The Need For Seaweed

(My partner and I are picking up one or two things from the grocery store. We find a box of seaweed snacks sitting randomly on a shelf in the frozen foods section. They’re in my favorite flavor, which has been increasingly hard to find, so we take the whole box — about ten snack packs — up to the self-checkout with us. While we’re waiting, the lady in front of us turns and sees the snacks.)

Lady: “How much are those? Were there more of them?”

Partner: “I’m not sure. We found just this one box in the freezer section where it wasn’t supposed to be, so it didn’t have the price.”

Lady: “Oh. They’re really tasty.”

Me: “Yeah, they’re my favorite.”

(She turns away. A couple moments later she turns back:)

Lady: “Were there more of those? Or did you take all of them?”

Me: “I’m not sure. We found these in the freezer section, where they’re definitely not supposed to be, so there might be more somewhere else.”

Lady: “I think they stopped carrying them. I haven’t seen them around lately.”

(She turns away. A few seconds later:)

Lady: “Are there any more of those? Or are those the only ones?”

Me: *not sure how else to explain this* “Um, I’m not sure. There might be more elsewhere in the store, but I don’t know because we didn’t find these where they were supposed to be.”

Lady: “Okay.”

(She turns away. A moment later she calls over the employee who is watching over the self-checkout area.)

Lady: “How much are these? Are there any more of them?”

Employee: “Um, I’m not sure…”

Partner: “If there are any, they would probably be in the Asian foods section. You could try there?”

Lady: “Hmm.” *turns away again, doesn’t go to look*

(Thankfully, it was her turn to check out a couple of seconds later. I’m not sure how many more times we would have had to explain that we had no idea what the status of the seaweed snacks was. I do wonder if she was fishing for me to give her some of them, but, lady, if they’ve stopped making them, and you don’t ask me nicely and politely, I’m not offering.)