Question: You are walking down the cookie aisle of the grocery store when you are forced to come to a stop due to another shopper with a grocery cart hindering you from continuing through the aisle. What do you do next?
A. Politely say “excuse me”
B. Turn around and head to a different aisle. You can always come back.
C. Stand directly behind your fellow shopper, hands clenched on the shopping cart handle, staring at them intently, silently willing them to move out of your way.
Normal people do A or B. Freaks do C. I am certainly not alone in observing this sort of behavior in the grocery store, however. As my friend Susie says about the people who practice C, “I’m supposed to read your mind and know what your next move is?” She is very right. Why do I have to assume I am in your way? On the contrary, you are advancing toward being in my way.
Maybe we, as a society, have forgotten how to be polite and kind to others. It is a shame however, because we can benefit both physiologically and psychologically just by practicing kindness.
My belief is that some people are under the assumption they are so superior to others that they shouldn’t have to say “excuse me.” Instead these weirdos believe that everybody else should be on the lookout for them and, should they dare be in the way, must say: “pardon me your royal highness, please allow me the opportunity to move so that you can conserve your precious time.”
This is the bottom line to this grocery store behavior dissection: If you want to live a longer, happier life then simply utter those 3 syllables (ex-cuse-me). If you refuse to do so, then the world will be a kinder place in the long run without your miserable attitude.
Win-win.
WHAT'S WITH PEOPLE? 