Bread-swiping granny makes a scene in checkout lane at Aldi
So I’m at Aldi and this little old lady with a sweet, Southern twang, says, “S’cuse me, dahlin’,” as she reaches around me to grab a loaf of brioche.
I think to myself: “Awww, good manners aren’t dead.”
Then I realize: “Oh, yes, they are dead! And Granny Brioche is the one who killed them!”
That little, old lady feigned politeness to grab the last loaf of bread!
“What’s the big deal?” you might ask.
Well, I am a woman who loves her brioche. I also am also woman who loves her Aldi — and bread snatchers give my store a bad rap.
For those who don’t know, Aldi is a discount supermarket, where shoppers bag their own groceries, after plugging in a quarter to borrow a grocery cart. When I first started shopping there, dinged-up beaters lined the parking lot. My box-shaped Volvo was tucked in between them.
It was a simpler time. We all lived in harmony then. Well except for the time I got robbed in the parking lot. (I tossed my purse in the car with my groceries, turned my back and it was gone. I didn’t blame the store. I blamed myself.)
Fast forward 15 years. Recently, Aldi went organic and I’ve started spying Mercedes and Porsches in the parking lot. I’m not sure what the bread-swiping granny was driving. But she nearly drove me crazy.
As I stepped into the checkout lane, she leapt in front of me and began waving her arms like an air traffic controller. It took me a moment to realize she was signaling her son to cut in front of me.
Baby Boy was pushing a cart so overloaded with groceries you could hardly see him behind it.
“You should have mowed her down,” my twin sister, Melanie, told me, after I shared the ordeal. “Most Aldi shoppers are nice. That lady was an interloper.”
Facebook friends have my back; day gets better
When I posted the story on Facebook, several friends expressed similar opinions.
“One well-placed hip check and Granny would go down with only her brioche to break the fall,” my pal Jim Dissett wrote.
Another Facebook friend, Kiwi Carlisle noted: “I don’t care how little and old and Southern they are. I’m 66, which counts as old now. I don’t put up with their crap.”
I don’t know why I didn’t stand up for myself. I am not usually at a loss for words.
The good news is, my day got better from there.
The woman behind in line me didn’t have a cart. She was holding a gallon of milk and I figured her arms had to be tired. So I offered to let her go ahead of me.
In my own little way, I brought civility back to Aldi As shoppers, we can write our own stories. This one ended with a smile.
