Got Me This Day…

my daily bread – for free.

Yup.

That’s right.

Gratis.

Like I won it…a breadwinner – heh.

The sweet gal scanning my groceries at the checkout totally overlooked scanning the rather pricey loaf of bread I was begrudgingly buying…and I’m not so sure it was by accident, either. The woman ahead of me had a number of items which only totaled to $4.07. The woman behind me was surprised to hear that her total was $5.00 (although she could have just been tickled that it worked out to an even dollar amount – some people are amused by such things).

These incidents made me wonder if the clerk was performing her own version of “la perruque” (using your employer’s time and equipment to do your own work – see Michel de Certeau’s The Practice of Everyday Life). Though instead of working for herself at her employer’s expense, her tactical approach is acting as a minimum-wage Robin Hood; slipping the odd item or two into grocery bags without scanning. Taking from Sheriff Corporation to give back to those of us sitting on the poverty fence.

It is surprising how good it feels to have gotten that loaf of bread for nothing. It gives me thoughts. Ideas for leveling the icing on the cake, if you know what I mean.

I wonder if Safeway is hiring?