Envision this:

Person A: You are in the checkout lane and while your groceries are being rung up a friend walks by and you step out into the large main aisle to chat with her.

While you are chatting, the person behind you in line comes up to the turntable and begins taking your bags from the turntable and putting them into her cart! How would this make you feel? Would you say anything?

Or what about this?

Person B: You are waiting in line and kind of letting your mind wander. Suddenly you look up and see that the person ahead of you is out in the main aisle talking with a friend. You suddenly think, “Oh wow, A is finished and my groceries are being scanned! So you move quickly up and begin putting bags into your cart.

Here is what happened next in this true story.

Person A quickly realizes someone is taking her items and gets a very unhappy look on her face.

Person B looks into the bags, sees cat food and realizes those groceries do not belong to her. She exclaims, “Oh, these are yours!” Trying to lighten the mood, she says, “I don’t even have a cat, so I for sure know these are not mine.”

B still thinks A has paid, but is just chatting in the aisle. Then, B realizes that A is NOT EVEN CHECKED OUT and says, “Oh, you are not even checked out yet!” B quickly backs into her place and moves her cart back.

B says, “I DO apologize!!”

A is not happy at all, says something with a frown, and finds no humor whatsoever in this scenario.

——

I am B. I wish there was a “C” option. 

Now if I had a certain frame of mind, I could have laughed about that all the way to the car. Instead, my people-pleasing brain wanted call after the lady, “I really am a nice person! I am not rude and pushy!”

Maybe writing about this is a bit cathartic for me. I am admitting to you that I did something very embarrassing. You know, sometimes crazy things just happen. Ya gotta grin and move on.