The Angel of Jewel-Osco

"Sir, you don't have to slap your hand down on the counter like that if you want me to help you."

"Well maybe if you people would do your jobs I wouldn't have to slap my hand down on the counter."

Son of a bitch, here we go again. Jewel has gone and got Mark pissed off.

"This chocolate cake is supposed to be five dollars. I was charged ten. See here..."

And again, Mark slaps his hand down on the counter where he has thrown the Jewel store circular.

"I'll slap my hand down as much as I want until you people learn to price things correctly."

I can see the lady behind the counter steaming with rage as she grabs the circular and looks it over, then looks at the cake.

"Sir, the cake on sale is the hazel nut cake, this is a chocolate cake."

Counter lady wins round one. I knew it would be something like that. You have to read every word, look at every tag at that store. It's like they're trying to trick you into buying the wrong thing. I've been stuck like that a few times. So it seemed the lady behind the counter had got Mark on that one. But Mark had another thing to slap his hand on the counter about, which he did.

"Your cashier charged me for two Bounty paper towels. I only bought one. You people are incompetent rubes."

I have to give the lady at the Jewel service desk credit. As much as she wanted to reach over and drag Mark across the counter and choke him, she didn't. I on the other hand, was not happy with Mark's behavior. So I quietly apologized to the lady as Mark stormed off towards the exit.

"Don't you apologize for me!" Mark called back to me.

One more thing about the Jewel on Saturdays. Every Saturday they have a bar set up for tasting alcoholic beverages, presided over by a very friendly lady who has become my shopping savior. In fact, because I joke with her and she sees me every week, I get more than the tiny little shot that most folks get. A nice pour of vodka usually, and then I feign interest in another beverage. Bam, another nice shot of alcohol. It makes shopping with Mark slightly more tolerable.