In
Hy-Vee today, as I placed my few items on the checkout conveyor belt, the
middle-aged lady in front of me, who was completing her purchase, turned and
told me that I must put my items back in my cart so that the cashier could
first clean the conveyor belt. It is what they do here, she said.
I smiled graciously and put my things back in my cart. (She could not see my smile, since I was of course wearing a mask, but I smiled anyway because I am so nice.)
However, it was only with some difficulty that I resisted the impulse to show that I am au courant with the latest slang by replying “Thank you, Karen” and ignoring her. But I did not wish to perhaps appear as a central subject in some YouTube video entitled “man hit over head with purse (or pepper-sprayed, or, these days, shot) by enraged woman at grocery store”.
The cashier and I chuckled a bit after she left--but while she was there he did, while muttering a bit under his breath, industriously spray a great deal of fluid on the belt and vigorously scrub it with a paper towel, something I am sure he would not have done without her considerate intervention. I felt so much safer!
