Unfiltered Story #247388

One morning, I walk into the local Trader Joe’s for a hopefully very quick visit on the way to my bus stop. The entrance aisle of this store is pretty narrow; you can just barely fit two people or two of the TJ’s skinny carts going past each other.

Walking in, I get stuck behind a somewhat slow-moving lady going in with a cart, who herself has to navigate quite carefully: over half the aisle is taken up by a middle-aged man who is just standing still with his own cart, facing in our direction. I don’t look at him too closely while walking by in a hurry, but I do notice that he’s definitely *not* looking at any of the products – which would have been the only good excuse for standing that way in that aisle. The entrance aisle doesn’t lead to any of the registers.

I quickly browse some products, don’t find anything to buy, get a coffee and food sample from the sample station, and head back out 5-7 minutes later.
I walk past the same man, who is *still* standing there with his cart, in the *same exact spot*, still blocking over half the aisle. This time I do look at him properly. He’s leaning on the cart, head bent down toward his hands.

He’s staring intently at the smartphone he’s holding; clearly browsing or texting on it. He’s utterly oblivious to the fact that he’s been blocking most of the entrance aisle to an extremely busy store and inconveniencing a ton of people.

Apparently, this middle-aged man has been standing in that spot for god only knows how long, completely engrossed by whatever he’s doing with that device, despite this being clearly one of the last places anyone sane should pick to stand around like a lump with their nose in a phone.