Stranded on a Desert Island: Grocery Style

At about ten on Monday night Kati and I finally got around to making a grocery run. Since she doesn’t have a car we tend to go together every other week or so. As is our habit we chatted while moseying from aisle to aisle occasionally dancing to the music piped into the store.

Finally we had wandered through the entire store, grabbed the last two things on our lists (bread and peanut butter) and headed to the checkout stands when the store went completely black! Kati and I gingerly pushed our cart to the front of the store. We watched as employees grabbed flashlights from the store shelves and walked around the store. Out the front windows we could see that all the lights in the neighborhood were out, including the main stoplight. Miraculously one self-checkout kiosk still functioned. Customers began to cluster in some semblance of a line behind the lone checkout counter. The screen of that kiosk froze as the older woman in front of us tried to type in the skew number of her lone Idaho potato.

The manager then announced to the weary crowd, “Since the backup generators aren’t coming on. Customers are welcome to take one item from their cart for free and leave. Employees will reshelf the remaining food.” Customers near the front repeated the announcement for the people behind them until everyone began to play the game of stranded on a desert island.

The guy next to us pulled a rack of lamb from his small basket and booked it for the door before the power had a chance to come back on. Slowly Kati and I began picking through our cart weighing the decision carefully. Hungry, I settled on the bag of frozen potstickers. She wisely chose the package of toilet paper.

While standing in front of the microwave later that night watching my plate of potstickers turn I couldn't help but shake my head and smile. I would just have to visit the grocery store again this week for the fruit, milk, bread, and yogurt I was forced to abandon in that Safeway cart. Because woman cannot live off potstickers alone.

Lessons

I was reading a talk by Elder Ballard called Finding Joy through Loving Service while on the bus this morning. At the second stop I watched a man quickly stand and offer his seat to the pregnant woman who got on.

I think I'll remember the one lesson much longer than the other. Nice try Elder Ballard, but random bearded man with coffee in hand totally had your Ensign article beat this morning.

Thanks though.