Grocery Store Etiquette

When I was in the canned food area of Kroger the other day, this older man came up behind me pushing his buggy. I was searching for Hunt's Tomato Sauce and didn't pay much attention at first.

I pushed my cart down another few inches to look for something else. He pushed his cart down another few inches.

I moved down a little further. So did he.

At all times, he was about two steps behind me. He wasn't looking for anything in that aisle at all. He was just standing there waiting for me to move, so that he could move.

Keep in move that I'm off to the side (I HATE it when people block the aisles with their buggies!), and out of the way. No one else was in the aisle, so he could have easily gone around me. Of course, he would have had to back up first, then go around, since his cart was almost becoming part of my body at this point. (So Very Annoying!)

It's like he didn't understand how grocery stores worked --like he had honestly never been before. Who does that? Have you ever heard of that happening before? I wanted to turn around and shove that cart back and knock him down. Or, at the very least, explain to him that we were NOT, in fact, at McDonald's, so he didn't have to wait in line. Ugh!

But, no, I didn't do any of that, because I'm a passive-aggressive wimp. I just lingered over the canned corn while he grew increasingly irritated. (Yes, I could tell he was annoyed at me... AT ME! What a jerk!) So, I lingered over the corn... SOME MORE!

Finally, I went over to the meat department (letting him get to the next aisle), because I had other things to do besides exasperate some middle-aged man all day. (My husband would tell you different...)

I've seen some pretty bad etiquette at the store, but I've never seen this particular "strain" before. (sigh)