Quite a few people were showing signs that they had not eaten in recent memory. A couple were arguing at an end-of-aisle display of chips. ‘But I don’t like that kind!’ said the exasperated husband. Lots of chip bag rattling.

The family in front of us in the checkout line had a heated discussion over something, and the person who appeared to be the mother-in-law stomped off to either look for a substitute or to return the item in question. Their cart held, it turned out, almost $400 in luggage, turkey burgers and Rainier cherries, among other things. Their cherries looked nicer than mine, so I’ll assume they dug down in the unopened boxes. But everyone knows that if you’re going to buy those very excellent cherries, they will jack up your bill by triple digits.

Not to be left out, I fumed when a family member questioned whether we actually had room in our smallish freezer for the box of 36 ice cream bars (assorted). Indeed, I am in here polishing off some of the miniature frozen cheesecakes so those bars could squeeze in. Now really, do you think I would have considered buy them if I wasn’t sure I could toss out all the freezer-burned old meat, therefore making room?

And I had eaten supper before shopping.