Jamie Fehr

This is a short story centering around a recent encounter at the local supermarket. It was a mostly average Tuesday (That is Tuesday Oct. 31st, Halloween was still hours away) morning, mostly average except for that in the last two and a half months I had only been out buying food once. The time had come to make the official three supermarket food run that happens every now and again around here.

The first stop was at ALDI’s. Not much happened there. I wanted to buy eggs but they were out so I had to save it for the second stop, LIDL’s. We got to LIDL’s and I proceeded to fill up my coworkers cart with food that I intended to buy (I didn’t have the euro coin necessary to unlock my own cart). After not much time at all I had found everything that I was looking for except for those eggs that weren’t at ALDI’s, so I ditched the group in search of some precious huevos(eggs).

I knew where the eggs were normally kept in LIDL’s so I thought finding them would be a simple task. But when I got to the egg bin, again I encountered no eggs. This was getting a little frustrating. I turned around to head back to the cart grab my things and head to the checkout. I managed to walk not one step. For in front of me appeared this friendly and aging Spanish gentlemen.

“Tengo una pregunta (I have a question)” Was the first words out of his mouth. Me being the helpful and friendly young man that I am responded back with a pleasant “¿Sí?” He then proceeded to show my a flyer for the particular store that we were in and asked “¿Cuanto ancho es este mueble?(How wide is this furniture?)”

Yo no Sé. I don’t know
¿Tú no Sabes? You don’t know?
No, yo no sé. No, I don’t know
¿Por qué tú no sabes? ¿Donde está tu nombre? Why don’t you know? Where’s your name? (Touching the breast of my shirt)

It was at this point that I realized that I was being mistaken for a LIDL’s employee. So I took action.

¿Qué? Yo no trabajo aqui. What? I don’t work here.
¿Tú no trabajas aquí? You don’t work here?
No, yo no trabajo aquí. No, I don’t work here.
Lo siento mucho, con esta camiseta tú pareces cómo alguien qué trabaja aquí. I am very sorry, with that shirt you look like someone who works here.

And he walked off to go find someone who is paid to answer questions like his. It wasn’t a long or uncomfortable encounter and for the most part I was happy with it because at no point during the conversation was the language a problem that needed overcoming. And as a side note I did eventually get my eggs at our third stop in Carrefour.

And so the moral of the story is don’t wear old work shirts to the grocery store unless you want to chance being mistaken as somebody who can answer questions.