What's up with shopping? -- News-Gazette

 "What's up with all the shopping?"

is my latest published article in the

Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette

Sunday Guest Commentary Voices

January 29, 2023.

I welcome your comments.

What's in your shopping cart?

 

What’s in your shopping cart?

By Debra L. Karplus

I like to believe that I’m neither judgmental nor nosy, but when I’m out shopping, I can be a real snoop.  I’m referring to going into a brick and mortar store with real metal or plastic shopping carts to get groceries or things for the house, not online shopping with a virtual checkout and cart.  Since I’m not or rounding up young candy-craving children or checking my cell phone,  I have much opportunity to study what’s in other people’s shopping carts as I stand in the line and try to guess what their lives might be like based on what they’re purchasing.

Though admittedly, not a particularly patient person, retired, I’m rarely in a hurry, so it’s no inconvenience to wait in the longer slower line, which  happens nearly 100% of the time, and peruse contents of shopping carts of strangers.  At least one local supermarket, which shall remain nameless, has only one line which filters into several registers.  I’m in supermarket heaven while shopping there!

Recently, I spotted someone I knew while at the pharmacy.  I don’t think I’ve ever needed a cart at CVS or Walgreens.  But, in her cart were adult diapers.  She didn’t seem embarrassed, but I certainly was.  I could barely make eye contact. 

A male friend of mine told me he shopped with his foster daughter for feminine hygiene products.  Well, that’s just darn weird, in my opinion.

Typically, even before the pandemic and early morning senior hours, I shop in the morning.  Being a morning person, I find fewer crowds, thus I can shop relatively quickly, especially if it’s a store where I shop often and know where items are; I maintain a master list for weekly groceries and know the layout of the store.  The early morning shoppers seem speedy also.  When I see a customer with a cart filled with yummy treats, donuts, for example, I assume they’re en route to their job and are bringing the goodies.  I wonder where they work and what their job is.

Often, a shopper will have a cart filled with alcohol and party foods.  Though not, much of a drinker, I’m still curious about what sort of party they might be hosting, though rarely do I ask.

The dinner hour grocery shoppers, (and there are many), and usually waiting in long lines at checkout, are coming after work, I suspect, and trying to throw together some ideas for tonight’s dinner.  I try to avoid food shopping between the hours of four and six.

When I see someone, especially a shopper with children, pushing a cart filled with what I consider to be junk food, I have to exercise utmost discipline not to scold them about the evils of poor eating, though I myself may have been spotted with a bucket of ice cream, or an occasional indiscretion with a box of Hostess Snowbells in my cart, though I try to conceal it by strategically placing my large bag of oranges, salad greens, avocadoes or red potatoes over the top.

I also keep quiet when I see a cart with healthy foods.  Though, when shopping at Common Ground, I see so many interesting and different foods and beverages, that sometimes I occasionally do ask the shopper, because I’m open to trying new and healthy foods.

I’ve often shopped at Walmart where I have been in checkout behind someone with a very full cart of items such as many gallons of milks and some snack items individually wrapped like fruit chews or chips.  I deduce that they’re shopping for a day care.

I’m a different person when shopping at the big box home improvement store, Lowe’s, Home Depot, and Menards.  Since I love to tinker at home on small tasks, I’m always really intrigued when I see unfamiliar hardware in someone’s cart, especially those really big flat carts.  And, yes, I find myself asking “what project is that for?”  For me, these stores are an educational experience and plant the seed for some ambitious projects I may someday tackle, or maybe not.

Speaking of planting seeds, I find shopping at farm stores, Farm and Fleet and Rural King to be a great adventure.  I am and always have been a city girl, so it’s a whole other world to saunter through the aisles of these places.

So, confess, now’s your time to come clean.  When you’re out and about, don’t you shop with at least a thread of curiosity about the contents of people’ shopping carts?

Here's something to chew on -- Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette

 "Here's something to chew on"

is my latest published article in the

Saturday December 31, 2022

online & print edition of

Voices Guest Commentary

Champaign-Urbana News-Gazette.

