by Tim Churchill (Spokane, WA)SHOPPING AT THE MARKET was an experience I could write a whole story about. The little things are what struck me the most. Weighing fruit created a bit of stress for me as a large line began growing when I realized that I had to weigh the fruit and get a price tag on it before getting into the checkout line. While my wife ran to the back of the store to weigh the fruit, and put price tags on it, I was surprised by the patience the customers had for my mistake. They stood quietly, with smiles on their faces. Along with weighing the fruit, it took longer than usual because gloves were required to be used while touching each piece, another change I witnessed that was small, yet large in my memory.
My largest confusion has been the language barrier. Often, I do not give the customer service representatives enough credit for how much English they know. I embarrassed myself slightly as I thought the server was trying to get me to buy more than one pastry so I kept saying “no”. However, he was asking me if he wanted the pastry “to go” in English. His accent was a bit of dissonance I took for his Italian language. Yet, it was me not paying close enough attention.
