Earlier today as I was penetrating the freshness seal on my grated Parmesan, I was instantly transported back in time remembering it’s difficult journey from the Giant to my kitchen. Let me first preface this by telling you that Wednesday is senior day at Giant foods. “Why is this relevant?” you may ask?
There are myriad reasons that I could give you but unless you’ve ever been food shopping with your over sixty five Nana you may have a hard time grasping exactly how fraught with danger this can be. Everyone of the surly old people comes in angry and ready for a fight. The prices are crazy, the manager is taking too long to respond to endless complaints, the cashiers give terrible customer service, the aisles are too skinny and the shelves too tall to reach.
These are all valid issues and I do feel for these decrepit souls wandering around in vain trying to buy enough to last them until the next miserable trip to this Godforsaken place, however I was only there this Wednesday to get one item. Cheese. You see, my ten year old daughter loves Parmesan cheese on her pasta and won’t eat a morsel without it. So now you understand why we dial it to def con 4 when there are only a few sprinkles left.
I unfairly used my youth (39 is the new 20) and agility to maneuver, shopping cart free, through the maze and used laser precision to zero in on my target. This is where I made my crucial error. I offhandedly cut in front of an elderly woman who initially appeared harmless and grabbed what looked like one of many bottles of sprinkle cheese. I now know that this was the last Parmesan. Only Romano remained. The old lady can’t eat Romano, as a matter of fact she HATES it. First she shot me the same look that Chief Brody gave the mayor of Amity when he made the ill fated decision to open the beaches for the 4th of July holiday weekend with a man eating great white still on the prowl, then she started her shrill verbal assault.
I backed away quickly and thought about running, but changed my mind.
Old age is not a license to be an a**hole. Anarchy could rear it’s ugly head if this type of behavior is left unchecked. So I used my junior psychoanalysts calm voice to shame her into silence. NO, I did not feel good about this later, but my daughter ate her lunch for the rest of the week.
Anyone who is mean to old people is a friend of ours! Thanks, Kelly, for this Three Day Weekend submission! You all can find Kelly at her blog, The Deluded Binkinsnosh.
About Guest Writer
The grocery store is KILL OR BE KILLED on old people’s day.
Twitter Name: izzymom
@IzzyMom, Those old ladies with the bingo wings and the Rascals are the WORST. Absolutely VICIOUS. Especially when the bananas are already good and yellow.
I realize that it is frustrating, but God willing we will all be old someday. Have a little respect for the elderly!
But they should respect us as well!
Our grocery has a “Thursday Sale”- and the older folks like a deal as much as I do. They are mean. They smell like moth balls and bacon. And I’ll be damned if they’ll beat me to the last sale box of cookies! I applaud you.
Twitter Name: tenakim
My mom (who has been taking care of all our elderly family members for years) is fond of saying “cranky young people become cranky old people.” Hope you referred her to the store management to complain about the lack of a properly stocked cheese selection :)
Twitter Name: Texas_Red
I live right by an entire town that is only for seniors and, therefore, every single trip to Trader Joe’s is like senior day. It’s a mad house, but I’m too lazy to drive to the Trader Joe’s that’s further away so I just face the angry elderlies. I thought old people were supposed to be sweet???
Wednesday is senior day at our grocery store. Every wednesday I treck down there with my 74 year old grandma. The worst parts would have to be:
-The brused shins from being run into by the ones on the motorized carts because they don’t say excuse me they just run into you.
-The fact that my grandmother reads the packaging on EVERYTHING, even things she’s been buying for the last 50 years, so a 30 minutes trip turns into a 3 hour trip.
- The store has an overall strang smell on Wednesday.
Twitter Name: unknwndreamer
See all of the grocery stores are old people day on Saturday’s where I used to live. I avoid them like the plague. Old shoppers are rude and nasty.
Twitter Name: maryjors
The grocery store nearest my house is across the street from a nursing home. EVERY DAY IS SENIORS’ DAY. Needless to say, I shop at the grocery store that’s a 10-minute drive away, instead!
Twitter Name: Amy_Urquhart
Hmmmm, thoughts from a 70 year old. When I was 20, I used to think 50 was old, then when I reached 30, I moved the bar up to 60. 40 had me thinking maybe 70 was old. 60 I felt like 40 and it was an OMG, where does the bar go now??? I’m really distressed to hear there are so many of you who feel over 60 is nasty. There is never an age appropriate for rudeness nor common human decency. Now that I’m 70, I will remain 45 forever, and will treat all people with the respect that I feel I have earned just making it to 70 and beyond. And I agree, you will soon enough be over 60. Love you, Anne aka/@WealthOfHealth
please read in above post “there is never an age…nor lack of common human decency…”
I just found that the older “some” people get, the harder they are to understand. Oh and I’m talking about my parents. LOL
Timely entry as I was nearly run over by a woman backing up her motorized cart last week. But my favorite part about Senior Citizen’s Day is the check writing. Yes, there are *still* people who write checks. And no, they won’t start writing the actual check until they get the total. And then they’ll slowly write the check. Of course they’ll take the time to complete the register page, too. Not like they get receipts or anything. I’ve been completely checked out before some people have finished recording the amount in their check register. I heart senior citizens.
Twitter Name: tansasser
I think a lot of older people refuse to accept that they are, in fact, getting older. So it’s not that their eyesight is fading, it’s the manufacturer’s that make the labels too small to read. It’s not that the grocery store has made the shelves taller, it’s that osteoporosis is robbing them of inches. And the lack of being able to do what was once easy makes then cranky.
It’s easier to cop the attitude “it’s your fault, not mine.”
Still, there’s really no excuse to be an asshole. Courtesy should be extended to the elderly AND BY the elderly.
And the first one to the cheese wins. That’s the rules.
I avoid Kroger on Senior Citizen Tuesday because one of these days, I’m going to hurt someone.
Twitter Name: NonaNelson