Savvy Shopper

Shopping has always baffled me. It should be simple enough. You go to the store, select an item that you want/need, provide the cashier with some money and leave with your purchase. Easy, right? But no, shopping is needlessly complicated not by the shops themselves, but by the customers who frequent them! I did a previous post (which can be read here) in which I describe the various types of shoppers out there:

• The Ankle Bashers - these are people so focused on their shopping that they are completely unaware of their surroundings and proceed to wheel their trolleys into your ankles, usually being very unapologetic afterwards.
• The Long-lost Friends - these are people who haven't seen each other in ages and decide to catch up on lost time, usually in the middle of the pasta aisle.
• The Confused - these are people who will debate the merits of buying one brand of gherkins over another, usually for lengthy periods and also in the center of the aisle

This past weekend I had an experience that has inspired me to add another category to my list; The Oblivious Shopper. I was standing in front of the spices looking for a specific one when I felt something being added to my shopping basket. I glanced to my left to find a woman loading a few items into my basket without once looking in my direction. Behind her stood her extremely amused husband, watching the proceedings with a slight shake of his head. After his wife had wandered off, presumably to go ambush someone else with toilet paper, we removed the items from my basket and placed it in his. We were both having a good chuckle at the sheer absurdity of the situation. He then followed his wife to prevent her from adding tomato sauce to another shopper's trolley.

What is it about shopping that turns intelligent people into retail zombies? Walking into a store appears to lower your IQ by 50 points and causes you to do strange and unusual things like adding items to a complete stranger's basket or discussing the merits of No-Name Brand Baked Beans in the middle of the aisle. I would speculate on this strange phenomenon further, but I have to go check the fat content of canned peas......