Wednesday, May 5, 2010

The darker side of grocery store conveyor belt divider bars


So the other day I’m in the grocery store and getting ready to checkout. I get in line behind this lady and place my items on the conveyor belt. I left about a foot of space between my groceries and her groceries. To my surprise, she reaches over, gives me “the look” and places one of those divider bars between our groceries. I was shocked. Should I:

  1. have given more distance between our piles of stuff? (certainly 1 foot is enough space, right)


  2. have placed the bar down first. Thus becoming the “divider” rather than the “dividee”.


  3. and now do I have to place a divider bar BEHIND my stuff to avoid another border skirmish?


Then I realized it wasn’t the direct proximity of the groceries, but the groceries themselves. She just didn’t want my 3 pound bag of “Tuttie Fruittees” or 2-liter of “Diet Mountain Roar” hanging out with her name brand Fruit Loops and Mountain Dew. I felt all dirty inside. I had heard stories of food discrimination before, but never thought it would happen to me. And the worst part: the cashier just stood there and watched!

Having never faced this kind of blatant discrimination before, I did the only reasonable thing. I grabbed a pack of glow-in-the-dark condoms, put a big scratch across the barcode and then carefully placed them amongst her groceries. That way she was the one screaming, “those aren’t mine” while the cashier gets on the loudspeaker and asks for manager assistance with condoms.

And when she looked back at me with pure hatred in her eyes and I simply pointed at the conveyor belt divider bar, held my hands up and said, “It’s the law”.

Please don't let this happen to you or someone you love.

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