I welcome your comments.

www.news-gazette.com.

Destination Delightful Denver -- Prime Life Times

 "Destination Delightful Denver" 

is my latest published article 

in the January 2023 PRINT edition of

Prime Life Times 

on page A-12.

I welcome your comments.

Things that defy logic

I’m puzzled by things that defy logic

By Debra L. Karplus

The world makes increasingly less sense to me all the time.  Being an incredibly logical person, I really struggle to find explanations and order.  Fortunately my inner peace isn’t dependent on that need, or I’d be an even more restless person than I’m already wired to be.

Living in a house built in 1907 near downtown Champaign, I had no concerns about using a dishwasher, because the house didn’t have one.  For the 38 years we lived there, soapy water, scrub pads and our working hands took care of all things dirty, and amazingly nobody got sick from any type of bacterial malady.

Since 2016, now in suburban southwest Champaign in a townhouse built c. 2002, we have a dishwasher.  I swore I’d never need to use it.  Even if guests would come for a meal, we’d clean up after dinner, the old fashioned way, and chat as we dried dishes together using a towel.

Researching an article for The Dollar Stretcher, a consumer-oriented online and print publication, I was startled by something that defied logic.  My article was about dishwashers and making then last longer.  What I discovered was that, unlike most anything we purchase, dishwashers actually last longer if we use them rather than not use them; otherwise the rubber door gaskets on them dry out and need replacing.  This was shocking to me.  After all, car tires last longer if you drive fewer miles.  Clothing lasts longer if you don’t wear it.

What a conundrum!

I generally take good care of my belongings; this dishwasher would be no exception.  So I decided I would try to remember to use the dishwasher approximately once a week, to make it last longer.  I don’t leave the house with appliances running, except of course the refrigerator and sump pump, so I have to allocate 1 ½ hours of being home for this weekly ritual.

Though my daughter’s family of 5 could probably run their dishwasher more than once daily, I’m challenged to find enough to fill mine up even weekly.  So I’ve become creative in what things I find while scurrying around the house that might need the supersonic sanitizing of a dishwasher.

My plastic blender, truly my best friend in the kitchen, reads “dishwasher safe”.  I took that literally.  But when it came out of the dishwasher and the lid no longer fit on it, I discovered why.  The blender had melted into a new position and took on a more oval shape.  So much for dishwasher safe!  My dishwasher is somewhat of a “frenemy”.  That’s a real word; look it up! I now own a new plastic blender that I enjoy washing by hand and that’s just fine.  And yes, it’s still my best kitchen friend.

The plastic dish drainer sitting beside my sink holds dishes that are easily rinsed and reused is great to wash in the dishwasher to keep it bacteria-free; it takes up a lot of space on the top dishwasher rack.

My red plastic scrub pad gets nice and clean in the dishwasher, as do toothbrushes, and combs and brushes.  Remember to be diligent about removing all hair first!

I noticed my metal HVAC vents look like they might need a bit of TLC.  I tried one in the dishwasher, and voila, it looks new and shiny again, so I have been washing the others as they fit alongside various things I find around the house to toss into the dishwasher to keep it lasting longer.

I thought about washing my pool flip flops in there, but frankly I’m a bit nervous about that.  They cost only $1, actually now $1.25 at the Dollar Tree store, but I’m worried that they’ll disintegrate inside the dishwasher and I’ll have tiny bits of rubber to clean out, so I’m reluctant.  A dilemma indeed.

***

Bikes, helmets, masks, cigarettes.  I have seen various combinations of these that truly baffle me.  I am a member of the local cycle club as are many of my friends, and I enjoy biking.  But non-bike club folks who bike wearing masks, but not helmets?  What’s up with that!  Smoking while biking, that confuses me too.  And people (not on a bike) slipping their mask down to their chin to have a smoke?  Well, that has me clueless.

I’m an astute observer and if I think about it, I’ll come up with some other observations that make little sense to me.  In the meantime, I’m hoping readers might add to my list.