All in a day's shopping....

I hope to post a longer update tomorrow, but for now I thought I'd share a humorous cultural experience.

To preface this story, you have to understand that some grocery stores here require that customers weigh their own produce before getting to the register. You put the fruits or veggies on the electronic scale, push a button that corresponds to whatever it is you are weighing, and the machine prints a label that you're supposed to stick on your zucchinis, apples, etc. The label tells what kind of produce it is, how much your items weigh, the price per kilogram, and how much you owe, with a barcode to be scanned at the register. Many cashiers become quite irate when customers try to buy produce that has not been weighed. Ingrid told me about this procedure the second day I was in Bremen, and I've been so terrified ever since that I'm perpetually paranoid about inadvertently skipping the weighing process.

And no, this is not a story about me finally forgetting. Sorry to disappoint you. So....

Yesterday I stopped at the grocery store to get a few things, and as I was bagging my groceries, the cashier began scanning the next person's items. The following exchange between the cashier and the customer caught my attention:

Cashier: "Oh, you didn't weigh these bananas. You need to go weigh them."

Man (probably in his 70s): "No, I did weigh them. I know I did."

Cashier: "But there's no label. You need to go weigh them."

Man: "But I know I weighed them."

Cashier: *gives him directions to the nearest scale*

Man: *starts to walk away grumbling*

Cashier: "Oh! Wait a second! Come back!"

Man: *walks back*

(At this point, I have finished with my groceries and am blatantly standing there watching the scene unfold, thankful it isn't happening to me.)

Cashier: "Turn around. Here's the label after all."

Somehow the man had managed to transfer the label from the bananas to the back of his jacket. The cashier was kind enough to remove it for him.

Man: "I knew I'd weighed those bananas."

Cashier: "Honestly, I didn't believe you."

Me: *laughing*

Man: "She's laughing at me."

Cashier: "But I'm not."

Me, suddenly very embarrassed: "I'm sorry. It could have happened to me, too."

Man, to the cashier: "She was laughing at me."

Cashier: "But she said the same thing could have happened to her."

Man: *grumbles something I can't understand*

Me, muttering, while inching toward the nearest exit: "I'm sorry. Have a nice day."

I have to applaud the man for successfully deflecting the attention away from himself. By the time I left, I think I was more embarrassed than I would have been if I'd forgotten to weigh the bananas.