Supermarket outlaws

Yesterday, I was at the supermarket check-out line and I noticed that the woman in front of me had eight 24-can cases of coke in her shopping cart. In fact, that's all she had in it. Moments later, a man whom I presume was her husband, brought an empty cart and they transferred four of the cases from her cart to his. Then, they proceeded to nonchalantly and while chattering, pay separately for the soda. In fact, it turns out he was a little short of cash and she provided the needed funds.

The reason was clear, but to verify it, when I got home, I checked the flyer from the store that gets delivered to my door each week (the flyer gets delivered, not the store) and sure enough, the pop was on sale and there was a limit of four cases per family.

Now, not only did they clearly violate the terms of the sale, they also thought nothing of the husband butting in line. Of course, neither offence was serious enough to end in a lynching, though it might have had a deterrent effect not only on those two culprits but also on other would-be supermarket rule violators.

I don't generally call people out on immoral behaviour, but I have on occasion, and I'm feeling sorry today that I didn't that time. Bothersome also, is the fact that the check-out girl never batted an eye during the proceedings. I think she should have lost her badge or at least forced to clean up aisle five for a week or so.

I wonder if people would be as quick to break with store rules if there were a gallows with two dummies hanging from it in the centre of every supermarket with a sign that reads "THEY VIOLATED THE LIMIT OF FOUR PER FAMILY PURCHASE RULE". Or perhaps a man on a cross--I don't mean as a threat to be crucified, but as a reminder to be decent for Christ's sake. Well, either way.