Go Grandma, with the environmentally sound grocery bag
Today's strip is from the suggestion of pogoer! I'm sure you're pumped to see it, and that you're treasuring the interaction with Al. Do you remember how your worded the suggestion? Honestly, I find that conversion fascinating. Al generally kept things pretty close to the suggestion.
Is the word "wagon" for a grocery cart common? I've always said "shopping cart" and have never heard "wagon." (Well, obviously, I've heard the word "wagon" before. But not in this context.) And really, by the time they've reached the parking lot, I think both Grandma and Biff Biceps have realized that there'd be no wagon/cart. (Side note: I hate those grocery stores that don't allow carts in the parking lot. Insanely inconvenient.)
It is a crap situation, but maybe Grandma should've asked someone when she was checking out. That's normally when you encounter the question of whether you need help. Though I do acknowledge that my purchases are more along the line of Biff's than Grandma's when the issue arises.
Labels: Alf, Crap Every Time reader, supermarket
posted by Barb @ 12:34 PM
6 comments
6 Comments:
I don't know about 'shopping wagon' -- I've always said shopping cart. Maybe 'wagon' is something New Yorkers said in the '40s to refer to such things? (I'm a native New Yorker too, but I got there a few decades after Al did.)
Yes, I'm very happy to have made a small contribution to TDIET, although the operative word is really 'bittersweet' since it's towards the end of the run. (And thank God it wasn't the very last strip -- that would've been just TOO weird.) I've actually discussed the process and TDIET in detail in an entry on my own blog (to add a shameless plug); my original submission was as follows.
*****
"Why is it that every time you go to the supermarket, the friendly cashier asks, 'Do you need any help out to your car with that?' — even if you’re, say, a burly construction worker who’s only buying a loaf of bread, some tomatoes and a jar of peanut butter — two pounds in all, tops.
But — When you buy 200 pounds of concrete mix at the home-supplies warehouse — or grandma buys 150 lbs. of sand for her grandchildren’s sandbox — then where’s the help when you actually need it?
I’m missing something here — right??!"
*****
So, fairly close (and I agree it would have been too much to show Grandma trying to heft three 50 lb. bags of sand). Al deserves credit for being a good editor of ideas, as well as a fine comic draftsman. I'm sad TDIET is going away, but I'm also glad we had Al around to keep it going as long as it did -- without him, it would have been history decades ago.
Congratulations, pogoer, and thanks for reposting your submission. Interesting how what you wrote was modified in the original cartoon (dropping the hardware store in favor of the grocery store and the change in the list from tomatoes to napkins).
Anyway, the clerk says "We don't have wagons" which implies they don't have any in the store either. How did Grandma lug all those heavy groceries around in the first place? Makes me think of my grocery store days, when the little old ladies would complain if I packed too many items in one bag because "it's too heavy and I have to go on the bus." I never asked them how the net weight would be any different if their groceries were packed in two bags versus six. Another checker had a woman complain that one of her bags was too heavy and wouldn't listen when he told her it only had one item in it and there was no way to make it any lighter.
Welcome to a now-permanently elite club, pogoer! My primary grocery also goes overboard on the offers of help, but I think that's really only because they don't trust patrons not to leave their "wagons" in the parking spaces. But then, sometimes they don't offer at all, even when I have a full load. I'm sure all Grandma really had to do was ask, but you know how old ladies can sometimes be, not wanting to make a fuss...
I've heard shopping carts are referred to as "buggies" in some places, but never heard "wagons."
"Buggies" is British, right?
And pogoer, sounds like Al took what you said pretty closely. Which is awesome.
I think the British term is "trolley."
I found a few Web sites where "shopping wagon" is used like "shopping cart" - maybe it's an American regionalism?
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