without a drivers license.
One day when she went out on a drug buy at 4 AM, the police spotted her,
arrested and booked her, and impounded the car. She was eventually evicted
for nonpayment of rent. That last part, the eviction, is probably all a lot
of the neighbors knew about the situation. If someone had intervened, in
some way, I think she and her kids could have been helped. I know I pondered
for a long time calling the truancy people at the school system about the
kids, but never got to it before she was evicted. I'm pretty sure it's just
going to be another cycle of inner city kids that repeats.

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