Sam’s Club – Boundary Waters Blog

I recently said my sister would be proud of me because I had my schedule planned out for the next couple of weeks. That was true until we received a phone call from the USFS asking if we would be able to feed and house the fire crews during their prescribed burns.

Instead of heading south to visit my Aunt Bea in St. Cloud and go to the Vikings game in the Twin Cities we only went as far as Duluth for a trip to Sam’s Club. There were people who needed to eat on Saturday and like Old Mother Hubbard, our cupboards were bare.

We went to Sam’s Club on Friday night for one quick load of water and juice and to scout out what they had in stock. On Saturday morning we returned to do our shopping which took a very long time. I lost track of how many times we went through check-out and how many flat beds we used but it was alot.

While I was waiting in line a couple of things struck me as very funny. One was a little old man and a frail old woman standing in line with a huge container of dishwasher tablets. It looked like this couple rarely ate let alone enough to fill a dishwasher full of dishes. It was their only purchase in a huge bulk warehouse store on a busy Saturday morning. I have my doubts on whether they will live long enough to use all of those tablets.

The other purchase that made me laugh was a woman with only three items in check out line. One of which was a razor with about 50 replacement cartridges. I’m sure I would lose the razor or break it before I would ever use all of those cartridges but to each their own.

The worst part about the day was when I was in the parking lot after our last trip out. I dutifully brought the two flat bed carts over to the cart corral. I started to walk away when I noticed one of the other carts that was already in there was sticking out behind a tire of a vehicle. Concerned about whether or not this fancy car would pop a tire or get a scratch on it I went back to the cart corral and tried to push it back into the corral. The wheels wouldn’t budge so I lifted it up and tucked it safely back into the corral content the car would be safe.

I must not have had a scowl on my face for when I started to walk away a woman approached me and snarled, "I don’t know why you’re smiling since you just hit my car with your cart!" I kindly informed her that I had not hit her car but was indeed doing an act of kindness for her. I led her by the arm to show her exactly what I did to save her any troubles. Instead of apologizing for her rude behavior she grumbled something about her dog in the car having felt something bump the car. WOW! She and her dog must communicate better than me and my dog.

This incident left me upset. You try to do someone a favor and get attacked because someone obviously thinks the worst. It’s no wonder there is road rage and confrontations amongst people living in populated areas. I would walk around with a scowl on my face if that’s how I acted when encountering other people. I felt disheartened and it made me realize how lucky I am to live where I do in such an awesome community.

At least in Grand Marais the locals don’t act like that because everyone knows each other. The lack of anonymity makes people’s behavior better I believe. In a world where you are held accountable for your behavior I think it makes sense there would be better behavior. Maybe not. All I know is I like to be able to go to the grocery store and strike up a friendly conversation with someone and not worry about being struck by a grumpy woman.