Not too long ago I made a little jaunt to our local grocery store. In general, I loathe going to this store, Pure Gold. There's nothing gold about it, really. After getting through the security guards to enter the building, and the security guards to go through the turnstile, you are thrust into an oasis of low quality junk food, most of which is individually wrapped for resale. When I say junk food, I mean you'd be hard pressed to find something that doesn't have MSG or High Fructose Corn Syrup or both. Anyway, I frequent this store once a week or so to pick up a necessity or two. Honestly, the worst part is the awful music that they blare over the loudspeakers. It's usually a mix of techno meets boy band, and it's played so loudly that it rattles your bones. I don't know if I've had a 'good' experience there yet.
So, I decided to go one evening to pick up an essential that Anna and I could not live without for the night...beer. Alcohol prices are pretty golden at Pure Gold (.70 beers, $5 bottles of gin, $3 bottles of wine). I decided to get a weeks worth of booze, I hoped, so I didn't have to return to the Gold any time soon. I picked up about 14 beers, 1 rum and coke in a bottle, and 2 bottles of wine. I did also grab a head of cabbage and some carrots for slaw, as well.
Well, I knew exactly where all of my necessities were located, and I thought I could get in and out in no time. I'm usually wandering around for at least an hour trying to find a can of tomato paste that's not in a bag labeled "sweet sauce." I grabbed my beer, put it in my cart, a two wheeled basket, and I head towards the check-out line. I'm feeling really good about myself. It's been 10 minutes max and I'm on my way to check-out. That is, until I hit the "crack." You know those signs in England that say "Mind the Gap" well they should be plastered at this Pure Gold. I thought that I was crossing your normal seam in the concrete floor, however this one was a apparently a little wider than most, and before I knew it, my little pull cart was stuck in the crack and sliding out of my hands. I couldn't recover my grip, and low and behold, my basket of booze was rolling across the Pure Gold floor. I didn't so much see as feel every Filipino eye in the place look to see what happened. There I am looking like the alcoholic foreigner with a basket full of beers. Before I could even bend down to pick up my mess, 4, that's right four, workers were hunched over shoving the beer and wine back in my basket. I don't know if they were being kind, or if they were embarrassed for me. There was one stray bottle that was spewing from the top like old faithful, and the nice gentlemen worker held it up, looked at me, and began to put it back in my basket. I tried to say "no", but he wouldn't have it, so I walked away with 13 shaken and one leaky beer.
Once all of my beers were back on board, I headed to the check-out line where I proceeded to wait for a good half an hour with every other person staring at me. As I looked at other people's buggies, I realized that I was the only one that had any alcoholic drink in their cart...and not just one, but a whole cart full.
Nothing is easy, not even getting some beer, at Pure Gold.
No comments:
Post a Comment