Pound of Ham

I love my local grocery store and for the purpose of this story, let’s call it Sam’s. It’s a small chain in the Southeast Michigan area that has good quality, great variety and very nice people. They seem to carry higher-end stuff at prices that are pretty much in line with the other chain stores. We’ve tried the other stores and for the most part they are dirty, carry poor quality, and many of their low priced items are things I would never buy and if I had, I’ve found it to be under par.

Every Friday is grocery day. Most people would probably find Friday night as the worst possible time to shop but I have lived with my boyfriend for over 4 years so it’s no longer necessary to put aside Friday night as a ‘date’ night or as a ‘go out with the girls’ night. We have also found it to be a great time to work out. Post workout we shower up and hit the store. We rarely feel like cooking that night so we pick up prepared foods at Sam’s to bring home for dinner. For the most part, Sam’s is not too crowded. If it is a particularly nice evening which has brought people outside, there might be a bigger crowd picking up beer or bar-b-que ingredients but it’s never Saturday crazy which suits me just fine. I don’t like battling crowds anywhere. If I could get myself to ship late at night or early in the morning I would prefer that even more but Friday night has turned into almost a tradition. It almost makes me feel mature, giving up the Friday night urge to party and instead spending quality time ion the meat department with my boyfriend.

So the night was usual, we get to the far corner of the store where the wines sit next to the long deli counter that extends to the other corner. It covers all the necessities: deli meats, deli salads, prepared food including fried chicken, mashed potatoes and fries, prepared dinner foods such as quesadillas, barbeque ribs, scalloped potatoes, half rotisserie chickens and ends with a beautifully decorated dessert case filled with sweets I am too intimidated by to even try. As my boyfriend wandered down to the rotisserie chicken I asked the young kid behind the counter for a half pound of Sahlen’s ham. I recently discovered that Sahlen’s turkey did not have msg and I assume, and still assume that the ham doesn’t either. Either way, it’s good quality and reasonably priced. I mentioned to the kid I didn’t see it in the case and he said he would cut me some. He pulled the ham out, laid it on the slicer and continued talking to the other young kid behind the counter. Both looked to be barely in their early 20’s, so their conversation of baseball (I think) and recent trading of players (possibly) was nothing noteworthy, nothing worth paying attention to. Sometimes when the employees start talking you can get some juicy gossip: the fender bender in the parking lot last night, so-and-so who didn’t show up for work today will be written up, etc. He turned from the slicer toward me and the scale and said, “You wanted a pound? Uh-oh, he sliced twice the amount I wanted. “Oh no, sorry I wanted half a pound.” I know it was an innocent mistake, I wasn’t mad; it’s the type of mistake I’ve made. Your mind is somewhere else and you’ve half heard the directions. I was about to say ok, I’ll take the whole pound (because what that meant for me was more meat on my five lunch sandwiches for the next week) and he said, “No don’t worry, no problem.” He lifted about half the meat and started the scale. He pushed the button for the price sticker and threw down the remaining half pound he was holding and gave me a quiet ‘shhh’.

Now ordinarily I would be having a little celebration in my head. Technically this is stealing because I am getting more than what I pay for, but as a regular customer of the store and a generally honest person, I feel little guilt getting this half pound of ham for free. Sadly, there is no celebration. I am much more focused on the dried booger hanging in the kid’s left nostril. It’s dried and barely clinging to what I assume is nostril hair. It moves very slightly with the inhales and exhales and I hold my breath in hopes it doesn’t break free. All I can think of is my ham; my wonderful Sahlen’s ham that I will be eating Monday through Friday around 1:00. I manage to crack a smile and thank him. As he wraps it up with priced sticker, I can focus on nothing else other than his nose. I toss the lunchmeat in my cart and slowly roll away.