Maine Woman to the Rescue

 

Yet another shopping nightmare: I've been spoiled with the Hannaford 'To Go' feature and hadn't ventured into a Market Basket for over 2 months, but there are some things that I can only buy there ... so when I do go, I replenish all the things that have a long shelf life, in multiples. Many of the things I stock up on are very bulky - pickles in enormous jars (in unlimited numbers, as many as I can handle), 2 liter seltzer waters, paper towel packages, a cube of soda cans, 10 lb of potatoes, you get the picture. 

Before I was halfway through the store, my cart was full. I felt frazzled. The store was busy (people were stocking up for Super Bowl Sunday - how dare they?), there were reminders of Valentine's Day chocolates everywhere and the music was loud. Plus I wasn't used to crowds, and this was ... a Friday crowd. It was one of the warmest days we'd had this year and sweat was forming on my upper lip under my mask (which very few others were wearing).

Two carts were needed! I knew that if I paid for one full cart and took my groceries out to the car, I'd be more than tempted not to go back in for the second half of the grocery list, which I'd been compiling on my fridge for more than 2 months. I was already overwhelmed and felt like bailing. To add to my space problems, I bring my own rigid shopping baskets for my purchases (the kind that don't fold down and compress, so take up a LOT of the space under my cart and in the child-seat area.) Oh woe!

I remember using 2 carts whilst shopping with my 2 toddlers back in the day, when I learned how to walk between two carts, pushing the handle of the front one and pulling on the basket of the rear one. It wasn't easy, but could be done. At that time, we had one car in the family, which Dale used for getting to work. I'd assemble a long grocery list, and then on the appointed day, get the "bunnies" up and dressed, drive Dale to work and the 3 of us would do our big shop together. It was what we did to get by; you manage. Shopping like this obviously took a long time, and it required me to keep my toddlers entertained, not fighting, and upbeat for the duration. They knew the drill, and behaved well - it meant we had the car for the rest of the day and could go out and do something exciting, like visit the local lake or a friend, plus they'd get to fetch their Dad at the end of the day.

Ok, back to the more current expedition... when I got to the dairy section, it looked as if there was no buttermilk on the assigned shelf. Argh, we'd wanted to make another batch of scones. There had been many things that were temporarily out of stock that day, or there were just two or three items left on the shelf. My entrenched Catholic guilt crept in each time, and I only took one in that case, when I would normally have bought more. I knelt on the outer edge of the dairy case and peeked up onto the back of the topmost shelf - there, lodged at the very back unreachable corner was the treasure I sought. But how to get it? I stepped back down and looked around, but suddenly there weren't any other people nearby - well, no tall ones anyway. There were also no people stocking shelves or using stepladders either. I wasn't going to let this buttermilk challenge defeat me! I needed this little victory. Hmm, what could I use to reach it?

Aha! My eyes lit on the "Maine Woman" magazine I'd picked up at the store entrance (a friend had written one of the articles in it). Reluctant though I was to wrinkle this copy, I rolled it into a tight tube, knelt back up on the edge of the dairy case, reached in with my Maine woman tube, and nudged, knocked and coerced that bottle onto its side and then forwards towards me until I could reach it with my hands - you just never know when you'll need a Maine woman to help you!

I wonder what the people watching the security cameras must have thought!

I got home hungry, since it was way past lunch time, but was super pleased with myself for having solved my problems, and especially for not having had a meltdown! My kids would be proud of me - I'd had to practice what I'd preached to them in the grocery store for so many years.