waiting for gateau

at the grocery store:

1) chose the self-service checkout. out of 4 machines, one was out of order, one locked up in use, one was being used by someone who had only last week learned what money was, and the fourth was being used by a woman scanning and weighing individual grapes. or at least, that what it seemed like. i could feel my DNA decaying as i waited.

2) next day: choice of two lines; i took the shorter one. the woman in front of me had about 10 items, for a total of around $40. but she paid for them with some sort of vouchers, about 5 of them. not sure if it was food stamps or store credit, or what, but the cashier had to break up her groceries into groups that roughly matched the denominations of the vouchers, and ring each group separately. then the vouchers had to be signed by the buyer and the cashier, imprinted in the cash register, and some sort of serial # recorded on the back. this took approximately the same amount of time as carving mt rushmore.

3) chose the 10-items-or-less line today. in front of me were two people. unfortunately, the one in front didn't have enough money to pay for her purchase, so we all waited while the cashier called a manager to suspend the sale. during this time, while the cashier's on the phone, the moneyless customer kept bouncing various alternative plans off the cashier and suggesting ways they could consummate the sale without the woman actually paying full price. eventually, right before the mgr arrived, the customer rushed off "to the car to get [her] wallet". she was never seen again. i eventually paid for my groceries, but i halfway expected to receive my AARP card while waiting in line...



PS. apologies for the lack of gateau in this post. the pun in the title was weak at best; given dubious connection between gateau and groceries, it really doesn't work, and i will be first to admit it. be that as it may, the title still suggests that i'm erudite enough to know about Waiting for Godot, which unfortunately, i am not. sorry.