Generic observation that would generically fit into a Media Studies or Women’s Studies class, by way of long intro on supermarket shopping
Waiting in line at a Fred Meyers behind a lady prone to say “oh dear”. She is having trouble figuring out how the bill is so high, saying “Oh dear. I wasn’t prepared to pay that much.” The cashier is gracious enough in this situation, throwing darts as to what might have tipped the price a bit more steeply than she was expecting.
The “oh dear” lady gives the last ditch effort to garner some semblence of control over her uncontrollable situation. “Why, I think I will do all my shopping at Safeway from now on.” The cashier looks on, blankly.
My experience tells me that Safeway is ever-so-slightly more expensive than Fred Meyers, and has a more obnoxious card system, more obnoxious to people like me who’d prefer the corporation not have my shopping information on hand. Regretably Fred Meyers has a card of sorts, which doesn’t give you a phony discount (phony in the sense that I’m prone to buy whatever brand is on sale, so I’m not really “saving” the amount the receipt claims I am), but does eat into the promotional budget such that I can draw a line from its existence to fewer coupons and cents off. I once had a Fred Meyers cashier ask the customary “Have a card?”, and after I said “no”, say “Good idea. Best to keep out of the database.” I swear I wanted to tip that guy right then and there. At any rate, the “oh dear” lady is not keeping up with inflation, and this is a case of the sticker shock that meets us all when we stare at something and ask “How can that puny thing possibly cost so much?”
Waiting for the denoument of the proper item being either taken out of the shopping melee, or for her to gulp it down and pay for everything — overpriced though it may be, I glance over at the periodicals. I see the headline, on a sidebar of what I don’t think is People but is something like People II, “Swimsuits for every Body Type”. The picture it shows underneath these words is of Kate Hudson in a small bikini. Which, I suppose, is a swimsuit for a particular body type… the body type that you see appearing on most magazines that have the impetus to show a picture of a woman in a bikini.
Whatever sells magazines.