A Trip to the Supermarket (Tesco’s) After Work! By Mr Alfred N.Muggins Part 2

Part 2

Monday 16/1/23 (section written 21/2/23)

    Having found his wife in the non food part of the large shop he desperately tried to encourage her towards the parts of the shop which might be better able to satisfy their more necessary food needs. She still had not linked up with her number 2 son Karaoke Star, who was apparently already in the shop as he had been on the phone with her, but where was he? Alfred thought despondently it might have been better if only she and himself were here in the shop, because they could have concentrated on getting food together. Now they would waste more time trying to communicate with her son, by phone and he would distract her from whatever she was doing.

    Anyway, shortly Karaoke Star appeared with his own small shopping basket trolley, while Mrs Muggins handed the trolley she had selected to Alfred to push, while she made most of the food choices, which was fine by Alfred as he did not want to be doing too much thinking at this after work stage of the day, and she normally did take the lead when they were together shopping. Unfortunately seeing that Alfred and Mrs Muggins had an empty trolley and that his basket was already getting rather weighty with the fizzy pop and cans of drinks etc. which he had already collected, Karaoke star decided to place all his stuff in the trolley Alfred had just been presented with so he could be free to fill his basket with whatever else he might select. Alfred felt quite strongly that Karaoke should have got his own trolley when he entered the store, particularly if he was going to buy heavy bottles of lemonade and other drinks!

     “Excuse me,” said Alfred, “we need our trolley for our shopping!” But Alfred might as well not have spoken, as Karaoke and his mother Mrs Muggins were already talking about something else, and there was no sign that his wife had even heard what he had said. There was therefore little chance that he would even be able to get a word in edgeways! He sensed his wife and her son’s enthusiasm for being here in the shop shopping, while he, feeling weary from work, and not so energetic, had been converted into a mere trolley pusher, a bit like a caddy on a golf course, except no one was going to pay him any money for the service. After serving people at work all day, he was now going to be serving his wife and her son around the supermarket! He just hoped they would be quick about it and he could get home sooner rather than later. Karaoke had at least made it clear he wasn’t going to expect poor Alfred to be paying for his goods.

    Unfortunately things were just about to get a whole lot worse for Alfred, as he quickly discovered that the trolley wheels on the trolley he was now pushing were not running smoothly. They wanted him to turn right all the time and would not run in a straight line. To move in the direction he wanted to go, whichever direction that was, he would have to put all his effort and even body weight into pushing the trolley that way, with its sticky wheels. If they had been anywhere near a line of trolleys Alfred would have swopped it, but they were well into the big shop and nowhere near any other spare trolleys. Besides there were already Karaoke Star’s drinks inside it!

    At first Alfred thought he would just manage to cope with the steering difficulties, but as time went on it annoyed him more and more, that he had been lumbered with the responsibility for such a clumsy and faulty trolley, which would probably only get worse as it filled up with goods. He started to blame Mrs Muggins for making such a poor choice of trolleys, when any other one would have been preferable! Neither his wife nor her son seemed to appreciate the difficulties he was having with the trolley, or that he could not just fly around the supermarket after them while they enjoyed themselves shelf shopping and chatting to each other while they did it. If her son had not been here Alfred might have stood a chance of getting her ear, or of her realizing what a hard time he was having. It was a bit like being forced to do something very physical and heavy, after a too long day at work. Alfred couldn’t help wondering why fate was punishing him so much when he really deserved comfort and a chance for relaxation.

    Stoically he determined to stay humble and try to regard the trolley difficulties as a form of physical (and mental!) training, on top of all the other hassles he had to put up with at work. At least he wasn’t at work now, and wasn’t trying to deal with people’s woes over the phone, or trying to wrestle with computer navigations which he was still only coming to terms with. He consoled himself with the thoughts of enjoying and eating the foodstuffs which were now piling into his unwieldly trolley at an alarming rate, as Mrs Muggins greedily led him up and down the aisles, frequently leaving him well behind, to the extent that he could not see or hear her in the nearby aisles, and he would have to make unnecessary detours with a trolley which just wouldn’t let him go the way he wanted it to go. It took all of his energies just to try to keep up with her, and every now and then Karaoke Star put more of his own frivolous purchases into his trolley. He was reminded of what it must have been like in ancient or possibly medieval times before most serfs and villeins(?) could afford horses to pull their wagons, and when wagon wheels were still getting caught in the mud all the time, long before the age of tarmac! (He supposed he could regard it as a form of poor man’s temporary Time Travel, but he supposed that was taking the allusion a little bit too far?)