What’s Missing @ The Tummy Temple?

Since my daily exercise requires a trip to the Tummy Temple, I am pretty familiar with the ebb and flow of the traffic and try to arrive when the congregation has thinned out.

After locking up my pony, I put on my mask and walk into the ‘cart room’. This is the barn for the wheeled wire baskets to pry apart and wipe down as if the last person who touched it had the plague. If there are no zip carts (we’ve already talked about that) then I go to the ‘cart room’ on the other side of the store. If, as more and more usual, there are no zip carts, I swing around one of those bus size carts and place my minimum selections in the kiddy seat.

But the other day, I checked out both ‘cart rooms’ and both were empty. There may have been a bumper cart but I’m not ready for that yet. I had to go out to the parking lot and bring one back from one of the cart corrals.

I know that after the rush hours, carts are stacked up in these corrals until a young blue apron rounds them up and brings them back to the barn.

There is another option. Those little hand baskets that would probably hold most of what I select, but it is heavy to walk around with that thing. Maybe I should try a bumper cart? Wonder how fast they can go?

Perhaps this will just be another adjustment to shopping for sustenance? Soon I’ll have to empty the boxes and stock the shelves before selection whatever soup or beans are available.

I already scan the items (there is an app for that, but I have a dumb phone) on the Scan-Bag-Go machines (with no cash back because they have been overused as ATMs). Then I have to wait under the flashing light for a blue apron that has the special secret code card to swipe and punch in a date that will satisfy the machine I am older than dirt.

Once approved, I roll my cart to the curb, pack up my saddlebags then return the cart to the door for the next member of the congregation to select (rather than wander the parking lot in search of a loose stray).

This may sound like griping (and it probably is) but this year has been a disappointing time at the Tummy Temple.

Last year, they posted the signs everyone had to wear a mask (mandate). They put those little blue stickers on the floors to maintain distance. There was a blue apron at the cart barn to wipe down the handle with sanitizer and even hand out free mask for those who didn’t have one. The congregation slowly complied by wearing face shields to hazmat helmets.  When a red vest (a sort of floor manager) saw someone who was not wearing a mask, they were asked to leave the store. The blue aprons were designated ‘essential’ workers and got hazard pay (even as a union shop). For those who were scared to enter the temple, they offered call in and drive up and have your selection delivered to your car or truck and pay over your phone (smart phone required).

This year the rules started to fad. The zip carts started disappearing. The shelves were becoming bare. Items were being spread out to fill the empty space. Familiar faces began quitting. Floors were dirty. Customer service went lacking. Prices went up.

I’ve read about wineries not being about to ship bottles because they can’t get labels or cooking oil that can’t get bottles. The tin for making beer cans is scarce. The clog up of too much online shopping versus the supply can is well documented. Inflation is across the board, but I haven’t bought anything in awhile.

Going to the Tummy Temple used to be enjoyable and sometimes entertaining. It was a half an hour of wandering through community and viewing the social aspects of human nature. There were some smiles. There were some frowns. There were many who were just lost in life wandering aimlessly through the aisles.

Still it was a period of the day that I left feeling enriched by the encounters. Now it has become a chore.

I’m sure there are enough to complain about the lack of carts. I’m sure carts wander off with the homeless. I’m sure carts get broken.

There are other options of Tummy Temples I could shop, but my routine for over 40 years has been this location. Like everything else in these troubling times, I’ll persist. Maybe I can ride my bike through the aisles and won’t need a cart at all?