supermarket - quotes and descriptions to inspire creative writing

In the pandemic, rather than have people all crowd into the supermarkets, we set up many local distribution points of "grab bags" of cupboard staples for different size families, including baking supplies and fresh produce.

The supermarkets soon offered a drive-thru service for the cupboard basics packages, each of them as nutritionally balanced as possible. The packages included recipe suggestions and links to a cooking videos, encouraging folks to make their own fresh bread and pastas. This made the isolation measures far more effective, saved more lives and ignited a love of baking in the nation. "The Great British Bake On" had begun.

"And if you want further casual evidence of the meekness of the human being, how they are are a social animal that feels bound to social rules, go to a supermarket. Here, in a society plagued by hunger, where one in five lacks adequate nutrition, there is one uniformed guard who daily as nothing to do but stand there is if only a door greeter. It is because we are docile and cooperative that this system has been in place so long, and it is because we are docile and cooperative that the system is redundant. Food could easily be removed from the monetary system and enable the world to eat freely. With good role modelling the new societal expectations would be adopted and we would follow those patterns instead."

The shoppers are most odd, it's as if they see pizza, ice-cream and staff as much the same... products, things to acquire and the means to acquire them. It's a disconnect of sorts, a brain-blip. If these people met the cashier at a barbecue they'd greet them, ask about their kids, enquire after their health and make jokes... but here there's a coldness, a rudeness that comes of seeing them in the same way as a product... "I pay for this food, so I pay for you, so you are a living robot, a possession that services me..."

Mavis is different though. She talks to everyone as if she's met them at a family barbecue. In moments she's having a real chat, the kind of exchange that is kind and emotionally generous. She simply see's people as people, no labels, ever. They are folks being kind enough to help and she is thankful for their help, feeling part of a community wherever she is... even here in these chilly aisles.