Baby Food Confusion

Misunderstandings happen all the time. This is the story of something that happened to a friend of mine. We were on a flight to Germany when we saw that a mother turned down the airline baby food for her child because she had her own food for the baby girl. My friend mentioned how she wouldn’t mind taking the baby food if the flight attendants were just going to throw it out since it was unwanted. This occurrence led to her telling me a hilarious story about what happened to her in the grocery not too long before, a story about buying baby food. Again, this is my recollection of her story, so any inconsistencies or exaggerations are entirely of my own fault. Here is her story - let’s call her M.

 

M doesn’t have a child, but she loves the taste of baby food. To her, it tastes like a better kind of apple sauce. Baby food is, thus, not an uncommon purchase for her at the grocery. A few months ago, she was buying some snacks and frivolous items, and decided to put some baby food in her cart. When she got to the cash register, she realized she had only $25 in cash on her, and her debit/credit cards were forgotten at home. She forewarned the cash lady of her situation as the items are being scanned:

“I only have $25 on me, so let me know when the total hits $20. That way I can decide what items to take out.”

The lady at the register scans the items as they come by: bread, cola, freezies, baby food, chips – slowly the total reaches $20. The cashier gives her the head up and M looks at the many items not yet scanned, most noticeably the latest copy of Elle magazine. M decides to make that her final $5, but the magazine puts her over the limit.

“How much am I over the $25 by?” asks M.

“Just a dollar and seventeen cents,” responds the cashier.

“Okay... then let’s add the magazine and just take out the baby food.”

The cashier looks M straight in the eye: “YOU CANNOT BE SERIOUS!”

Not understanding the situation from the outsider’s point of view, M insists on her magazine and that the baby food is not as important as her fashion fix. Only when she walks out the store does M realize what the cashier perceived: that the baby can starve while she gets her fill of girly magazines, chips and pop.

The moral of the story is for all the cashiers out there: judge not unless you know the whole story – and remember that adults like to eat baby food too sometimes.